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By now you should expect nothing less than amazing procedural animations from Satya and this tutorial is no exception. Inspired by this piece by Eamae Mirkin which was originally created using the processing programming language, Satya explains the required math background and shows you how to replicate this beautiful animation in After Effects.
Also check out Satya's new free "Separate RGB" pixel bender plugin.
RSS readers: click post title to view preview video at Aetuts+.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )sheva777 July 13th
Thanks Satya Meka iam downloading the tutorial it seems to be good and I already have this Trapcode lux THXX
( )Leon July 13th
Wow! Thank you!
( )Mackenzie S July 13th
Cool effect. But a bit too long don’t you think? Would’ve been cool to get some 3D camera movements up close to the marbles.
( )Billy July 13th
That would be great. Why don’t you give it a try? That is the great thing about tutorials….they should be stimulating your own creativity.
( )Matthew Carlin July 13th
Looks great! Definitely going to give this a try!
( )kevin July 13th
I love the outcome!
( )toby July 13th
even an iphone preview, great thanks!
( )Chaithanya Y July 13th
Awesome..
( )Joe July 13th
Very nice, I like it a lot. Looks slightly wrong when the dots have to suddenly move quickly to cover a larger distance to keep with the timing though.
( )NAME July 13th
FINE
( )Raoul July 13th
NIce “render” ^^ Thanks !!
( )Jon Draper July 13th
looks very cool….and different.
( )James July 13th
cool thanks, shouldn’t this be on the tutorials section though, its currently under articles
( )Lloyd July 13th
Thanks for catching that. Corrected.
( )RA Elliott July 13th
Wow.. I know people are saying it was a bit long, but I watched the whole thing. It has hypnotizing. Good job
( )josua July 22nd
yea its very hypnotic, im going to try and put in some typography with it
( )David W. July 13th
DUDE! That is sweet! Keep it up!
( )BestPSTutorials-TR July 13th
Great animation thanks
( )Rev65 July 13th
Satya! Nicely done. Nicely done indeed! Thank you.
( )Raoul July 13th
It’s not a wrong thing but, Satya, could you try to speak a little bit more Louder and try to put the things you explain together, not speak about one thing and another and speak again about the first because it get hard to follow you ^^ maybe write the tutorial before film it ?!
(excuse my crappy langage
)
( )Satya Meka July 13th
Hey Raoul,
( )I guess that’s because I initially recorded the tutorial, but later on I found some parts needed more explanation. So I inserted some parts later on, which probably caused a little disruption. But from next time, I will make sure to add a proper index.
gamera July 13th
Nice effect but it’s really too long because nothing happen but bouncing balls for about two minutes. It becomes boring soon, 30 seconds were enough.
( )Mike July 18th
A tutorial is not intended for you to produce an identical render and then slap on to your demo reel. If Satya wants to render two minutes, good on him. You should render as much or as little as you want, and then trash the file and keep the knowledge for your own projects.
( )Mike July 18th
I’ll add that the two minutes of video shown above should illustrate to you the power and benefits of procedural animation — on which the tutorial provides a great deal of knowledge.
Raoul July 13th
don’t be “shocked” i had the same “problem” with my students ^^
( )chris July 13th
sweet bro.. very cool.. I think some 3d camera movement would have made it even greater but it now we can experiment with the camera movement..but kudos bro..look forward to more tutorials..
( )umf July 13th
Song name?
( )Rafael Guerra July 13th
Haha…awesome!
( )Billy July 13th
Since you have to separate values of the position setting at the very start of the tutorial, it appears that this tutorial will be only for those with CS4…..is this correct? Because the Math.sin(time)*100 expression does not work on the position value in CS3.
( )Lloyd July 13th
This should work in CS3:
( )x= value[0];
y=Math.sin(time)*100;
z= value[2];
[x,y,z]
Billy July 13th
Thanks Lloyd.
Satya Meka July 13th
Hey Billy,
You can use the preset Separate XYZ Position in CS3 to get separate position values.
( )Billy July 13th
Satya….thanks. I have used that before but completely forgot it was there! I’m still watching your tutorial and enjoying it. Your stuff is always educational regardless.
