Linking.

[Aruna]

I'll shake things up a bit. :) Both shake and discreet FFI have linking and expressions that can be used while compositing, and also have various mathematical functions that can be put into fields.

Can these sorts of linking and expressions be done in other packages such as C*, AE and DF?

For example, in shake I can have a node follow another node by putting in values into the X and Y coordinates.. in node2 I can put:

node1.Xvalue
node1.Xvalue

And it will follow node1. In flame I can put:

node1.x.translation
node1.y.translation

and the same thing will happen. I can also subtract numbers from this as well:

node1.Xvalue-20

Or add a user variable and adjust it by hand, where Xoffset is a user-created slider:

node1.Xvalue-Xoffset

They also have noise functions, so I can randomly jitter the values in the fields. Any insights on whether Combustion, After Effects and Digital Fusion have these options in their current versions?

[dgoodbourn]

After Effects has been able to use expressions for a while now. Expressions are a new thing to C*3, I havn't seen it yet, but from what I have read, it will be very similar to FFI.

[Hugh]

Digital Fusion is slightly more convoluted, it seems...

I've just been playing around in the demo trying to figure it out, and this is what I've come up with:

In the node that you want to modify, you have to R-Click on the value and click "Modify With -> Expression"

Then, you get an "Expression" modifier in that node. This has 10 input points and 10 input numbers.

In the node you want to use values from, you have to R-Click on the value and click "Publish".

Then, on one of the input points/numbers, you have to R-Click on it and go "Connect To -> Node name -> Variable name" (only published variables are available here...)

There are then boxes for "Number Expression", "Point Expression X" and "Point Expression Y". These can take expressions refering to the input points/numbers (I have yet to work out how to reference said numbers, though...)

Anyway, certainly not as flexible as Shake's...

Tomorrow, I'll check out Nuke and see how that does it... (I'd imagine it would be similar to Shake's)

I might be doing Digital Fusion a huge dis-service here - I'm not a regular user of DF, and this is just the way I found to do it....

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Hugh,

I am not at my workstation now, but there are a number of ways of achieving what Aruna wants in Fusion. Your's being ONE of the ways, but depending on what you're looking for your way is slightly complex.

For example if a value is already animated you can always 'connect to' it from Fusion. (Animated values are published automatically). But the thing is: start with animating/publishing what you want published and THEN connect to it.

F.e. if a center is animated you can go into ANY other x/y field in Fusion and select connect to and as you describe yourself the list with available possible connections appears. No need to first add an expression. You only use those for slightly more complex constructions.


(I have yet to work out how to reference said numbers, though...)

number 1 is referenced as n1
the x value of point 1 is p1x the y value is p1y etc.

Since Scripting was integrated into Fusion you might also be able to work in the way that Aruna describes by typing stuff in the script box in specific tools, but since I never got further with programming than

10 for i = 1 to 10
20 print"Sander couldn't program sh*t to save his life"
30 next i

and still managed to get syntax errors I'll leave scripting related Fusion questions to those who know anything about it.

I don't know Shake but I think that Fusion is at least as capable of doing stuff like this as Shake is - the paradigm is just slightly different. Once you get used to the modifier concept it really helps to sort stuff out.

Hope this sheds some light and if you have some more Fusion related queries please post them in the pigsfly forum, you know them, you'll be up and running in no time.

Greetings

Sander de Regt

ShadowMaker SdR
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Oh, Aruna - I almost forgot:

Fusion has a 'shake' (no pun intended) modifier that will let you select a seed number a smoothness factor and two values between wich a random number will be chosen. So yes, a noise function is very much there.

(One of my personal favorites as well, since the extreme values can also be animated so you can change the amount of noise bu animating those values. Very nice for letting stuff jump all over the place and then easing to a complete stop)

Sander de Regt

ShadowMaker SdR
Amsterdam
The Netherlands