aescripts + aeplugins

Terry Ranson

well I jumped on this when I read any type of layer but didn't read close enough to see nulls aren't one of these types. The original idea was to creat some exotic animated line behavior using a stroke on a mask that has all it's points covered to nulls by mask avenger.  I use this workflow because it's not abstract or random the outcome is very precise so I needed the mask. I'd still love to try this (without having to make a shape layer for every null and parent so wind can see the layers). Is there a way?

Orrin Zucker

Hey Terry-
Here's a suggestion from Dan- we're not sure if it'll work... but give it a try:

Create comp with some nulls in it. Add a solid layer of the same size. Delete the solid from the comp. Select all the nulls and alt drag the solid from the Solids folder (in the project bin) and drop it on the selected nulls. Then see if wind blows them.

Let us know how it goes!

Vladan Miladinovich

Hi, 

1st of all  - awesome script  !

I was wondering will it be possible to somehow once the wind is applied the wind master layer to carry the information of its setup.

This is a headache if you have 5 comps with 5 winds in each and then you need to tweak one of them. the problem is when wind settings are different from layer to layer . for the time being i am writing down the setup or taking screen capture.. insane !

Is there any known workaround that did not come out as a tutorial or if not, is this planned for very near future ?

thanks.

Orrin Zucker

Hey Vladan- thanks for the comment.

I wish there was a way to do that - its the limitation of scripts vs plug ins. Theres benefits and drawbacks for sure.

We tried to make it super simple to build and unbuild, but as far as referencing old builds, the only way I can see that happening right now is to take a frame grab of the UI, like you did. 

Had we built in a save UI feature it would have helped, but it would have made things much more complicated for us. Hopefully on a future release.

Any other ideas let us know...

Peter Zukowski

I'm using demo the WIND script and I'm really enjoying it. 
Is there some way to make the layers move in flat 2D space -- i.e. no spinning around from front to back and depth of movement?

Thank you.

Peter

Orrin Zucker

Peter Zukowski said:

I'm using demo the WIND script and I'm really enjoying it. 
Is there some way to make the layers move in flat 2D space -- i.e. no spinning around from front to back and depth of movement?

Thank you.

Peter

Hey Peter- GREAT question!

yes- it was one of the more unexpected features that came kinda surprised us.

The best way to do it is to start with the Zero Turbulence preset. Switch the Direction to whatever you want- left/right/ left and right/etc - just stay away from back and forth (z space).  You can then add secondary motion with a 2D Drift if you want. 

Hope that helps

oz

Pero Gouwerok

Hi, I love the effect, what exactly does the button "bake" do?

Orrin Zucker

Pero Gouwerok said:

Hi, I love the effect, what exactly does the button "bake" do?

Hey Pero-

Thanks!

Bake should convert all the expressions to keyframes after the build is done.

Let me know if you have any more questions-

-oz

Keith Tromer

After a number of Wind applies/restores (perhaps some UNDO's) - I am left with all layers in their original state -BUT- wind script says, "No eligible layers found".

Of course, I do not have the original state to go back to.  Can this be fixed?

-kt

Orrin Zucker

Keith Tromer said:

After a number of Wind applies/restores (perhaps some UNDO's) - I am left with all layers in their original state -BUT- wind script says, "No eligible layers found".

Of course, I do not have the original state to go back to.  Can this be fixed?

-kt

Hey Keith- That could be locked layers, invisible layers, wind already applied layers .... can you open a support ticket and send me a screen shot? 

Thx -oz

Bertran Harden

This is a very elegant script but there is one problem. It is not a install and click script.

There is a lot of preparation work that you have to do. I wish the demo would explain that. The demo seems like you just lay down the text, select the script, adjust some parameters in the script window then off to the races.

You have to prepare a lot of steps in Illustrator first. I think the script should do this leg work for you. Or at least let you know the preparation before hand.

Caveat Emptor:

Here is the first video you watch: 

But you should watch this one FIRST!
If you want the elegance that the script boasts.

1 First open Illustrator, outline the text, upgroup, release to layers (sequence).

2 Take a box, cut it up using pathfinder, ungroup, release to layers (sequence).

3 Then you may want to use Shape Explode Layer. Version 3 of this costs $29: https://aescripts.com/explode-shape-layers/.
There may be some more steps. I am doing my 2nd animation (the first just moved a block of text as one object) and I am not done yet. I stopped mid tutorial to warn people of the process. I think the script should do the first 3 steps.

Orrin Zucker

Bertran Harden said:

This is a very elegant script but there is one problem. It is not a install and click script.

There is a lot of preparation work that you have to do. I wish the demo would explain that. The demo seems like you just lay down the text, select the script, adjust some parameters in the script window then off to the races.

----

Hey Bertran- Thanks for the comment.