Billy July 13th
Just an FYI for those working in CS3….at least for me…..the Separate XYZ position cannot be applied to the light. I had to use Lloyd’s expression above and place Satya’s expression on the Y value. The Separate XYZ worked fine on the solid that Satya was working on during the first 20 minutes but it did not take to the light.
Satya Meka July 13th
Great Point. I forgot that expression controllers can’t be applied on a light.
Billy July 13th
CORRECTION! Using Lloyd’s expression does not work. The light ball bounces until I get to the point where I subtract the y position value of the base. The ball then bounces but actually seems to be behind the floor and actually disappears when it bounces. Not working….very frustrated!!!!
Satya Meka July 13th
Techincally it should work. Do you think you can email the project so that I can look into it further?
Billy July 13th
Satya….just sent you an email to the guts@gutsblow.com address. If you have time to look it over, great, if not, I understand. Thanks.
Satya Meka July 13th
Currently, you have the lux layer in the bottom of the comp. Just move your base layer to the bottom of the comp and that solves the problem.
BroeZ July 13th
it really is a nice effect, and it would be really interesting to know how this works.
but your voice and your smacking is soooo annoying, that i cant stand it more than 5 minutes.
and you dont get a step forward you are wasting time with unimportant stuff!
( )Rom July 13th
Whoa, rude boy. Maybe it’s a good thing to be thankful sometimes? I’m always amazed by people, who are ignorant enough to criticize the voice or other irrelevant stuff. People, you get FREE tuts for you, great know-hows, but oh no, now you DEMAND prof. narrator, greater entertainment and so on… You are annoyed by something like voice? You couldn’t stand it for more then 5 minutes? Well, I guess, keep going then, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
( )BroeZ July 13th
it’s awesome, that these tutorials are free. and i really think, that he is a great visual fx artist. and i never demanded a perfect narrator.
i watched a tutorial from him, and he kept klicking all around, doing nothing, not even finishing his sentences for like 15min.
freedom of speech 4tw!!!
Samuel R. July 14th
Broez:
( )Wow buddy people like you amaze me. How could you say something likes this to someone that has a huge influence in the after effects community. The whole AEtuts site has helped me learn so much about after effects. I copied these tutorials with no issues what so ever and got comfortable with advanced plugins with there help. Im now beginning to design some wicked animations and its because people like Satya that take time out of there life to do these tutorials for FREE!!!!! Have some respect man, I agree freedom of speech but what you said was plan rude and disrespectful. Grow Up…..
Nathanael July 13th
Nice one!
Whats the name of the song by the way?
( )Satya Meka July 13th
Its “In my Heart” by Moby . You usually find it using by Nokia for a number of their products.
( )Şahap(Shahap) July 13th
Thanks. Very Sweety
( )Luche July 13th
This is a brilliant tutorial but like some I’m on CS3 and I’ve only just started using expressions in the last day or so. I haven’t a clue how to get Lloyd’s or Satya’s methods working. All I’m staring at is an expression window saying “transform.position” and any attempt to change that results in AE throwing a hissy fit at me.
Please lend help to the stupid, it’s the only way we’ll learn.
( )Satya Meka July 13th
Hey Luche,
I suggest you to create a new Null Object make it 3D and parent the light to the Null Object. The Apply the preset “Separate XYZ Positions” to the Null Object. Then you get individual X,Y and Z positions Then follow the tutorial and apply the expressions as per the tut. But remember, when you duplicate the light, you mush have a different null object too. Otherwise both the lights have similar position values.
If you are a newbie to expressions, instead of trying to follow this tutorial, I recommend you to follow beginner tutorials which basically introduce expressions.
( )Luche July 13th
Ok update from the last post. I got it working all the way up to putting in the randomising X axis code. If I add anything to the X axis following Lloyd’s method above then AE just kicks it out.
I do have a rather pretty blue bouncing light though so it’s not all bad.
