Expression for animating text on tight spiral

[idstudio39922326]

I am trying to animate a long string of numbers around a tight Archimedean spiral mask path by using this expression I found…

Source text:

rate = 100; // characters per second

txt = “31415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602……..and on and on”;

txt.substr(0,timeToFrames(time*rate*thisComp.frameDuration));

The path is set to “reverse” with text aligned right so the numbers appear at the centre and fill the spiral.

The expression works for me, but all the text disappears once a certain number of characters have appeared on the spiral:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ivuzj0gxyeYIkJSeYAnmlQ1Foldf0G-5/view?usp=sharing

My first and last margins are set to 0.0 and I haven’t used a text box – I rechecked the the text layer is set as point text and not a paragraph.

Is there any way I can fix this so the numbers can keep filling the spiral without disappearing?

I'd appreciate any help.

[Mylenium]

There are intrinsic limits in JavaScript math like it's implemented in AE like the number of characters in a string or integer numbers capping off at 32000. The usual limits AE has as a whole. You need to split up your work into manageable segments instead of just firing the data at the expression. Should not be an issue, as clearly not all characters would be visible at all times, anyway.

Mylenium

[angie_taylor]

Have you tried selecting "Force Alignment" under the Path Options inside the Text Property group?

[Rick Gerard]

I would have used a text animator instead of a random number expression. You are just running out of available characters before you get to the end of the path. You are also adding 3 characters per frame. Do you need that kind of speed. Nobody is going to be able to read it, so concentrate on the look instead of the actual numbers.

[idstudio39922326]

Thanks for the replies.

It seems that no matter how many digits are in the source text, After Effects will scroll up to 466 of them on to the spiral before they disappear. I don't know if this is due to my hardware set-up or not.

This happens with force align and also other text in animators being used instead of the expression.

I'll do what Mylenium suggested and break the animation into segments.

[Rick Gerard]

I created a spiral in Illustrator because it is easy, copied and pasted it as a mask path on a text layer, then used this page to generate 2000 random numbers from 1 to 1000, then copied them and pasted them to the text layer and added an opacity animator. The string was so much longer than the path that I added a bunch more points and ended up with this:

Here's the project file for you to look at. I think you have a bigger problem with your expression than you do with the idea and the capability of the text layer to contain enough characters. 

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