Thats a good suggestion but you're right, it would have increased the cost and the amount of time and complexity involved...and its of limited use (only useful for vector/shape layers) Many project don't require that - Wind works with all  kinds of layers, not just .ai.

Also, if you want to break things up in .ai, part of the fun is figuring out exactly how to break up your art. If you're working with text, are they broken up in lines, words, letters or parts of letters? Or is it a combo of all of those? 

And the way you import also factors into it-. Theres lots of options that factor into your creative process...no script will do those automatically...all they can do is help.

Also, Shape Layer Exploder  (which is great) is only one script that will break things into layers - there are others on aescripts that work (not just using shape layers too). 

Hope that helps.

-oz

Ken Green

I'm very interested in "Wind" - specifically the bundle this is included with. Where I work, we still use AE CC 2015.3. Would this, and the other plugins/scripts in the Variety Pack, work for my old version of AE? Is this a script or a plugin?

Orrin Zucker

Ken Green said:

I'm very interested in "Wind" - specifically the bundle this is included with. Where I work, we still use AE CC 2015.3. Would this, and the other plugins/scripts in the Variety Pack, work for my old version of AE? Is this a script or a plugin?

Hey Ken- 

When we begin development of our scripts (they're not plugins) the goal is always to make them compatible with older versions of AE. Ultimately on some we have to make the call that its sacrificing too many features to do that.

Nodekit is the only one of the variety pack that we had to make that call due to the connections...other than that, its all compatible.

Hope that helps.

-oz

Justin Zawislak

Would this work for flowing hair in some kind of 3D-parallax setup? I typically either rig illustrated hair with Puppet Pins and animate it by hand, or I just throw a turbulent displace on it to simulate wind, but neither of these look *great*. I'm looking for something more automatic than Puppet Pins, and also more realistic than turbulent displace.

Justin Zawislak

Would this work for flowing hair in some kind of 3D-parallax setup? I typically either rig illustrated hair with Puppet Pins and animate it by hand, or I just throw a turbulent displace on it to simulate wind, but neither of these look *great*. I'm looking for something more automatic than Puppet Pins, and also more realistic than turbulent displace.

Orrin Zucker

Justin Zawislak said:

Would this work for flowing hair in some kind of 3D-parallax setup? I typically either rig illustrated hair with Puppet Pins and animate it by hand, or I just throw a turbulent displace on it to simulate wind, but neither of these look *great*. I'm looking for something more automatic than Puppet Pins, and also more realistic than turbulent displace.

Hey Justin - Interesting question...never really thought about it.

My gut is telling me no, since its really is a transitionary device - Animate in or out.

Maybe AutoSway would be better? https://aescripts.com/autosway/

Hope that helps..

-oz

GXH Design

I saw the previous comment about using Zero Turbulence to create a 2D wind, without showing depth along the Z-axis. However this removes ALL rotation, not just Z rotation. Is there a way to add normal 2D rotation to this? (Hope that makes sense)

Menna Mahmoud

I created shapes from text inside after effects, and when i hit apply this message pops up "No eligible layers found". What is causing this problem? Do the text has to be created inside Illustrator ?

Orrin Zucker

Menna Mahmoud said:

I created shapes from text inside after effects, and when i hit apply this message pops up "No eligible layers found". What is causing this problem? Do the text has to be created inside Illustrator ?

Hey Menna- 

I dont think thats the case- can you open a support ticket and send me the file...I'll check it out and let you know

-oz

Greg Sutfin

Is there anyway aside from the speed slider to adjust timing?  I'm trying to get the transition to finish on the 3 second mark and with any other slider variation it takes a lot of back and fourth trying to hit the 3 second mark.

The begin (out) adjustable marker is nice however a end (in) adjustable marker would be AWESOME

Thanks

Greg

Orrin Zucker

Greg Sutfin said:

Is there anyway aside from the speed slider to adjust timing?  I'm trying to get the transition to finish on the 3 second mark and with any other slider variation it takes a lot of back and fourth trying to hit the 3 second mark.

The begin (out) adjustable marker is nice however a end (in) adjustable marker would be AWESOME

Thanks

Greg

Hey Greg- maybe the easiest approach would be pre-comping and time remapping...if that fits into your workflow. 

Adam Seeley

Hi,

Any chance you could get the plugin to use the current anchor point of the layer to place the parent nulls rather than the layer centres?

At the moment it seems to reset the anchor point to the Layer centre before positioning the null above it, so teh layer spins around screen centre rather than (what was) the layer centre.

I have footage that I want to blow away.

It has been split into many layers, each layer has been masked (Using the Voronoi shatter as it happens)
All the anchor points are at the centre of each layer.
Wind ignores the anchor point positions.

Orrin Zucker

Adam Seeley said:

Hi,

Any chance you could get the plugin to use the current anchor point of the layer to place the parent nulls rather than the layer centres?