( )Billy July 13th
Satya,
I’m having the same problem. I deleted the “value[0]” that Lloyd put in his expression and kept coming up with an error. I put that back in and put your expression after it and the expression took….however, it didn’t do anything. The ball keeps bouncing up and down.
Satya Meka July 13th
Can anyone post a screen shot?
Billy July 13th
Satya….gave up trying with Lloyd’s method and tried your suggestion with the Null. It works fine until you try to sync the waves with the bouncing points. Any idea what expression those of us that are using this method should use for the producer point of the wave layer?
Satya Meka July 13th
fromWorld(thisComp.layer(”Light 1″).transform.position);
just replace the “Light 1″ with the layer you want like “Null 1″ or “Light 2″ etc.,
( )Billy July 14th
Doesn’t work. I tried this expression before I posted earlier. I have tried using the light and the Null….nothing is working…..frustrated!!!
Satya Meka July 14th
Just send me the project and note that it takes time to get used to expressions.
josua July 24th
I have the same problem. I parented the light to a null and every thing works except for the wave synchronization. I used your expression but it doesn’t work, the waves move around but not to the right spot.
tobias July 13th
Could you post the expressions please
( )Satya Meka July 13th
For people who want the expressions,The following code should be applied on the light in both CS3/CS4. Make sure to replace the base value according to your comp base layer.
base = 500; //replace this with the y-position of the base layer
t = Math.floor(time/0.5);
seedRandom(t*0.5,true);
a = random(800);
seedRandom((t+1)*0.5,true);
b = random(800);
x = linear(time,t*0.5,(t+1)*0.5,a,b);
seedRandom(index*t*0.5,true);
c = random(800);
seedRandom(index*(t+1)*0.5,true);
d = random(800);
z = linear(time,t*0.5,(t+1)*0.5,c,d);
y = base-Math.abs(Math.sin((Math.PI/0.5)*time))*300;
( )[x,y,z];
Luche July 14th
Thanks a bunch Satya, that code works perfectly.
I can now carry on with your video and follow what you just told me to do.
*edit* Completed the tutorial with flying (and bouncing) colours.
Thanks Satya!
( )Joe Clay July 17th
Really clever way of getting around the “new values every frame” aspect of AE expressions that is both useful sometimes and annoying others.
( )Joe Clay July 17th
Stupid sentence fragment.
x2
M.Mohanna July 13th
This lesson wonderful
( )thank you
e11world July 14th
This is truely helpful! Thank you all!
( )Rafael Guerra July 14th
This was a BRILLIANT tutorial…I just thought that there is a lot of proscrastination in the tutorial, I am sure it helped a lot of Math noobs (lol), but I really had to skip to minute 5 until the tutorial began. Whataver, it was a great tutorial, very hard concept and I learned it, thanks.
( )fidget July 15th
all this talk about Pi has made me hungry for some pie.
cool tutorial, thanks.
for added effect you can use the lights as particle emitters in particular. with a really low opacity, low velocity and short life span it would make a nice little trail behind the balls.
( )Gio Borje July 15th
Brilliant tutorial and easy to follow as my first steps in AE, but the render qeue takes up to 3hrs and increases up to 15hrs as time progresses for a 5min clip of this, any solutions?
( )Satya Meka July 15th
Try Opengl Renderer in the render settings. That speeds it a lot!
( )Makproductions July 15th
Broez: I have to agree with you. I am glad I can learn from these tutorials but I was getting frustrated cause I could not follow him. So I just had to copy the expression at the end of the tutorial cause nothing else was making sense.. way to speak your mind. I hate suck ups..
Thanks for the tutorial again.. very good.. I think it looks sweet…
( )Roberto July 16th
Hi to everybody…sorry for my english first!
( )Satya thanks a lot for this tutorial…and for all you ‘ve made!!!i’ve made it in AE7 with the light position connected to the Null position and separate the null position and so on…i’ve a question…there is a way to make the lights interact with a sort of collision event?
Thanks to AE Tuts + and to all of you GENIUS that shares your knowledge to people in the net…
Roberto
Diego SA July 16th
Toing toing toing! It’s funny!
( )Good effect!
julito luengo July 17th
Congratulation again Satya. Another interesting Tut.
