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nathann93385955
Known Participant
April 6, 2020
Question

Hello, and how do I move an object's position up and back down again to Audio Amplitude?

  • April 6, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 7682 views

Hello, I am a kind of new user of Adobe After Effects, and I was reluctant to make an online post in these type of forums as the question could not be looked at by the global community which global itself is crazy.

 

To the question/problem, I wanted to know from the 'gods' from above in After Effects land if I am able to use Audio Amplitude to solely trigger the y-value of objects e.g. a 2-dimensional red circle? I will try to attach visual aids to explain my problem to you whoever you are.

 

 

I have tried to accomplish my desired effect using the BeatEdit plugin, but all that does is apply x-value position movements to the metronome beat from what I saw.

 

Please be kind and understanding, and I will try not to informally reply based on my mood.

 

Thanks.

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2 replies

Community Expert
April 7, 2020

The principals are all the same. Turn the change in Audio Amplitude - Both Channels (or left or right), into values for one or more properties using a linear or ease interpolation method. The expression is going to be the same up to the point where you get to the array at the end. 3D layers have 3 spots for Anchor Point, Position, and Scale so the array looks like this [xValue, yValue, zValue]. Change the layer to 2D and you only have two values in the array. Colors have 4 values so they look like this [0 to 1 for Red,  0 to 1 for Green, 0 to 1 for Blue, 0 to 1 for Alpha]. There are a lot of properties that have only one value. Rotation is an example. 

 

The expression always starts by declaring a variable that looks in a Comp, then for a Layer, then for an effect or other element like the Range Selector for a text animator, then the property that has a value. When you have defined the property using that hierarchy you can then apply that to a linear operator. For example:

 

t = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider"); 
tMin = 0; //minimum Both Channels Slider value
tMax = 30; //maximum Both Channels Slider value
value1 = 0; // minimum starting value to output
value2 = 200; // maximum ending value to output
NewV = ease(t, tMin, tMax, value1, value2);

[value[0], value[1] + NewV, value[2] * NewV]

 

I chose t, tMin, tMax, value1, and value2 for the variables because when you choose the Expression Language Menu>Interpolation>ease function you get the text I used for NewV. You can leave off the tMin, tMax, value1, and value2 variables and just enter numbers in the ease method if you like but it makes it easier to explain how this expression works. 

 

Apply that expression to the Position of a 3D layer and the Position values for X, Y, and Z will not start to change until the value of the Both Channels slider moves above zero. The expression will move the layer up to 100 pixels in Y and multiply the original Z position by 100 as the audio levels change from 0 to 30.

 

The easiest way to figure out what the values you should use for tMin and tMax is to look at the graph editor.

That explanation should solve your problem, Just match the array to the property you want to animate and set value1 and value2 to the minimum and maximum amount of movement.

 

 

nathann93385955
Known Participant
April 7, 2020

Dear Rick, thanks for the overwhelmingly detailed reply. I shall try out the expression code within the next five hours as I have school commitments later this evening. I am not a competent expression user and only used it once properly in a Youtube.com video (if you would like to see the effect in the video I can attach it in my next reply? It is not the same effect I hope to achieve but it uses Audio Amplitude and POSITION values).

Community Expert
April 7, 2020

You have to be very careful about the tutorials you find on YouTube. Most of them are prepared by enthusiasts and they are poorly explained and often promote terrible workflows. Vet your trainers. Make sure they know what they are talking about. 

 

Don't be afraid of the User Guide and the Search Help field in the top right corner of After Effects. The tutorials in the user guide are all pretty decent and the Search Help field will direct you to a lot of resources that can help you find answers faster than a general web search.

dj.summitt
Inspiring
April 6, 2020

Hi! Welcome. You'll want to right click your adio layer go to Keyframe Assistant > Convert Audio to Keyframes. That will create a new layer called something like Audio Amplitude. After that you will want to define the range of amplitudes. Here's a pretty good tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xZUlhlZxs

nathann93385955
Known Participant
April 7, 2020

No that video did not help me and I watched it the other day to no help. I searched on Youtube.com on this technique and most of these videos are about SCALE, some about OPACITY, and rarely to none about POSITION. I can see why the above two are the most common because I also have tried SCALE and it was doable, but I would like to see a POSITION based video which would hopefully straight answer my question...

 

Thank you for your help.