At the moment it seems to reset the anchor point to the Layer centre before positioning the null above it, so teh layer spins around screen centre rather than (what was) the layer centre.

I have footage that I want to blow away.

It has been split into many layers, each layer has been masked (Using the Voronoi shatter as it happens)
All the anchor points are at the centre of each layer.
Wind ignores the anchor point positions.

Hey Adam- I'm afraid we can't really change the script at this point(Dan's code so complex that it's probably going to just brick up), but I'd be happy to see if we can figure out a workaround, if possible. Please open a support ticket and we'll see what we can do.

Adam Seeley

Orrin Zucker said:

Adam Seeley said:

Hi,

Any chance you could get the plugin to use the current anchor point of the layer to place the parent nulls rather than the layer centres?

At the moment it seems to reset the anchor point to the Layer centre before positioning the null above it, so teh layer spins around screen centre rather than (what was) the layer centre.

I have footage that I want to blow away.

It has been split into many layers, each layer has been masked (Using the Voronoi shatter as it happens)
All the anchor points are at the centre of each layer.
Wind ignores the anchor point positions.

Hey Adam- I'm afraid we can't really change the script at this point(Dan's code so complex that it's probably going to just brick up), but I'd be happy to see if we can figure out a workaround, if possible. Please open a support ticket and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks, will do..

Yup, code can get that way!

Was trying to figure out if there was a way to shift all the nulls to the anchor point after the script had run.

Funny thing is, when the layers are Restored via the script, the anchor pints go back to the original positions, so teh info must still be in there.

Mark Vargas

I'm trying to use Wind on a layer for which I have keyframes for scale. It keeps telling me that "No eligible layer found." Is this right? I am animating the layer on with two simple keyframes, and Wind will not apply.

Also, I have a layer that I am using an Animation Composer script on to bring the object onto the screen. I want to use Wind to take it off again. Again, I get the same error message.

Also, I had several layers which were parented to a null for ease of animation as a group. I then want to select individual layers to animate off using Wind. Same error message. Is that not possible either?

I used the script on a copy of the layers, removing the keyframes and the other script, and it works on that.

It's been a while since I used the script, but my current project is perfect for it.

Thanks!

John Kirksey

Can Wind do text broken into individual letters? I thought the text layers needed to be converted to Shapes first. I did that, and when I hit APPLY it told me "No eligible layers found". I didn't try it yet with plain text on the layers. Thanks for any help.

Frank Pusateri

thank you for posting the most minimal example of using your product... it really extended the time to sort out it's capabilities ... you must be busy doing something else 

Nicholas Mooney

Let me say I love this plugin, this just helped me iterate an aweeesome effect, this thing is magic and I love it. I'm gonna give one recommendation if you build a new release. I went back to my project and had since closed the panel, I had a change I wanted to make and it lost my previous settings I had built, it would be super cool if you can save a preset of a wind setting you created, I knew I should have taken a screenshot of that panel I had a gut feeling I ignored. But that would be a good feature, i'm gonna guess and check to try and recreate what I did, not a huge issue but would be cool on a future release. *Edit* (just found if i open the panel then re-open the project the settings come back) still think saved presets would be sweet tho to save in future projects

Steven Casey

Is there a way to adjust the fade timing globally? I've tried adjusting parameters but nothing happens. I'd like to be able to have fades happen quicker than what I'm getting but just not seeing how.

Orrin Zucker

Steven Casey said:

Is there a way to adjust the fade timing globally? I've tried adjusting parameters but nothing happens. I'd like to be able to have fades happen quicker than what I'm getting but just not seeing how.

Hey Steven- Theres no automatic way to animate the lifespan that I can think of, but - you have a few options:

1- Keyframe the opacity of each layer before (or after) applying Wind

2- Pre-comp and fade out everything all at once.

3) Create an Adjustment layer and apply a Transform effect and keyframe the opacity there (maybe even apply some sort of organic wipe?)...assuming there's no other elements involved, like a background or something.

Those are the things that pop into my head right now. Hope that helps.

-oz

Steven Casey

Orrin Zucker said:

Steven Casey said:

Is there a way to adjust the fade timing globally? I've tried adjusting parameters but nothing happens. I'd like to be able to have fades happen quicker than what I'm getting but just not seeing how.

Hey Steven- Theres no automatic way to animate the lifespan that I can think of, but - you have a few options:

1- Keyframe the opacity of each layer before (or after) applying Wind

2- Pre-comp and fade out everything all at once.

3) Create an Adjustment layer and apply a Transform effect and keyframe the opacity there (maybe even apply some sort of organic wipe?)...assuming there's no other elements involved, like a background or something.

Those are the things that pop into my head right now. Hope that helps.

-oz

Ok, #1 was my first idea but was hoping for something more global and automatic. Consider it a feature request for future update if possible. Thanks.