[Mike Clasby]

Maybe I too don’t understand, but can you pre-comp the original rectangles, then in that precomp rotate them so they are not at a 45 degree angle, but will be a “right” angles to the camera, and then in the main comp they will be easy to rotate?

So do the angle corrections in the precomp.

[Mike Clasby]

Here is a tut from Lee Brimelow on AE Text to Flash (swf) text:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/brimelow_lee/ae4flash1.php

If you use any raster effects, radial shadow, etc, the file size goes through the roof. Methinks flash has a shadow now, but I’m not fluent in Flash anymore (never really was). Also Paint is a raster effect. One under-looked feature in AE that is vector in Flash is Audio Spectrum and Audiowavefor, which can be a nice Stroke (sorta like Paint) substitute. Just don’t reference any Audio and the line won’t jump with the music (since there’s no audio). File sizes will be very small.

Also, as Lee does in the tut, if you import into flash the swf becomes way smaller when you republish from Flash, it must optimize way better.

[Mike Clasby]

Dan’s Universal Clock and Universal Counter are very versatile:

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/up-down-clock.html

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

[Mike Clasby]

This seems to do what you want. First with the Text Tool, type in the word you want the random numbers to change into. An expression on Source Text and three markers. Here’s the expression:

n = 0;
if (marker.numKeys > 0){
n = marker.nearestKey(time).index;
if (marker.key(n).time > time){
n–;
}
}

switch (n) {
case 1:
“1234”//change this to change the initial word
break;

case 2:

numRows = 1;
numChars = 4;
holdFrames = 5;

seed = Math.floor(time/(holdFrames*thisComp.frameDuration));
seedRandom(seed,true);

s = “”;
j = 0;
while(j < numRows){ k = 0; while (k < numChars){ c = Math.floor(random(48,57)); s += String.fromCharCode(c); k += 1; } s += ""; j += 1; } s break; default: value } So now place a marker on the first frame, say 1234, these are the starting number. If you don't place a marker at the first frame you start with the word you typed in, and not a starting number. Pllace a second marker where you want the starting number to start going random (frame 2, or frame 7 if you want to maintain the 5 frame Hold, see below). Now place a third marker where you want the numbers to change into a word. If you look at the expression on line 11, you can change the starting number to whatever you want, here it's 1234. So it will start at 1234 then go random at the second marker to final stop at whatever four letter word you originally typed in wherever the third marker is. This is a hack of a hack from an earlier, similar but different question, here: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/202/876695#876698

Also note that this works for a four letter word, but if you want a six letter word, change line 17 to:

numChars = 6;

And also, this is set up for the random numbers to hold for 5 frames, change line 18 to whatever number you’d like for hold frames.

Methinks this should do what you want.

[Mike Clasby]

You can paste the path onto a new solid, giving you a mask. Apply Stroke to the solid with the mask to animate the stroke.

These tuts should help you setup the stroked solid and camera, Rick was flying a camera down an Illustrator road:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/AEWeekly1.php

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/gerard_rick/AEWeekly2.php

[Mike Clasby]

You can just duplicate the layer (Ctrl D) to make another instance of it. You can copy and paste that layer from comp to comp, but as Bill said, at that point, just precompose the layer (move all attributes) then you can use that precomp in any other comp by dragging it down from the project window. Ctrl D will also duplicate that.

[Mike Clasby]

Pete’s Plugin has a nice freebie, here:

https://www.petewarden.com/

[Mike Clasby]

This is a small hassle to setup, but it works, and you can make an Animation Preset for quick results in the future.

To the layer with all the masks, I tested 6 masks, add the effect: Audio Waveform, set it to mask 1. Select the effect in the Effects Palette, and Ctrl D duplicates the effect (another instance of Audio Waveform). Set the mask to Mask 2 for this one, and be sure to check the Composite On Original box. Now dup the effect again as many times as you have masks, and manually set the masks to 3, 4, 5, etc (and they’ll all have Composite on Original checked).

You can select all the instances of Audio waveform and Animation>Save Animation Preset, name it… then in the future you can apply that to a layer with that many masks or less and you’ll have what you want.

[Mike Clasby]

You can dup the layer, set one to Cast Shadows: Only, and the other to Cast Shadows:Off, then also set that one to Light Transmission + 100%. Then separate the layers in Z space, the shadow in front of the 100% Light Transmission.

Note: If you want the shadows the same color as the layer casting them, go with only one layer, Shadows: On, Light Transmission 100%.

If you don’t really need the 3D, like you’re not flying around, you might consider the Effects, Drop Shadow and Radial Shadow.

[Mike Clasby]

I’d try Dan’s 3D Particle generator tut, here:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/particle_gen.php

1) Download the project file and tweak the expressions. Apply expressions to your text.
2) Move a 3D camera so the text flies in the way you want.
3) And Here’s a script to make the text to layers easy.

Details:

1) The comp named “Fountain” should do what you want with a little modifications of the expressions.

Delete all but one or two particle, fix the expression until you get what you want. Then you can either Edit>Copy Expression Only and Paste that onto as many text layers as you want, or you can make a preset of the expressions to apply that to as many layers as you want easily.

Choose one of the “star flare.tga” layers and hit “ee” on the keyboard, exposing the expressions.

1) I changed the first two lines of the Point expression to:

lmin = 3.5; //minimum particle life
lmax = 5.5; //maximum particle life

This controls the time for particle life.

For the position expression I changed line 1 to:

g=0; //gravity

and line 8 to:

d=1.4; //drag coeffecient

Note: You can change the maximum/minimum initial velocities (lines 4 and 5) and the launch angles (lines 6 and 7) in the Position Expression.

For Scale, I changed the first line to:

max_scale=100; //maximum scale

And I turned off the Z Rotation expression (click the equal sign).

2) I then took Dan’s camera and rotted it so the particles, er text files by the camera. Use the Camera Rotation Tool “C”.

Tweak the expressions so the particles/text files by and fades out as needed.

3) Also, for putting lots of text onto separate layers, there is a script named “crg_Text_from_File.jsx “, here:

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

Download it and put it in your AE script folder, then fire up AE and File>Run Script>crg_Text_from_File.jsx. It needs to pull the text from a .txt file. Very handy.

I kinda cranked this answer out quickly, so ask if your lost but interested in more detail.