[Ryan Hill]

You need to select the mask itself. Select the mask’s name so it is highlighted, then click on the edge of the mask. Then try dragging it around. How have you been trying to do this?

[Ryan Hill]

Read this:

https://jjgifford.com/expressions/basics/interpolation.html

[Ryan Hill]

Like he said, you aren’t going to replicate that look with AE.

Those crowds weren’t really animated, they were simulated. They created the behaviour and abilities of one orc, like you would for a video game character, and then let it run. AE has some powerful scripting and expressions capabilities, but that’s not really what it’s designed for.

The way AE works is you get twenty guys dressed in armour, shoot them in front of a greenscreen while they wave their swords around. Then you key out the green and layer bits of that footage over your battlefield until you have enough of them.

[Ryan Hill]

I can’t think of anything in After Effects that does dithering. If all else fails, you can export to an image sequence and batch convert it in Photoshop. There was a recent tutorial on creating a slideshow that used Photoshop batch processing.

[Ryan Hill]

Do a search for “track matte.” It’s a very good thing to know about. If you just paint a blotch on paper, you can use it as a track matte on the layer you’re showing through. Sometimes doing something physically is easier than trying to replicate the look in computer.

I guess the painting itself would be still. If you want something moving, you could shoot some ink pouring into an aquarium. Or use fractal noise, and use the painting as a track matte on the fractal noise, or vice versa. Or make it wiggle by using a wiggle() expression. (Do a search on “wiggle,” it’s also a good thing to know)

Or any combination of these methods, layered as you see fit. Which basically means, you can layer them with darken, lighten, multiply, use one as a track matte on the other, or whatever to an infinite number of possible combinations.

[Ryan Hill]

I’d be tempted to shoot some footage of smoke with a camera.

But if you want a computer solution, the “simulation” effects such as particle playground can add a level of realism you wouldn’t get with just fractal noise. Possibly foam or particle playground or one of the other particle effects could do it, but learning how to use them properly can be a lot of work.

I’ve done some smoke with particle playground, but that was just a thin stream.

Maybe this:
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/eriksson_emanuel/sand/index.html

Could be changed to help provide a bunch of wispy smoke. If you want thick smoke, put some of the fractal noise in the background.

[Ryan Hill]

Which effect are you applying, and what are its properties?

[Ryan Hill]

Yes. It’s intended for keying, you can remove pixels from around the edge of something. But if you use a negative value, you can expand something. With a text layer I can’t say for sure if the added border will be the same colour as your text. If not, you can always make the text layer a track matte of a layer that’s the colour you want.

[Ryan Hill]

Expand the text? Simple choker with negative values?

[Ryan Hill]

I’d maybe have each image be hexagon shaped, and half-sized so the eye on each side of it would repeat half of what it shows.

It would be possible to automate such duplicating and masking with scripting, but I don’t know how much trouble you’d want to go to.