Manipulation of the Distance Between Two Nulls when a third Null moves closer or further away.

Question

Dear Community, I have the following problem/goal: When object #1 gets closer to object #2, the distance between #2 and #3 must be reduced. (Object #3 should, however, always retain its position)  The following solution is not satisfying, because although the position is manipulated, the movement is not always oriented to the center (where object number 3 is located): var p1 = thisLayer.position;
var p2 = thisComp.layer("Effector").position;
var delta = sub(p1,p2);
var distance = length(delta);
linear(distance, 0, 250, [value[0],value[1]+100], [value[0],value[1]]); Thank you in advance for your expertise.

dfred23 · Accepted Answer

It works! Thanks a ton, dfred23

One additional question, please. It would be great to be able to determine an interaction radius. I.e. a certain distance between #1 and #2 ensures a certain distance between #2 and #3.

It sounds like you want to clamp the values. There's probably an easier way to do this, but try adjusting the clampDivisor value. The higher the value the closer to the target it will get:

clampDivisor = 2;
effector = thisComp.layer("Effector").position;
target = thisComp.layer("Target").position;
distance = length(value, effector);
clampTarget = target + div(sub(value, target), clampDivisor);
ease(distance, 0, 800, clampTarget, value);

dfred23 · Answer

Instead of using the vector math could you just use a simple linear interpolation?

effector = thisComp.layer("Effector").position;
center = [thisComp.width/2, thisComp.height/2];
linear(effector[0], effector.valueAtTime(0)[0],center[0],center,value);

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