[Walter Soyka]

With your image sequence layer selected, press Ctrl+Alt+E (Windows) or Cmd+Opt+E (macOS) to display the filename of the frame at the current time in the Info panel.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

If you don’t mind creating the shape layers, you can set this up very easily with expressions.

Here’s a proof of concept. The data:

The animation:

The AEP:
14275_xymovecsv.zip.zip

The magic:
1. After Effects supports CSV data directly now, so we import our CSV file into our project.

2. We create a shape layer and use a couple expressions that pull position and color data from the CSV “footage” source into position and color properties. By using the layer’s index number to reference rows in the data table, we make it so we can duplicate the shape layer over and over, and each new layer will refer to the next data point in the table. We just have to be careful to make the right number of layers. (This set of expressions does not do error-checking, but we could write that in.)

3. We use a single slider on the footage layer to drive all the animation, for easier style and maintenance.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Of course, you can use a mono-spaced font.

If that won’t work for your design, I’d suggest using Numbers effect. Set it to Timecode, untick the “Proportional spacing” option, time-reverse the layer it to make it count down instead of count up, and mask off what you don’t need.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

I’d keep the lookAt(), but point it at a dummy object that’s the inverse of the pointer — just reflect it around the center of the comp, like this (the red object):

[image]

14263_subtleorientationv2.aep.zip

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

I started in on a sample project:
14262_subtleorientation.aep.zip

With both a lookAt() 3D solution:

[image]

And a CC Power Pin 2D solution:

[image]

Hope this helps! Please feel free to ask any questions you might have if you dig into the project.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

There are a few different ways to make a countdown. Which technique did you use?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

If you can’t change the timing/speed, and you can’t change the framerate, then you are out of options.

If you can adjust the design, aim for soft edges and lower contrast — but the best solution here, given the 23.976 framerate, would be to slow down the move.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Yes, you should get a “Are you sure you want to delete your preferences file?” dialog box. You have to get the key combo down immediately after clicking, before the splash screen loads.

Have you rebooted recently?

If you hold “Shift” while the project loads, Ae will load the project with all comps/timelines closed. Does that help any?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

3D layers aren’t really a nuisance; they are what’s required to get a working camera system and a (practically) unbounded design space. It will open up a world of new techniques to you.

You could work in 2D entirely in 1080p comps, and parent everything to a single main null. Animate/scale the null around however like and the rest of the scene will follow. Add elements where you need, as you need. It’s easy to build up when you work straight through, but it’s much harder to maintain: you have to compose your entire scene through the 1080p output window without the benefit of multiple cameras like you’d have in 3D.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Have you tried resetting your Ae preferences? Close After Effects, then hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Cmd+Opt+Shift (macOS) while starting Ae.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]