[Will Cavanagh]

Unless you need to do something fancier, here’s an option:

1. add a slider control to the text layer, name it “Bob”
2. Set the text’s “Source Text” equal to Math.round(effect("Bob")("Slider"))

With a slider named bob on the text layer, set keyframes at every point the value hits a peak or valley. The expression will take the current numeric value of the slider, rounded to the nearest whole number and display it. Use the text alignment to control how the text “moves” as digits add and subtract (align right if you want extra digits to add on the left side). If you need zeroes there when the value is less than 30,000 ask and I’ll write a new expression for you.

If you need to do this a lot, you could probably write a script that automatically pulls values from the graph if you’re making it in Excel or something…

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[Will Cavanagh]

I use a script I wrote based on this one. My workflow is as follows:

1. Design lower 3rd, animate it, and get it all into AE. Use template text in AE as a placeholder for the real text.
2. Create spreadsheet of all the 3rds I have to make, export it as a CSV.
3. Run my script (it differs slightly from the one I linked in that it has a UI, and does some nice things with project organization and comp naming conventions).
4. Batch render, hand off to editor.
5. Make corrections once my producer realizes he fucked up the list of deliverables.

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[Will Cavanagh]

Dunno much about VJing, but I tried googling it, and this looks interesting…

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[Will Cavanagh]

Thanks for the info. I’ve got it working OK with one ball now.

–Will

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[Will Cavanagh]

Thanks for the response. I’ve been messing with settings on the cloth tag and am having a hard time keepng the ball from collapsing when it hits the rails… Are there specific settings you reccomend to prevent this?

I will also need to have balls bounce off of each other on the rails, will this present a problem?

–Will

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[Will Cavanagh]

This is definitely a case where scripting would be a good option. Expressions for something on this scale get hefty, and I’m not aware of a third party product to let you control these properties through expressions (that’s a pretty small market.)

You could probably write a script fairly easily that changes properties based on labels… Just have the user specify all text layers with “X” labels (e.g. Pink)

Then the script would just iterate through all the layers with that label applied. You could also set it up to grab settings from a layer, say the currently selected layer and apply them to all the layers with the specified label.

Check out Adobe’s documentation for more info.

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[Will Cavanagh]

To add to this, if you need to move your layers to below another n layers (e.g. an adjustment layer)

numLayers = 5;
firstIndex = 1; //layers are at the top now

p1 = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).position;
p2 = thisComp.layer(“Null 2”).position;

p1 + (p2 – p1)*((index-firstIndex+1)/(numLayers))

You can make this more portable by adding a “Controller” layer, setting the constants in that layer, and then putting the “math” in each layer’s position (or rotation/opacity/whatever) property with references to the sliders on your “Controller” layer for access to the constants (nLayers, startIndex, anything else you need…)

Then if you make these presets, you can just drag the preset to each layer, and make a new null and add your controller preset each time you need to do this sort of thing…

Probably more of an answer than you bargained for…

–Will

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[Will Cavanagh]

Sounds cool, but expensive… And hard to change in post if it doesn’t look right or if you need to “emote” with it. Would love to see the article nonetheless if anyone has a link.

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[Will Cavanagh]

Ever heard the joke where the guy goes to the doctor and complains that “it hurts when I do this”? Yeah, that.

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[Will Cavanagh]

I was under the impression that AE couldn’t import 3d directly — it has to be done through Photoshop CS4 Extended.

Now to address your question… It looks like a premultiplied/unpremultiplied issue… Although I don’t know how 3d object layers work, so I wouldn’t know how to walk you through fixing this… Can you post a screenshot of the Interpret Footage dialog for the object?

Also, why not just do the texturing and animation in 3DS and import an image sequence… AE is not as a 3d package, and trying to use it as one is cumbersome. If you already have access to 3DS, use it!

–Will

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