[Mike Clasby]

I think the coolest (and easiest on your cpu) is Dan Ebbert’s from his tutorial:

Building the World’s Greatest Cameraman

https://www.creativecow.net/show.php?forumid=2&page=/articles/ebberts_dan/expression_cont/index.html

In the last section, “pan, tilt, focus, and zoom”, go to the heading “length(position,point_of_interest”. That paragrapy summed up with this:

“To avoid having to build an enormous 3D background layer that would fill the comp window no matter which way the camera points, I decided to just use a 2D solid with Fractal Noise applied, because Fractal Noise has an offset parameter that essentially makes it extend infinitely in any direction. ”

To make it work quickly, download the aep, open the comp “pan,tilt,focus&zoom”, then select the layer “clouds”, hit “ee” on the keyboard to reveal the expression, select the Fractal Noise Effect and the Offset Turbulence Expression, then go:

Animation > Save Animation Preset (name it something… maybe “DansCloud”)

Now in your animation, create a Solid (Comp sixed) name it “clouds”, Animation > Apply Animation Preset (and choose “DansClouds”). I beleieve it requires a camera named “Camera 1” which is probably what you have in your comp. You can use Dan’s Fractal noise settings or anything else you can come up with Fractal Noise, which is almost endless.

[Mike Clasby]

https://www.scottfrizzle.com/free_quake.html

You really should check out Frizzle’s Quaker, a killer preset, you’ll have a tweakable quake (Sliders for Magnitude and Amplitude, with motion tile to fill in) in no time. It also comes with a pdf explaining all and it’s a freebie. Just drop the .ffx file into your presets folder, or just navigate to it when you go:

Animation > Apply Animation Preset

[Mike Clasby]

https://www.scottfrizzle.com/free_quake.html

You really should check out Frizzle’s Quaker, a killer preset, you’ll have a tweakable quake (Sliders for Magnitude and Amplitude, with motion tile to fill in) in no time. It also comes with a pdf explaining all and it’s a freebie. Just drop the .ffx file into your presets folder, or just navigate to it when you go:

Animation > Apply Animation Preset

[Mike Clasby]

Thanks.

…”my newborn son”…

Kids are the best, enjoy.

[Mike Clasby]

Brainstorm, methinks.

I took Colin’s Random Z expression mentioned before, modified it for X, Y and Z, tied sliders to the min and max of each X, Y and Z (6 siders on a null layer, and you get great contol of a randomly placed forest of trees.

1st make a Null Layer, Name it “Sliders”.
Effect>Expression Control>Slider Control.
Right Click the Value (now 0) and change the Slider Range to -1000 to +1000.
Dup it 5 more times (6 sliders total).
Name them:
X Min Slider
X Max Slider
Y Min Slider
Y Max Slider
Z Min Slider
Z Max Slider

Set preliminary values for the slider like:

X Min Slider: – 250
X Max Slider: 250
Y Min Slider: -10
Y Max Slider: 100
Z Min Slider: -250
Z Max Slider: 250

Here’s the expression, put this on the position of a 3D tree layer:

minX =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Min Slider”)(“Slider”);//Minimum x value
maxX =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum x value

minY =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Y Min Slider “)(“Slider”);//Minimum y value
maxY =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Y Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum y value

minZ = thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Z Min Slider “)(“Slider”);//Minimum z depth value
maxZ = thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Z Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum z depth value

seedRandom(index, true);

x = random(minX, maxX);
y= random(minY, maxY);
z = random(minZ, maxZ);

[Math.round(x), Math.round(y), Math.round( z )]

Note: If the expression gets that little warning flag, it’s probably the naming of the sliders, so highlight the:

thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Min Slider”)(“Slider”)

and then pickwhip to the appropriate slider in the null layer, to get the naming right.

Now dup the tree layer as many times as you want randomly placed but controlable trees in your forest.
And with the Sliders you can move your forest around until you like the look.
Add a camera and have a fly through.

Like all my expression creations this is a hack off a pre-exsisting expression (Colin’s) so it’s probably a little clumsy.
If you can’t get this to work I could email the aep, it’s just less than 1 MB.

[Mike Clasby]

Brainstorm, methinks.

I took Colin’s Random Z expression mentioned before, modified it for X, Y and Z, tied sliders to the min and max of each X, Y and Z (6 siders on a null layer, and you get great contol of a randomly placed forest of trees.

1st make a Null Layer, Name it “Sliders”.
Effect>Expression Control>Slider Control.
Right Click the Value (now 0) and change the Slider Range to -1000 to +1000.
Dup it 5 more times (6 sliders total).
Name them:
X Min Slider
X Max Slider
Y Min Slider
Y Max Slider
Z Min Slider
Z Max Slider

Set preliminary values for the slider like:

X Min Slider: – 250
X Max Slider: 250
Y Min Slider: -10
Y Max Slider: 100
Z Min Slider: -250
Z Max Slider: 250

Here’s the expression, put this on the position of a 3D tree layer:

minX =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Min Slider”)(“Slider”);//Minimum x value
maxX =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum x value

minY =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Y Min Slider “)(“Slider”);//Minimum y value
maxY =thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Y Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum y value

minZ = thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Z Min Slider “)(“Slider”);//Minimum z depth value
maxZ = thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“Z Max Slider “)(“Slider”);//Maximum z depth value

seedRandom(index, true);

x = random(minX, maxX);
y= random(minY, maxY);
z = random(minZ, maxZ);

[Math.round(x), Math.round(y), Math.round( z )]

Note: If the expression gets that little warning flag, it’s probably the naming of the sliders, so highlight the:

thisComp.layer(“Sliders”).effect(“X Min Slider”)(“Slider”)

and then pickwhip to the appropriate slider in the null layer, to get the naming right.

Now dup the tree layer as many times as you want randomly placed but controlable trees in your forest.
And with the Sliders you can move your forest around until you like the look.
Add a camera and have a fly through.

Like all my expression creations this is a hack off a pre-exsisting expression (Colin’s) so it’s probably a little clumsy.
If you can’t get this to work I could email the aep, it’s just less than 1 MB.

[Mike Clasby]

I left this beginning part out. There are two methods here:

1st – Add one tree layer to a comp, Use Dan Ebbert’s Grid expression (for position) to distribute the trees in a grid (they grid up automatically when you dup them, then use Card Dance to distribute the trees via a gradient.

2nd – Dup your tree layer and use Colin’s Random Z (modified) expression to distribute trees randomly in Z and X.

[Mike Clasby]

I left this beginning part out. There are two methods here:

1st – Add one tree layer to a comp, Use Dan Ebbert’s Grid expression (for position) to distribute the trees in a grid (they grid up automatically when you dup them, then use Card Dance to distribute the trees via a gradient.

2nd – Dup your tree layer and use Colin’s Random Z (modified) expression to distribute trees randomly in Z and X.

[Mike Clasby]

This, modified from an earlier post:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=866995

For example, if you want your final Comp to be 640×480 (where card Dance is used) and have a 10×10 grid (rows and columns

[Mike Clasby]

This, modified from an earlier post:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=866995

For example, if you want your final Comp to be 640×480 (where card Dance is used) and have a 10×10 grid (rows and columns