Maybe you can help. I just can´t match the waves producer point whith the actual rebound place. What can be wrong? I struggled and followed your tut completly. No matter what changes I introduce, the ball and the ring do not match.
By the way, ignore BroeZ´s comments he is just a child.
Thank you in advance.
( )Satya Meka July 17th
If anyone has any problems just email me the project and I will help you.
( )Slimster July 17th
At the end of the tutorial, you said you added a counter wiggle? show me
( )Satya Meka July 17th
I didn’t add any counter wiggle. I mapped the audio amplitude to the light intensity.
( )Slimster July 19th
what do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAB8lbR_ZXw
Mahesh Garnara July 19th
thanks nice tutorial
( )Oil July 20th
2*Math.PI/2=Math.Pi
( )I think it’s more simple…
Warti July 20th
Hmm i think about to create this effect in Particular. The plugin have a bounce function in it. And in my opinion it could be better synced with soundkeys.
I try it.
btw. great tutorial !!
( )Robert Kreuz July 20th
Great stuff, congratulations.
I like to create things by using math. My problem is, I am new to java script but is very similar to action script. So I hope there will follow some more tutorials using expressions. May be a one about the essiantials in syntax and commands would be good. The rest comes up by using own brain.
By the way, think you said in the beginning, you will show, how to create the lights without trapcode lux in the end – but in my mind your time was running out . Can you give here a short explaination. Have a solution in my head, will check it tomorrow, but i also interested in your way.
Greats from Germany
( )Satya Meka July 20th
Hey Robert,
Yes I couldn’t squeeze in the alternative bcoz of time limitations, but the easiest way to do it is using CC sphere with a small radius and add a nice glow with high intensity and radius and absolute parenting it to the light with expressions.
AE expressions are little bit different from actionscript because the expressions are executed on a frame by frame basis unlike actionscript where data can be passed along time. An amazing resource to start with expressions is Dan Ebberts motionscript.com where he explains the basics along with the differences from actionscript.
( )Robert Kreuz July 21st
Thanks a lot, CC spehre was also my idea.
Camilo July 21st
Hello, I from Bogota – Colombia, very very nice, tank you, and tank you …
( )D.Hunter July 21st
where did you find the music that you used for this video…
( )D.Hunter July 21st
great tutorial!
( )Wesley Kandel July 23rd
Fantastic tutorial Satya!
( )perry blunt July 24th
yow this tuts make me feel bad I skipped Math classes in high school.Now I feel like after effect is not for me.
Brillant work though.
( )Rusmelok July 24th
Very nice
( )Robert Kreuz July 27th
Hi Satya,
found time to try your tutorial out, worked in a great way. Have done a littel finetune in your expression code, so you have full controll.
Added a slidercontrol layer for “velocity”(timemultiplier) and the other random parameters
This for the Y Axis:
v = thisComp.layer(”light 1 bouncing”).effect(”VELOCITY”)(”slider”);
h = thisComp.layer(”light 1 bouncing”).effect(”AMPLITUDE y”)(”slider”)
380-Math.abs(Math.sin((2*Math.PI/v)*time))*h;
This is for the X Axis, Z Axis is analog to that.
v = thisComp.layer(”light 1 bouncing”).effect(”VELOCITY”)(”Slider”);
t = Math.floor(time/v);
f = thisComp.layer(”light 1 bouncing”).effect(”AMPLITUDE x”)(”Slider”);
seedRandom(t*v,true);
a = random(f);
seedRandom((t+1)*v,true);
b = random(f);
linear(time,t*v,(t+1)*v,a,b);
Got little problem to bring the frequency of the wave-emitting in relation of the bounce velocity.
For a bounce frequency of 0.5 and wavefreq. 2 it works fine. But if I want to slower the bouncespeed, i want also to stop the waveemitting until the lights hits the ground again.
Thought, an expression for check the position of the Light should solved this. Like if light position is 380 (my current groundposition) then wavefreq is 2 otherwise 0. But it don`t will work. I’am sure I have the wrong syntax in my code. Or my thinking is wrong. Can you give me an advise for this?
