[Mike Clasby]

I like Audio Waveform and Audio Spectrum as Stroke replacements, especially for a neon look. Selecting an audio source is optional, no source, no wiggle to audio.

Scribble uses masks, on them or inside/outside them, Aharon has a couple of tuts on that, click his head, main page, and scroll down.

Vegas will climb onto a mask.

[Mike Clasby]

So the monitor from Cinema 4D is it’s own layer? Sounds straightforward. Key or mask out the screen of the Cinema 4D_Monitor layer, then drop your ChangingVideo layer under it. You could precomp the Cinema 4D_Monitor and ChangingVideo layers and name it “Change Monitor Screen_HERE”, so people would know where to go to change it.

Alt-Dragging new video from the Project Window onto selected layers (select the “ChangingVideo layer”) will swap footage.

When they swap in new video they might have to scale to fit the screen, unless you make them use one standard size, a standard set by you.

No?

[Mike Clasby]

D0pey200, here is another roto script that works as good as the track you get. Follow the links on the page to a disussion on how to details.

https://del.icio.us/escruz/Rotoscope

LGABoarder, thanks for the link, I hadn’t seen that rot script. I’ll check it out.

[Mike Clasby]

Here’s a nice Universal Counter from Dan, with complete controls over decimal places:

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

[Mike Clasby]

Here is another Dan link for a random number and letter grid:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/ae6_exp/index2.html

Go to the part just above “Time to Split”.

Here is that same expression for letters only:

numRows = 4;
numChars = 8;
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(58,84)); if (c > 57) c += 7;
s += String.fromCharCode(c);
k += 1;
}
s += “\r”;
j += 1;
}
s

Here is that expression for letters and numbers:

numRows = 4;
numChars = 8;
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(48,84)); if (c > 57) c += 7;
s += String.fromCharCode(c);
k += 1;
}
s += “\r”;
j += 1;
}
s

[Mike Clasby]

Thanks, I try that out.

[Mike Clasby]

You can try the flipside of Wiggle, the Smooth expression, to the layer the Tracker tranformed.

smooth(2, 5)

This from AE Help is all I know about the smooth expression, but I do know it’s not as intuitive as wiggle, raising the width smoothes more:

Number or Array smooth(width= 2, samples=5, t=time) {width, samples, and t are numbers} Applies a box filter to the value of the property at the specified time, and smooths the result over time. Width (in seconds) is the range of time over which the filter is averaged. Samples equals the number of discrete samples evenly spaced over time. Generally, you’ll want samples to be an odd number so that the value at the current time is included in the average. For example, position.smooth(.1, 5).

The larger the first number, the smoother it gets, quickly. For a smooth, but less smooth than 2, try .5 or so.

Apply the smooth expression to any keyframed parameter thats jumpy.

Apply an expression, by copying the expression, Alt-click the stopwatch (of the parameter to be smoothed) and Paste.

[Mike Clasby]

Several Options:

Option 1) Simulate>CC Particle World or CC Particle System II:

OK, drag you custom Particle into a comp the size you working on, say the particle is a psd 128×128, drag it into a standard ntsc comp, 720×480 (use your preferred comp size. Make sure it’s in the middle of the comp, centered.

Now in the Project Window, drag Comp 1 onto the “Create a New Composition” button (between the folder and garbage can buttons). Now in Comp 2, select the layer Comp 1, and apply CC Particle World, or CC Particle System ll, and use these setting:

Particle> Textured Square
Death Size> increase to whatever it takes to seethe whole particle, 2 for my 128×128 particle in comp1.

You should be good to go.

Option 2) On a new Soild (comp size), Simulate> Foam

And Drag your particle into the comp, turn the eyeball off. Then setting:

Foam>Rendering>Bubble Texture>User Defined and Bubble Texture Layer>Choose your Particle (eyeball off).

I like foam a nifty particle generator especially for floating things.

Option 3) Click on Dan’s head and scroll down to “Build Your Own 3D Particle Generator”. It’s AE 3D so you can fly a camera around, and use your own psds. Just sub in your psds for Dan’s.

Dan’s generator is waaaay cool and flexible once you get the hang of it. Setting up sliders in a Null and linking the factors, like Gravity, to sliders can make for quick changes, then dup that layer as many times as you want particles. This is maybe my favorite Dan tut.

Option 4) I think Particle Playground can use layers too, but it scares me.

OK, I checked it out.

Particle Playground>Layer Map>Use Layer: Choose your Particle layer.

[Mike Clasby]

That’s too easy, reading the blog, I need to do that, but here’s some more places for Public Domain shots:

All Public Domain:

https://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/efs/categories.htm

https://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/data/Earth/

https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_detail.php?id=1438

https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

[Mike Clasby]

As an alternative, Serge has some nice stuff, here:

https://www.nyc-visual.com/movies_2.html

The 3D book is top left (AE 3D space). Maybe you can use it for the cover, with page turn for the pages, I dunno.