Walter Soyka
170
After Effects Coins
243
COW Coins
8
Premiere Pro Coins
8
Solve Coins
Forum Replies Created
-
That’ll work great, too!
I just advise Form because it’s generally faster than manipulating hundreds of layers with expressions. You can use custom particles, so it doesn’t have to just be twinkling stars or magic dust.
-
Sorry, Clinton, I didn’t originally build the rig to support multiple layers in the same comp. I was using an expression to figure out what number the ball should be from the layer name.
Here’s a second version of the project. This uses more obvious controls on each ball layer to select the line it should look at, and identify which number it should be. I’ve also moved the controls onto the line layer, so you can have different properties per line instead of globally.
If you’re still kind of new to Ae, expressions can be pretty daunting, but if you have any questions on how they’re working, let me know and I’ll explain.
-
I think the best way to tackle this problem is to use a third-party plugin like Trapcode Form; this allows you to build a grid of particles and control their properties with the color values of other layers. For example, you can link the scale of the dots in your pattern to the color of a gradient on a separate layer, then animate the gradient to drive the dots.
The built-in effect Card Dance can do some of this natively, but Form is always my go-to solution for the problem you’re facing.
-
There are no keyframes or parents — the balls follow the line via .pointOnPath() expressions. If you animate the Path on the “Line” layer, you’ll see the balls follow along. There are also a few controls for the rig you can modify on the “CONTROL” layer.
-
I don’t think there’s a way to do this with extruded shape layers in After Effects. You’d be better off using Video Copilot’s Element 3D plugin, or doing this in C4D.
-
You can’t use the Media Browser to import After Effects compositions when you’re in Ae. (You CAN use the Media Browser to import After Effects compositions when you’re in Premiere, though!)
Instead, use File > Import and select your AEP file. Ae will import the entire project file you selected into your current project.
If you only wish to import a specific comp from a project, you might want to reduce the project first.
-
There’s a pointOnPath() expression that you can use to get, well, a point from a path. You pass a percentage as the input, and get back a point in the shape layer’s space.
I put together a quick sample project that shows this in action. I’m here to teach, so let me know what questions you have after you look it over.
-
When you add keyframes to a property, After Effects will try to tween them (that is, interpolate the values in between the keyframes). That’s great if you’re animating, say, the position of an item, where you want an object to move through the values in between the keyframes you set — but it’s not so great if you’re using time-remapping to select from non-sequential poses.
The solution is to change the the keyframe interpolation to HOLD. This tells Ae to keep the value of the previous keyframe until the next keyframe occurs, rather than trying to tween smoothly from one to the next.
Select all your time-remapping keyframes, right-click any one of them, and select “Toggle hold keyframe” from the context menu.
-
Perhaps you need to clean up the file in Illustrator a bit before converting to shapes?
Personally, I use Overlord often for pulling Illustrator assets into After Effects:
https://www.battleaxe.co/overlord