[Lance Clayton]

I ended up achieving a great result (see below GIF) through the following workflow:

1. 3D Text was created using Element 3D. The After Effects built in Glow plugin was applied to the element layer to give a subtle neon styled glow.

2. CC Ball Action was applied to a text layer to create the LED jumbotron-like text. I had to play with the ball size and spacing, as well as the text tracking and size to achieve the correct allocation of balls to make up the letters. Bigger and fewer balls means less accurate wrapping of the balls to the letters (seems to work off an established grid). The text also has a bit of the Glow plugin applied to it such that you end up with little glowing balls. In fact, for the most part, modifying the colour (Colour A and B) within the Glow effect on this layer was what I used to change the colour for other words.

3. I then needed to set up some animated variation in the brightness of these balls so that later on when we use Trapcode Starglow, the variations in brightness would cause a sparkling effect. To do this I created a solid layer and applied the Fractal Noise effect. I wanted nice small blocks so these were my settings, but change it to suit your project:

I then used this layer as a Luma Matte above the text-ball layer so that it would essentially eat away at the text.

4. Above these layers I created an Adjustment Layer and applied Trapcode Starglow with these settings:

5. As I wanted the sparkle to sweep over my text from left to right, I animated a mask over this adjustment layer. A slight bit of feather (20pix?) can help take the sharpness off the mask edge.

6. We want the ball text to be glowing the whole time, and then sparkle as the sweep passes over. The noise layer is affecting everything in the comp so I duplicated the original layer containing the glowing ball text, placed it above the adjustment layer, and then copied the mask that is on the adjustment layer and applied it the duplicated text layer. However I inverted the mask on this new text layer (you could perhaps used subtract mode also?) so that this text was being masked out by the mask while the adjustment layer below it (Starglow) was being masked on.

7. I then placed this pre comp on top of my Element 3D pre comp and that was pretty much the technique.

[Lance Clayton]

Thanks Todd. That’s the perfect starting tip that I was after.

This jumbotron tutorial from John Dickinson also might be quite useful.

https://motionworks.net/after-effects-jumbotron-column/

[Lance Clayton]

Ahhh….have to use period key (.) to RAM preview NOT numeric zero key (0)

[Lance Clayton]

My audio meters don’t update to display audio levels in realtime when I RAM preview in CS6. Is there a preference for this somewhere.

I audibly hear the playback but the meters show nothing.

[Lance Clayton]

Dan you are a true gentlemen, and a very generous one at that!

This is exactly what I needed and it saved my project. I had never previously thought about the implications of calculating one layer’s properties off it’s preceding layer…..especially throughout 120+ layers.

I’ve used the principles in your code to also rig up the opacity and rotation to work in a similar fashion, and my whole project is back to running like butter.

If you’re ever in Sydney AUS, I owe you a beer!

[Lance Clayton]

Links failed. Sorry. Sorry copy/paste these to your browser.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10332608/Man_grid_animation_3-rows.zip

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10332608/Man_grid_animation_4-rows.zip

Download-3-rows

Download-4-rows

[Lance Clayton]

Also try the Blur>Radial Blur effect.

Set it to zoom and set the zoom centre to the appropriate position so as to imitate the direction that the object is supposed to be moving.

Probably wont work as pulling off the above, but it’s pretty universal and its quick and easy

[Lance Clayton]

Thanks guys. That ‘enter’ key trick is so simple but should work a treat. Just got to remember to hit it, and the shift duplicate idea would be brilliant.

Thanks for the tips.

[Lance Clayton]

Thanks for taking the time to answer such a question that you’ve likely answered 50,000 times previosuly.

I’ve read your explanations a few times previously but what was getting me was how to ad the ‘n’ pixel separation to the x-axis only.

Alas, I found that you answered it perfectly on another Adobe post https://forums.adobe.com/message/4608569.

The code that I was looking for is:

thisComp.layer("Black Solid 1").transform.position.valueAtTime(time -.1) - [20,0];

[Lance Clayton]

Expression Control Slider is the way to go for sure. Will give you ability to switch on the shake at any instance on the timeline, with variable value of shake as well as a smoother reposition after the shake