[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Taylor, look for adding subtle instances of fractal noise. It should help to create micro details.

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

I guess what Dave wrote is unlikely to happen. Anyways, do you have a specific order of initial 200 photos selection, or it was some ‘random’ selection from here and there?

To my knowledge, there isn’t such build-in way to import unique files only. The best way I can think of is write a short script which would compare bins items during import and decide to import them or not.

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Rob, something like this should make it to work.

thisComp.layer(index-1).content("Rectangle 23").content("Rectangle Path 1").position;

EDIT. Haha, for the second time, second after Dan! 😀 Just this time different approaches. Unless you are trying to achieve something differently – this indexing works as expected when duplicating.

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Rob,

assuming you are applying this expression to opacity property, just update your ‘linear’ with the following:

linear (time, t1, t2, 0, 100);

Most likely you will have to swap 0 and 100 between to have it as linear (time, t1, t2, 100, 0), but you will get an idea.

Interpolation works by taking ‘control’ parameter (in this case its time), and interpolating its values range (from t1 to t2) to property where you are applying it (in this case, opacity).

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Bret,

where you are going to apply this expression?
Math.floor(clamp(value, min=1, max=3))

Ideally it should be a slider on some of your control layers, and you need to take that slider’s name, and use instead of xPosValue = Math.round(A LINK TO YOUR SLIDER);

In my example, ‘xPos-direction’ title is the name of the slider on Null’s layer.

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Bret,

its just the name of the slider controller, which will have 1-2-3 values. Replace this with your controller name.

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Don, you are welcome! Yes, those ‘<‘ are being escaped into special characters – glad you managed to make this to work.

On the other hand – just curious! Where you will use it?? ☺ Good luck!

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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Bret,

here is the easiest approach I can think of.

1. Center align your lower 3rd design in the composition.
2. Add null layer which will control xPosition.
3. Set anchor point of null to be in the center of it.
4. Add slider control where you see it applicable based on your design.
5. Apply expression to the slider:
Math.floor(clamp(value, min=1, max=3))
6. Link all layers in the comp, which are not parented by now, to the null.
7. Apply expression below to null’s position:
xPosValue = Math.round(effect("xPos-direction")(1));

switch(xPosValue) {
case 1:
xPos = thisComp.width/3; //Adapt this based on your design
break;
case 2:
xPos = thisComp.width/2;
break;
case 3:
xPos = thisComp.width/1.5 //Adapt this based on your design
break;
default:
xPos = thisComp.width/2; //Adapt this based on your design
}
[xPos, transform.position[1]]

This seems to do the trick – let us know whether it worked out. Cheers!

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Don, check this out, it should be it.

The only think to keep in mind is that is you make selection not in an incremental order (lets say pick 1,3,2,5 layers for selection A), it will be applied in the same order for your parenting. Other than that, it should be it.

Cheers!

var w = new Window ("palette", "Link");
w.add("button", undefined,"Selection 1",{name:"ok"}).onClick = function(){ selectLayersA(); }
w.add("button", undefined,"Link To Selection 2",{name:"ok"}).onClick = function(){ selectLayersBLink(); }
w.show();
var selectionArray = new Array();

function selectLayersA(){
var activeComp = app.project.activeItem;
var selectedLayersA = new Array();
selectedLayersA = activeComp.selectedLayers;
for (var b = 0; b < selectedLayersA.length; b++){
selectionArray[selectionArray.length] = selectedLayersA[b];
}
}
function selectLayersBLink(){
app.beginUndoGroup("Link to comps");
var activeComp = app.project.activeItem;
var selectedLayersB = new Array();
selectedLayersB = activeComp.selectedLayers;
for (var i = 0; i < selectionArray.length; i++){
if (selectedLayersB[i] != null){
layerA = selectionArray[i];
layerB = selectedLayersB[i];
layerB.parent = layerA;
}
}
selectionArray = []
app.endUndoGroup();
}


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After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
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[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Bret,

thanks for sharing this, clarifies the point. Few more questions:
1. Is the lower third elements are structured in the pre-comp, or all layers exist in a single composition?
2. is the width of lower 3rd box can vary or will remain constant?
3. By left/right aligning, design will remain the same? Meaning, horse won’t be moved in a different corner, etc?

Cheers!

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
Boxer – Dynamic Text Boxes Template with a Live Preview