Hi everybody,

I have been experimenting with real-time motion graphics. And at the moment I am trying to build a very basic VJ application in Processing. I have read in this forum that it is nearly impossible to get real-time Beat Detection right in Processing.

I just did some research and I found that it is possible to export keyframe data from After Effects. I created this square in AE, and then I made it move/shake for 5 seconds. Then I copied the data into a text file.

I was wondering how I can use this data in Processing.

Here is what the data in the text file basically looks like:

Adobe After Effects 8.0 Keyframe Data

     Units Per Second      29.97
     Source Width      1
     Source Height      1
     Source Pixel Aspect Ratio      1
     Comp Pixel Aspect Ratio      1

Transform      Position
     Frame      X pixels      Y pixels      Z pixels      
     0      356.006      270.637      0      
     1      357.534      269.087      0      
     2      358.118      264.868      0      
     3      363.94      263.778      0      
     4      364.682      263.464      0      
     5      353.781      268.166      0      
     6      361.781      273.339      0      
     7      354.7      264.606      0      
     8      358.354      263.514      0      
     9      359.743      264.946      0      
     10      358.644      272.881      0      
     11      359.628      267.893      0      

If somebody could help me understand how to use this data in processing to make a simple object move, it would be great.

Thanks,
Sumit

alright, first thing i did was edit your file by deleting all the unneeded stuff at the beginning.

you then got this :
    0      356.006      270.637      0      
    1      357.534      269.087      0      
    2      358.118      264.868      0  

first  there are 5 spaces, then the seperator is 6 spaces.
so we use the 6 spaces as seperator when creating our substring.

when loading the txt file we create an array of strings, everyline is a new string. we then divide this string into an array of substrings called pieces. [0] are the 5 spaces + frame, we dont need that. the [1],[2],[3] is the x,y,z, coordinates we use to draw our rect.

everyframe a new line/frame is loaded. using modulo i loop through the frames, so it starts again when reaching the end of your recorded frames.

hope that makes sense:


Code:

String[] lines;
void setup() {
  size(500, 500);
  background(0);
  noStroke();
  fill(255);
  rectMode(CENTER);
  frameRate(12);
  lines = loadStrings("pos.txt");
}

void draw() {
    background(0);

    String[] pieces = split(lines[frameCount%lines.length], "	");
    
	int x = int(pieces[1]) ;
	int y = int(pieces[2]) ;
	rect(x, y,10,10);
  
}

 

Just curious, coult you load such a txt file the other way and load it into after effects? Just thinking about the ways to create some nice animations with processing generated coordinates...

can anyone get a text file with all the features we can have from AE?
or atleast the ones needed for keyframe animation. taking into account keys, transformation(rot,scale,trans), size, color, object type ,etc

i don't have AE so i would appreciate an example file.

cheers,

If you turn on the option 3d Layer then there comes a new option 'Orientation' and the option rotation changes in 3 options, 'X Rotation', 'Y Rotation', 'Z Rotation'. For the rest 'Anchor Point', 'Position', 'Scale' gets a third option for the z-property.

Here all the options for a 3d object (opacity is same as for 2d).
Quote:


I think it will be better to focus on effects later

I also tested keyframe interpelation like 'ease ease' but that info doesnt seem to be copied so this has to be set in after effects.

For the rest there are the following thigs that can be created with 'layer > new':

Quote:


The following have "Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, Opacity".

text
solid
null object
shape layer
adjustment layer
adobe photoshop file

only 'light' and 'camera' have the orientation and the x y z rotation by default + Point of Interest!!!

Quote:


If you need more ask me of what you want to know.
There are a lot more options but i think everything you have now is a good point to start.

p.s. the order doesn't matter, also this part isn't needed to paste back:

Quote:


I'm really intrested in what it will become, a easy to use library would be the best
If would like to help, i'm quite good in after effects and i think the combination with processing can be awsome. I can show you work i made in AE if you want.  

Quote:


For processing yes. For AE not always but it's quite easy to seperate in AE so no big deal.
Maybe there could be an export option so it does seperate once you export to txt but i would drop that on the bottem of future request. A case where it would be easy will be where you often make changes in processing and want them to test in AE, if seperate values are needed in AE for a expression then you will have to seperate everytime you trie the new code from processing.

Quote:


It is a different textfile per layer. So if you have 20 images in processing for example and you want them to use all a different processing behaviour then you have to copy paste 20 times.

Quote:


orientation is 3 values and they are in degrees.
like:      0      22      33      301      
wher 0 is the frame.

for point of intrest, it's like translate in processing i belive

     Frame      X pixels      Y pixels      Z pixels      
     0      183      422      -596      


For the rest,

Camera Options:

Zoom
Focus Distance
Aperture
Blur Level

For the light there are different kinds of light so some have a few options and some more
Spot has all possible options which are:

Intensity
Color
Cone Angle
Cone Feather
Casts Shadows
Shadow Darkness
Shadow Diffusion


To get the information in a textfile, select the keyframes and then just copy paste.

If you look by effects then you have like 100 effects which can have keyframes aswell so doing them will give 1000 more things i guess.

(this is a good site for AE tuts:
www.creativecow.net)

Sumit wrote on Jan 31^st, 2010, 12:25pm:

This was a bit surprising to me. Is it really Can you explain more about what that means I am also curious to know what you think you can do with Processing that is not possible in AE I am not familiar with AE, so it would be nice to know how it relates to an open source program like Processing, and what you think about it.

Cheers

V wrote on Feb 1^st, 2010, 5:04pm:


A bit hacky, but I've written several AutoHotKey scripts to do variations on that. They can be built into executables (just scripts as resources on the autohotkey executable) but then you could probably launch it with processing's open command, however the solution would be Windows only.