[Mike Clasby]

I was just finishing this when I saw Dan and your reply:

OK, here’s a more straight forward way, with interpolation, it still goes on Scale:

scale = 3; // fade in time (seconds)
start = 50;
end = 100;

s = linear(time,inPoint + scale,start,end);

[s,s]

So if you want it to Ease a bit, change line 5 to:

s = ease(time,inPoint + scale,start,end);

or to have it really Ease In, change it to:

s = easeIn(time,inPoint,inPoint + scaleUpTime,startScale,endScale);

I think I still like the Constant Scale Up which is “linear” or the same as that original, more complicated expression in the post above.

OK, my brain is working again, phew…

[Mike Clasby]

For a relative change from tan initial scale of the layer, just change the last line to:

value + [ss,ss]

That’s for the first expression.

Or my and Dan’s following ones:

value + [s,s]

In the examples for your 23% scale, the expression would kick in at the inPoint at 23% + 50% or 73%. Sooo… maybe you want to change the first line of the expressions to:

startScale = 0; // percent of Scale at start

Then when you scale up it will go from your original 23% to 123% (plus 100%).

And a layer starting out at 125% would go from 125% to 225%.

Is that what you want? I guess I’m still a little confused.

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t quite understand what you want the black branches to do, cut an alpha (transparency) in the room where they are, so that where the black branches fall on the room you will be able to see through the room?

If so, and the branches are on their own layer, put the branches above the room (I guess it would have to be that way to see it), then in the Room layer, select “Alpha Inverted Matte “Branches”” for a Track Matte. That’s the TrkMat next to the Blending Modes in the Mode Column.

This should make you see through the room where the black branches hit it.

Is that what you want?

[Mike Clasby]

This seems to do what you want, a constant scale up from the inPoint over a set period of time. Set startScale, endScale and scaleUpTime to what you want. This goes on the Scale stopwatch.

startScale = 50; // percent of Scale at start
endScale = 100; // percent of Scale at end
scaleUpTime = 3; // time to scale up from inPoint in seconds

s = [endScale – startScale] /scaleUpTime;
sx = startScale + ((time-inPoint) * s);

ss = clamp(sx,endScale,startScale);

[ss,ss]

I tried to use interpolation to give you some ease choices but no luck for me. This hack is probably pretty funny to look at, I’m sure it can be simplified, but like I said it works.

[Mike Clasby]

Use Page Down to go forward 1 frame, and Page Up to go backward one frame. Adding Shift before either makes it ten frames at a time.

The Arrow Keys are positional.

[Mike Clasby]

This might help:

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

[Mike Clasby]

If you’re talking really old, a quick search for “Ad” gives 139 results, many with several commercials per clip:

https://www.archive.org/details/prelinger

Here’s some:

https://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3Amovies%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger%20AND%20subject%3A%22Advertising%3A%20Television%20Commercials%22

[Mike Clasby]

Wiggle something with the wiggle expression. Three possible ways follow.

1) Here’s one way, pretty straight forward.

Have your pumpkin front or face layer, then below it the inside of the pumpkin, an orange solid as bright and light as you want the candle color to be at it’s brightest.

Set the opacity of that “inside the pumpkin” layer to about 90, then add this wiggle expression to opacity (Copy the Expression, Alt-Click the opacity Stopwatch, Paste, click outside the box):

wiggle (5, 20)

The 5 is the frequency (how often it wiggles) and the 20 is the Amplitude (how much it wiggles), change to taste.

With a black background the light orange solid flickers brighter and darker and the color appears to change with the flicker.

2) You can also try adding Glow to either the front of inside layer and wiggle it or Pickwhip to that original wiggle expression. Glow is always problematical for me, I have hard time controlling it, but would be very nice on a flickering pumpkin.

3) If you really want to change the color with a wiggle expression, add the Effect Fill, set the Color stopwatch to a nice orange/gold/yellow, then add a wiggle expression to Color (Alt-click the color stopwatch.:

wiggle(5, 0.1)

You’ll notice what a small amount the Amplitude is, 0.1, that’s because all the colors for that stopwatch are from 0 to 1, so you only want the wiggle amplitude (amount) to be a small fraction of that, it will wiggle around, above and below that initial color you set. So you might need to tweak that original color you set.

So if you set that 0.1 to 1 you’ll wiggle thru all the colors, not very pumpkin-like.

[Mike Clasby]

Hmmm, drag that comp into a new and larger comp, then add a pale colored solid the same size as the original comp, as a background, so you can see the original’s boundaries?

[Mike Clasby]

Here’s Part 2, where he does just that, with A Null and an expressions to link Particular to the Null:

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=34