Position Graphics around ellipse

[cesart68495746]

I have some graphics, in this case layers of individual fruits and I want to position it precisely around a ellipse to make like a rotation of fruits around the center of the ellipse. How can I do that? Please help!

[Mike_Abbott · Accepted solution]

This is actually a little bit tricky to do manually, so I've written you an expression...

1. set up a null - rename it "center"

2. Put your first fruit layer directly underneath the null layer. On that first fruit layer put this expression onto the position property:

majorA = 600;

minorA = 300;

LrTot = 8;

nullPos = thisComp.layer("center").position;

nullRot = thisComp.layer("center").rotation;

LrNum = index-2;

angle = degreesToRadians((360/LrTot*LrNum)+nullRot);

x=majorA/2*Math.cos(angle);

y=minorA/2*Math.sin(angle);

nullPos+[x, y]

You will need to change the numbers on the first three lines:

majorA = the width of your ellipse

minorA = the height of your ellipse

LrTotal = the total number of layers to be distributed around your ellipse

Highlight the position property on that layer. Go to the Edit menu > Copy expression only.

Put your other fruit layers directly under the first one. Select your other layers. Edit > Paste.

To animate the rotation -

Animate the rotation value of the 'center' null.