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christian151276
christian151276
Participating Frequently
June 10, 2019
Question

Controling the velocity of rotation.

  • June 10, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 6737 views

Hello,

I am looking for a way to control the velocity of rotation when rotating a text character on its Y-Axis. 

My intention is to have the individual text character animate in from one side of the screen while spinning on its Y-Axis, once the character has arrived at its final position I would like to gradually slow the rotation down so on the final frame it flips into place, repeating this for each character, creating a domino like effect and revealing the word.

I have tried using the speed graph to control the rate of spin but it does not give the desired effect.

Is there away to achieve this affect in after effects?

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    1 reply

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    June 10, 2019

    Sure, but you likely will need to animate each letter as its own layer. Some animation patterns are simply beyond what you can achieve with text animators due to how the apply their magic relative to the entities, not in absolute space.

    Mylenium

    christian151276
    christian151276Author
    Participating Frequently
    June 10, 2019

    Thanks Mylenium,

    All the text characters are on individual layers and are animated individually, I just can’t seem to gradually slow the rotation speed for each layer.

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 11, 2019

    Evening Gutterrfish,

    I know you said that your explanation was in correct but just out of general interest I tried the above using the expression and the slider and it did created the effect I was looking for, well sort of.   I found that once I had set the keyframes and ran the effect it gradually slowed down as planned but it reached what looked like the 0 point halfway through the set duration then it sped back up again, spinning in the other direction.  To freeze the character as in the image below I had to add a key frame just at the right point or otherwise the character would have been facing the other way.  

    The formula I used: (time*1440)*thisComp.layer("Slider Control").effect("Slider Control")("Slider").


    This is a piece of cake with the speed graph and 2 keyframes. I set the y rotation to 6 in about 4 seconds, opened up the graph editor, selected the pen tool and did a little dragging. Took about 2 minutes:

    When you drag the bezier handle on the right side you have to make adjustments on the left. Once you get the hang of the speed graph, not the value graph, things like this are very easy to do by hand.

    Just multiplying time by the slider won't give you as much control over the curve and could make the rotation reverse. If you want to use expressions to control the speed of anything you should look at Dan Ebbert's Expression Speed and Frequency Control.​ That's the only way to gain complete control over speed and time using an expression. The first two or three paragraphs explain why just multiplying time by a slider will not work very well.

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