Thanks Robert
( )Satya Meka July 27th
Hey Robert,
For the waves to match with the light bounce, the frequency of the bounce should be equal to the freq of the waves. That means, according to your expression controls, frequency is always equal to 1/v, where v is the velocity as per your code. So, technically it should work, even if you are animating the velocity slider. Let me know if this works.
( )robert Kreuz July 27th
This work, but in another kind. The waves are built without a break. Mean, the light hits the ground and bounce back maybe for 5 seconds, if you use a very slow velocity. In this 5 seconds I want to stop the wave building process.
If the freg of waves = velocityfreg to many waves will be produced and this looks not so smart
Satya Meka July 27th
Ok, I saw your expressions and your y value isn’t right. Currently you have “380-Math.abs(Math.sin((2*Math.PI/v)*time))*h;”. But we calc the bounce based on half of the wave. So correct it to “380-Math.abs(Math.sin((Math.PI/v)*time))*h;”.
Also I dont think you are getting my point with the frequency of waves. If your light takes 5 seconds to bounce then frequency of waves should be 1/5 which is equal to 0.2
So, the more time the light takes to bounce/slower the bounce the less the freq should be. For 10 sec it should be 0.1
Also make sure the lifespan of the wave is less to make sure your waves dont get cluttered. Let me know if this solves the issue.
If you have any further issues email me.
Rob Mize July 29th
Satya…
Thanks so much for a terrific tutorial… really impressive work.
It’s very good of you to share your time, expertise and creativity with all of us.
Also, you’re extremely generous to follow up the comments with specific help.
And for you people who are looking for something to criticize… you remind me of the guy who asks for a drink and then complains there’s no ice in it.
Keep up the good work, Satya and best regards.
( )Rafael August 6th
I loved the music, could you tell me who is the composer
( )thx
Stephen August 12th
Awesome tutorial!! But I am confused with one thing, your math is wrong, unless you just got the terms switched.
With…
t = Math.floor(time); // you said you want to divide the “time” in half, but you divided it by 0.5.
And with…
seed.random((t+1),true); // you wanted to double the t+1 by multiplying it by 0.5.
To divide something in half by 0.5, your have to multiply it, to double something by 0.5, you have to divide it…
1/0.5 = 2 // doubled
1* 0.5 = 0.5 // halved
Thanks again for the totally sweet tut =]
( )Satya Meka August 12th
I actually meant time period for each bounce!
( )Thijs September 2nd
Can you make this whit a text?
That the balls jump and then a text appears?
( )An September 8th
great great tut!!!!
( )thiagod September 8th
Satya u’r a monster expression!!!
awesomeness !!!
( )John Kap September 9th
Awesome tutorial. My first exposure to using expressions and mathematics in my animations.
Do you have any thoughts about making a “ball” bounce off of walls in addition to the floor? I’m trying to experiment with limiting the values on the sides, but making a ball hit the wall mid bounce is tricky. Any thoughts?
( )Emm-Tee September 14th
Sick tutorial one of the best i’ve seen in ages, any change of you adding the part about how to do this without using Trapcode lux?
ty
( )JaY September 17th
Hey great tutorial i saw it n the site and thourght awsume thats the look i need for an aniamtion however i would need to code it to fit the comp etc um i ran into issues thou when linking the radio waves to make a wave when the ball hits the floor the fromWorld(this comp etc well it throws up an error at me and is how you did it saying there is no such ‘comp’ or position helps?
( )oo and you said you would breifly go over how to do this without trapcode Lux but you never actually said anythign at the end could you please tell me? thanks
KirAsh4 October 5th
Hey, awesome tutorial. A bit long, but well worth the time watching. One thing you forgot Satya. In the tutorial you said you’ll explain how to create the orbs without Lux. Errr, you forgot to do that. I don’t have Lux, and would love to know how to do it without.
( )Pat Callahan October 12th
Satya…
Sweet animation bro. Thanks for he inspiration. This is exactly the starting point concept I want to use on my next project. Thanks again.
-Pat
( )