[Mike Clasby]

His site is back up, download the script there:

https://www.crgreen.com/aescripts/

[Mike Clasby]

CR Green had a nice script, but it seems his site has been hacked,

https://www.crgreen.com/

so I think that’s why the script is not there

https://www.crgreen.com/aescripts/

I have a junk email at “mctc 2083 at yahoo dot com”, if you want me to send you the script, write me there, or type yours out like I did so robo-searchs won’t pickup your email. It really was a nice script and may be back up on crgeen in a few days, description below.

https://www.crgreen.com/aescripts/

Scroll down to “crg_Text_from_File.jsx”. It has the option of putting each line of text on it’s own layer, or all text lines on one layer. Very Nice. Oh, yes it needs a text file (.txt) to work.

[Mike Clasby]

It looks like a mask reveal to me, of the million, I’d checkout this one first;

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/hansen_jaysen/growing.php

[Mike Clasby]

It stands up straight for me, when using your 3d setup.

I guess I don’t understand why it’s 3D, it seems like only 2D is needed.

[Mike Clasby]

Oh, I see what you’re trying to do.

Yes, you probably can, err, maybe Dan can, ask over at the Cow Expression Forum:

https://forums.creativecow.net/viewforum/227

I think if you combine this position expression from Colin:

minX = 0;//Minimum x depth value
maxX = 1000;//Maximum x depth value
minZ = 0;//Minimum z depth value
maxZ = 2000;//Maximum z depth value
seedRandom(index, true);
x = random(minX,maxX);
z = random(minZ, maxZ);
[Math.round( x), position[1], Math.round( z )]

With an Opacity expression that is 100 when there is a Collision Detection, and 0 when not, from Dan’s page:

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/collision.html

But I don’t have AE CS3 or the expression finesse to do it.

Alternatively, you could just use Colin’s Position expression above, with the min/max set to hit the island, and then turn off the eyeballs of all trees landing off-island, and shy them so they don’t clutter up the stack. That way no collision detection necessary… er, actually you would be performing the collision detection, manually.

[Mike Clasby]

I think there is a little choppy something going on when you see the bald guy.

This Dan Ebberts expression on Time Remapping, drops every other frame:

n = 2;
n*time

Or…

For a choppy look running at the same speed, then add the effect Time>Posterize Time and set it to half the comp frame rate.

[Mike Clasby]

Opps, I forgot to mention that the layer whose opacity controls the random spread is named “opLeader”.

[Mike Clasby]

This modified Dan Ebberts’ expression is a good place to start. It goes on Position.

minX = 0;//Minimum x depth value
maxX = 500;//Maximum x depth value
minZ = 0;//Minimum z depth value
maxZ = 1000;//Maximum z depth value
op = thisComp.layer(“opLeader”).opacity;

opX = linear(op,0,100,minX,maxX);
opZ = linear(op,0,100,minZ,maxZ);

seedRandom(index, true);
x = Math.round(random(opX));
z = Math.round(random(opZ));

[x, position[1], z]

Change the min/max X and Z as needed. All the Y’s are the same, I’m assuming you have a Floor if you want to cast shadows, so you Y needs to be at (or near) the Floor.

Is this close to what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

I’m not see the example as you explained, but if you’re just trying to move the picture within the picture to a new position, try this:

Mask off the picture within the picture (the smaller screen) on the layer Above the main screen layer. It should appear as a cutout box above/on top of the main screen. Change it position with position keyframe.

No need to animate main screen below.

Is that what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t have Particular but you should be able to do it there.

You can get a hurricane like vortex with CC Particle Systems II, standard on AE, with Physics>Animation>Vertex, and Particle>Particle Type>Textured Squares, on a comp sized custom particle layer, say a typed paper… you need to tweak birth size to see the whole layer when they are particle.

Here is an expression driven tut from Colin that puts layers into a tornado (the second part):

https://www.colinbraley.com/tornado_expressions_tutorial.html