[Lloyd Alvarez]

Dale Bradshaw came up with a way to read timecode in after effects. you can read about it on his blog:
https://www.creative-workflow-hacks.com/2006/08/29/reading-quicktime-timecode-in-after-effects-redux-a-solution/

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Animate a solid that is the thickness of one row and have animate it’s position moving in the direction you want your lights to turn on. Pre-comp and apply Ball Action to the comp.

-Lloyd

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Hey Pascal,

Since expressions are calculated every frame for every layer, i found that doing a 3D layer distribution with expressions was fairly slow. So i wrote a script that does the same thing, but without the every frame overhead of expressions. Hope it’s useful to you.

-Lloyd

//
//
//3D Layer Distributor by Lloyd Alvarez (July 2006)
//
//Distributes layers in 3D space within set ranges..
//
//
//
//

clearOutput();
app.beginUndoGroup(“3D Layer Distributor”);

// Set Range parameters here: [min,max]

var set_X = [0,2500];
var set_Y = [0,200];
var set_Z = [0,-2000];

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var selectedLayers = myComp.selectedLayers;

for (var i = 0; i < selectedLayers.length; i++) { var myLayer = selectedLayers[i]; var x = 0; var y = 0; var z = 0; x = Math.random() * (set_X[1]-set_X[0]); y = Math.random() * (set_Y[1]-set_Y[0]); z = Math.random() * (set_Z[1]-set_Z[0]); myLayer.property("Position").setValue([x,y,z]); } writeLn("Distributed " + selectedLayers.length + " Layers"); app.endUndoGroup();

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Judging by your example I assume that your script calculates the schedules on fixed offsets.

So the second show is 13 hours and 15mins after the 1st and tokyo’s showing is 7 hours after london’s.

Can’t you write a conditional that basically add’s the offset’s at each stage and when it goes over 24 it adds the plus?

something like this:

startTimeHours = 5;
startTimeMins = 30;

city2_Offset = -1;
city3_Offset = 7;
showOffset = 13.25;

city1_time1 = startTimeHours + (startTimeMins/60);

city1_time2 = city1_time1 + showOffset;
city2_time1 = city1_time1 + city2_Offset;
city2_time2 = city2_time1 + showOffset;
city3_time1 = city1_time1 + city3_Offset;
city3_time2 = city3_time1 + showOffset;

if (city1_time1 + showOffset > 24) {
city1_time2 = city1_time2 + “+”;

}else{

if (city1_time2 + city2_Offset > 24 {
city2_time2 = city2_time2 + “+”;

}else{

if (city1_time2 + city3_Offset > 24 {
city3_time2 = city3_time2 + “+”;

}

-lloyd

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Until this bug is fixed, Minimize instead of “hide” after effects by clicking the yellow button on the top left of the window.

If you find that you are stuck with a hid AE, you can force quit it while inducing an automatic save of your project by going into the Terminal and typing:

ps -xc

note the PID number for AE

then type:

kill -SEGV xxx (replace the xxx with the PID for AE)

it will save an incremental copy of your project in the same place where the last version was saved.

hope that helps,

-Lloyd

[Lloyd Alvarez]

it’s under the advanced tab in the composition settings

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Create a text layer and apply this expression to the Source Text property:

part = Date(0).split(” “);
month=part[1];
day=part[2];
year=part[3];
if (month==”Jan”) {month=”01″}
if (month==”Feb”) {month=”02″}
if (month==”Mar”) {month=”03″}
if (month==”Apr”) {month=”04″}
if (month==”May”) {month=”05″}
if (month==”Jun”) {month=”06″}
if (month==”Jul”) {month=”07″}
if (month==”Aug”) {month=”08″}
if (month==”Sep”) {month=”09″}
if (month==”Oct”) {month=”10″}
if (month==”Nov”) {month=”11″}
if (month==”Dec”) {month=”12″}

// the following line is where you can change the formatting:

month + “/” + day + “/” + “0”+(year-2000)

[Lloyd Alvarez]

Create a text layer and apply this expression to the Source Text property:

part = Date(0).split(” “);
month=part[1];
day=part[2];
year=part[3];
if (month==”Jan”) {month=”01″}
if (month==”Feb”) {month=”02″}
if (month==”Mar”) {month=”03″}
if (month==”Apr”) {month=”04″}
if (month==”May”) {month=”05″}
if (month==”Jun”) {month=”06″}
if (month==”Jul”) {month=”07″}
if (month==”Aug”) {month=”08″}
if (month==”Sep”) {month=”09″}
if (month==”Oct”) {month=”10″}
if (month==”Nov”) {month=”11″}
if (month==”Dec”) {month=”12″}

// the following line is where you can change the formatting:

month + “/” + day + “/” + “0”+(year-2000)