[Mike Clasby]

After thinking about it, methinks the 2D solid with beam on it only needs to be comp size.

[Mike Clasby]

Put the Time Indicator where you want to start listening, then hit the period (.) on he Numeric Pad, or, Composition>Preview>Audio Preview.

[Mike Clasby]

1) “look At” goes on a 3D layer’s Orientation like this:

lookAt(thisComp.layer(“my text”).position, position)

Since look at is not really Point At, it more like Orient Toward or face At, you need to scrub the x, y or z to see what gets it pointing at the layer you want. Often it’s Y rotation at 90 degrees.

look At can be a bit tricky, at least for me.

2) Anyway, I think it’s easier to connect two layers with the beam effect, like in this mod of a Dan Ebberts technique:

So add the Beam effect to a 2D Black Solid (make it big enough to let the beam stretch as far as needed). To the two 3D layers you want to connect (or have a line pointing from one to the other, use this expression for the Beam’s “Starting Point” (Copy the expression, Alt-click the Starting Point Stop watch, Paste):

target = thisComp.layer(“my text”);
fromComp(target.toComp(target.anchorPoint));

and this expression on the beams’ Ending Point:

target = thisComp.layer(“My Other Layer”);
fromComp(target.toComp(target.anchorPoint));

Obviously you need to put the correct layer names in for “my text” and “My Other Layer”.

Adjust the beams length and location by tweaking the Beam’s Length and Time parameters. You can also adjust the starting and ending thickness.

This setup is just an illusion, adapted for 2D Beam, from Dan’s tut for 2D Corner Pin, from here:

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/threeD-corner-pin.html

But like Dan says it maintains the illusion even with a moving Camera. By an illusion I mean the beam is on a 2D layer, not 3D, it just looks 3D. Along those lines, the only thing that really messes this up is if you mistakenly change the solid layer’s position, so that it’s not right in front of the camera, then the beam can seem cutoff at one end. So it’s not a bad idea to maybe even lock the layer once you have the beam adjusted the way you want. This setup works for me in a quick test.

If this doesn’t do what you want, holler.

[Mike Clasby]

Looking forward to that. I loved his earlier tut on roto with the parade of vans.

[Mike Clasby]

It seems to me the Wiggler is generating both negative and positive numbers, it’s just that you’re layer is starting with both being positive numbers, and rather large ones, like (360,240), in the middle of the screen. So the negative numbers generated by the wiggler are added to the larger positive starting numbers. Unless you’re in AE’s 3D mode, when both numbers go negative, the layer is offscreen

So when the Wiggler moves an object up or to the left, the value at that frame is incrementally negative, I mean it was (360,240) now it’s (300,200) and has moved up and left, the x and y for that frame is incrementally negative.

Hey, I’m starting to confuse myself here.

[Mike Clasby]

1) An expression for Bugle would look something like this (on Bulge Height):

Audio = thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
minAudio = 0;
maxAudio = 25;
minScale= 0;
maxScale = 10;
b = linear(Audio,minAudio,maxAudio,minScale,maxScale);
b

It assumes an Audio Amplitude layer via the old Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Convert Audio to keyframes. Twirl down to the effect>Both Channels, then set you minAudio and maxAudio to match the high and low keyframes.

2) Methinks the easiest way to build a 3D speaker in AE 3D space is with this script, that creates a 3D cube, from your own 6 layers (all equal sides), or with new solids. The box is a unit, the sides are parented to a Null for movement/rotation:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/10249

[Mike Clasby]

If I understand your question, try this. Don’t double click the layer you’re rotoscoping, thus opening the Layer Window, instead do you roto in the Comp Window, where you can see all the layers.

You can do that by setting the mask you adjusting to None, then animating the mask Shape,, setting an initial keyframe with the Mask Shape stopwatch, then changes down the timeline will set new mask shape keyframes.

I am assuming by Roto you mean changing the mask over time.

Does that do what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

Here is an earlier thread to sync scale (of a speaker) with audio via an expression:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/919313

Mu mood of Dan’s expression will make it pop from 85 to 100% scale with the audio, so if the wolfer has concentric rings they’ll expand/contract with the audio.

You could do something similar with Bulge, ask if you want to go there.

[Mike Clasby]

Click the Mask Shape Stopwatch to set a keyframe, then, down the timeline, when you “Move the mask Boxes” they’ll be another keyframe. Mask Shape is what you want to animate.

Also, if you can track the object you’re trying to mask you cam attach the mask vertices to track points with two script. Here is an earlier post:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/916507

[Mike Clasby]

I think Aharon does what you want in Part Three at about five minutes to tweleve minutes, here:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look.php