aescripts + aeplugins

David Eastman said:

This looks very useful!  However, is there any chance you could make it so circuit traces don't cross over each other?  That doesn't happen in real circuit boards, and is a dead giveaway to anyone with even a passing familiarity with electronics.

Hey David,

Thanks for your comment. The goal of this script is to create a graphical representation of a circuit and by no means to create something realistic that obeys the rules of electrical engineering.

Having said that in order to make the circuit more realistic, a lot more processing power is required (meaning a slower generation process) to check and verify all possible path collisions.

It's definitely on the to do list for future 1.x versions (free for existing buyers).

Cheers!

Miika Turunen said:

If I'll ever need a circuit type of a thing for anything, I know now where to get it. The idea of having more realistic circuits sounds obviously good, but even if and when that is available dont remove the current "circuit setups" that are fast to generate. Sometimes you may use something like this to represent something else than circuits, and then the crossing circuit traces might just be what you are looking for. 

Yes Miika, it will be surely implemented in the form of a checkbox, or a user selectable dropdown menu.

Thank you for your comment and suggestion

The problem has been solved programmatically. The code just needs a little bit of cleanup and optimization. Stay tuned for v1.02

Kert Gartner said:

How are you getting the tapered lines with the glow on the tip in the tutorial video? Did you replace the lines with 3D stroke or something?

Hello Kert,

For the tapered lines:

1. Create your circuit (check the "Put circuit parts on separate layers" in the settings tab)
2. Once created, select the layer for the circuit lines and adjust the "[ LINES ]: trim End" effect control (e.g. to 20) to shorten the lines, so you can create the animation.
   
3. Create your lines animation by setting keyframes for the "[ LINES ]: trim Offset".
4. Add the "Echo" effect on the circuit lines layer (Effect -> Time -> Echo)

You can try the following settings for the Echo Effect - feel free to experiment yourself:

• Echo Time: -0,100
• Number of Echoes: 6
• Starting Intensity: 1,00
• Decay: 0,70
• Echo Operator: Composite in Front

For the glowing tip:

1. Duplicate the circuit lines layer (for the above example, don't forget to remove the echo effect)
2. Shorten the circuit lines length by adjusting the "[ LINES ]: trim End" effect control to very low values
3. Add a "Glow" effect (Effect -> Stylize -> Glow)

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Thank you Lambros for your kind words! Hope you make something great with this tool!

Lambros Kazan said:

Great tool! Not only a huge time saver for someone trying to create circuits in AE from scratch, 

but also a great inspiration for creativity. It is simple to use and the possibilities are endless..... 

By the way, thank you for sharing the tip about glowing effect... 

I highly recommend it!

William McCarty said:

Hi.  I love the script!  I'm looking to use it in Element 3D.  On the product page, it appears that you have generated a 3D scene using Grid FX.  Can you share how it was done?  Was it done in Element 3D?

Hello William,

The 3D image you see at the bottom  of the product page was created with the default "Ray-traced 3D" renderer of After Effects (Composition Settings -> 3D Renderer). It was not created with Element 3D.

The way to recreate it is very simple:

• You generate your circuit with the "Put circuit parts on separate layers" option checked.
• You then enable the 3D switch in each circuit layer and extrude them to your liking.
• On that particular image, the "capacitors" layer was extruded quite a lot and the "lines" layer was extruded just a bit. Also it helps to create a camera with Depth of Field enabled and 1-2 point lights with "Casts Shadows" turned on.
  

Of course on newer versions of After Effects you can also use the Cinema 4D renderer for faster results.

I think Element3D works only with masks and not shapes, thus you won't be able to use it effectively. (at least...for now... )

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Currently working on a short 10 sec intro where I'm trying to mimic a PCB with activity, like a flow on the lines, with a big glow at the circle ends, ideally running in a loop.

It is either just running slow, and most of the rime not able to run in a loop.
Any good hints on which settings/value to use to get this going?

Hello Christian,

In order to make a perfect loop at animating the circuit lines, you must set the first keyframe on the "[ LINES ]: trim Offset" to "0" and then a second keyframe to 1x + 0, (that's a 360 degrees revolution on the angle effect control).

If you want to make it faster, you can set it to make more revolutions (for example 5x+0 degrees) or shorten the distance between the first and second keyframe.

Unfortunately, there is no distinction between "Start Circles" and "End Circles" and the effect controls affect all the circles present in the composition. In order to make only the "End Circles" glow you must manually separate the circles layer (to "start" and "end" circles respectively) and apply the glow effect accordingly. It might be a lot a manual work for now, but it is a great idea for the next update

Please check the attached after effects example project.

Cheers!

Christian Gerbrandt said:

Thanks for the hints.
I ended up with just doing the lines.
If you are interested to see the results, here is a video where the Plugin is being used for the intro/background/outro.

https://media.ccc.de/v/gpn18-1-what-to-hack

Hello Christian,

That's a nice and surely the most appropriate background for this kind of presentation!

Thanks for sharing!

Mark Chadwick said:

I'm glad to see that you added the option for lines not to cross. I will look at purchasing if I have an upcoming project for it. Thanks for listening to the comments!

Jake Stollery said:

Love it! Is there a way to change the circles at the end of the circuits to a custom shape? X

Hello Jake,

Chris Marriott said:

Theodoros Tziatzios said:

Jake Stollery said:

Love it! Is there a way to change the circles at the end of the circuits to a custom shape? X

Hello Jake,

That's an interesting request. What other shapes other than circles, would you suggest?

Just tagging on to this an idea.. What about if you create a Shape layer with your design. Could Circuit FX reference that image, and then use the Shape? This way unlimited shapes would be possible. Just a thought  

v1.84 has been released!

• Optimized: even faster circuit generating algorithm
• Optimized: better timing calculations of the progress bar
• Optimized: updated the licensing framework
• Added: load/save settings capability. You can now save/load circuitFX's panel settings to/from a simple .JSON file.
  

Enjoy!