[Kevin Camp]

you could try something like this:

rate = .1
value + (parent.position.velocity*time*rate);

adjust rate as needed, positive values will make the layer go faster than the parent, negative values will make it go slower than the parent.

if there is no parent, you will get an error.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can write the expression for one circle, then select the scale property of that circle, choose edit>copy expression only, and then select the other 299 circles and choose paste. then all the circles will have the same expression.

all you need to do is have the slider on a ‘non-circle’ layer, like a null layer.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

I can’t really take full credit for this one.

I had come accross that expresson in the expressions forum some time ago and made a note of it as an example of how to manipulate the expression selector (which is someting I haven’t had time to fully learn, but i’m getting better….)

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can add an expression selector to the animator (from the add menu to the right of the animator) and use an expression like this:

textIndex%2 ? 100 : 0

if the ‘based on’ value is set to characters, every other character should be affected.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

your link didn’t seem to work, so i couldn’t see your example, but what i think you are looking for can be achieved with a text animator.

try this: twirl down the text layer properties, click on the ‘animate’ menu to the right of the text property and choose position from that menu.

adjust the x value of the animator’s position property to move the text line the amount needed.

then twirl down the range selector for that animator and animate the either the end property or the offset property. the effect should be that each character, one by one, should slide by the amount set in the x value.

is that the movement you were looking for?

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if you go to redgiant.com you can probably find a tutorial on this (i thought aharon rabinowitz had done one years ago here at the cow, but i can’t find it).

but, essentially what you want to do is not use the obscuration layer and instead split your particle system into 2 layers (a front system and a back system) and sandwich your text layer in between.

so duplicate your particle system layer, position your text layer in between both systems and hide the ‘back’ particle layer (the one bellow the text layer).

in the front particle system, twirl down the visibility properties and adjust the ‘far vanish’ and ‘far fade’ properties until you have the only the particles that should be in front of the text layer.

then turn on the back particle system and set the near vansih property of the back particle system to the far vanish value of the front system, and do the same for the near fade property.

now the text layer should appear in the middle of your particle system(s) without the aliasing issue.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

try adding an ambient light.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

duplicate your text layer and then add this to the end of your expression:

n = 0;
for (i = 0; i <= target && i < list.length; i++){
n = Math.max(n, list[i]);
}
n

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can create a white solid at the top of the comp, then click the ‘T’ option that is between the blending modes and the track matte menu in the modes panel of the timeline.

that ‘T’ option is the preserve underlying transparency option and it will clip that layer to the alpha of the underlying layers, thus producing a matte. if the background color of the comp is black, then you will get a b&w matte. make sure you don’t render with alpha…

or, if you are using the render queue (vs export) you can choose to render the alpha as a matte without doing any of the above mentioned steps. just click the output module and set the channel to alpha and then render.

you can use this trick to render both the rgb and alpha as separate files for a single render. once you’ve set the alpha render as described, duplicate the output module and then set the channel to rgb, give it a new file name to output to and then click render. this way you only need to process the comp once to render both the rgb fill and matte file.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i was writing my reply as you were writing yours… but i don’t think my original reply will work for what you want.

as dan mentioned earlier, you can’t pass (or store) a variable from frame to frame, so i think you’d need to re-parse the array with the same timing as how you are parsing it in the fluctuating text layer, and display the greatest value up to that point in time…

so say your values are changing every frame, you could use an expression similar to the one i provided to count through your array for every frame up to the current frame and determine the max value to that point.

we could do an expression like that for you, but it would help to know how the values are currently changing

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW