[Roland R. kahlenberg]

AE CS6 introduced Snapping features. This feature was enhanced in AE CC. Snapping + grids should allow you to set these up quickly.

And if you want to animate such a setup in record time, then have a look-see at Layer Monkey here – https://aescripts.com/layermonkey/

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

If they’re in the same Shape Layer then CTRL+G will group them and you can animate them as a single/composite/group using the group’s Transform. If they’re on separate Shape Layers then of course parent/child them.

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

A single Shape Layer with three Repeaters should give you all the squares for all the days across those four months that you’ve shown. Start with a single square. Then apply a Repeater and set it to repeat seven times across. Then add another Repeater and set it to repeat down, six time. Then add the last Repeater and set it to repeat four times across.

For the day selectors, it really depends how many you need at any one time.

For speed considerations, you can speed things up by setting the scale of day selectors to zero instead of setting opacity to zero. If scale is 100% and opacity is zero, AE will still have to draw the pixels at 100% scale and then reduce its opacity to zero. This of course wastes time.

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Luke, try posting in the COW’s AE Expression Forum –
https://forums.creativecow.net/adobe_after_effects_expressions

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

It’s near impossible to know what the issue is without more details. But I’d take a guess that you’ve not placed the Anchor Point at the point of rotation prior to parenting the layers. Yes?

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You’re most welcome. Don’t forget to increase the Ray-traced comp’s anti-alias setting. You should also be aware now that once you nest a Ray-traced comp, you can treat it as any other layer and apply effects, mattes, blending modes etc.

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

When pasted into a Shape Layer, an open path from from AI or PS will include the Fill property. Disable Fill and you should have an open path. Then use the Shape Layer’s Stroke>Dash property to create a dotted line. If you click on the + button for Dash, you will include the Gap property and even multiple Dashes and Gaps – up to a maximum of two dashes and gaps.

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

The innards of the Ray-traced Renderer today is very much identical to what it was when it was released.

Here’s a CS6 AEP to show you what I’ve done –
https://www.broadcastGEMs.com/mediastreamer/bGEMs_Example_RayTracedComp_plus_Classic3D.zip

I used Calculations to use its internal Blending Mode to overcome the rendering order limitation of the conventional Blending Mode as the latter renders after effects are rendered. This ends with semi-transparency issues. With Calculations this issue is resolved.

I’ve also linked the camera in the two comps so that the text is very much a 3D layer. You may have to switch the linking direction to suit your needs based on which camera acts as the master.

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

It works here. What I’ve done is to achieve a fade in with each character looking like it’s a full block/extruded object instead of seeing the 4 semi-transparent sides during the fade-in.

Which part exactly have you not been able to follow/execute, as per my suggestion in my last post? The workflow entails the following –

1) In a Ray-traced Render comp, create a text animator group for y-rotation & black color for each of the four sides. Animate the y-rotation to suit your needs and the colors such that the characters start with black as its color.
2) nest this comp into a comp set to Classic 3D Renderer
3) Apply Screen Blending Mode to the nested (Raytraced Comp).

HTH
RoRK
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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

There’s a tutorial by Harry Frank here – https://aeportal.blogspot.sg/2009/03/particles-orientation-in-trapcode.html

See if it works for you.

HTH
RoRK
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