Seamlessly Loop Wave Warp Effect

Found your post after googling the same problem you encountered.
Boggles my mind how complicated all the replies made it seem.
To all who find this, OPs answer is this:  One complete, loopable cycle of the Phase parameter is 256 degrees, not 360 or "1" cycle.

So 2 loops = 512,   4 loops = 1024 etc.

The key is to use a bit of math to figure out what to set the Wave Speed at. Keep your Phase angle at 0 and don't use any keyframing. Set Wave Height/Width/Direction to whatever you want and change as desired.

Step 1: figure out the duration of time (IN SECONDS) you want to loop seamlessly within. If you want the animation to loop seamlessly within the length of your composition or the length of your work area, figure out how many seconds long your composition or work area is. This could mean converting hours/minutes to seconds which you can do easily with the help of google and/or a calculator. **(if the last two digits in the timecode of the desired duration of the loop aren't 00, jump to the red asterisk section below)**.

Step 2: figure out the wave speed by dividing the number of times you want the animation to loop by the duration of time you want the animation to loop seamlessly within (IN SECONDS). Type that value into the Wave Speed up to four decimal points to get it as accurate as possible so the loop is seamless. For example, if you want the animation to loop twice over the course of 15 seconds, the math would be: 2/15=1.3333 so your Wave Speed should be 1.3333. Fiddle with the number of times you want the animation to loop in this equation in order to adjust the speed of the animation while keeping the loop seamless.

Step 3: Check your work and you should be good to go!

**the last two digits of your timecode are in FRAMES, NOT HUNDREDTHS OF SECONDS so you must convert the frames to seconds. To figure out how many seconds the last two digits of your timecode equates to, divide the value of the last two digits of your timecode by the fps of your composition. Add this to the rest of the desired duration in which you want the loop to occur (in seconds) and continue with Step 2 above. 

EXAMPLE:

You want the wave warp animation to loop seamlessly within your work area. The duration of your work area is 00:00:14:24 (AKA 14 seconds and 24 frames), according to your timecode. You want the animation to loop 5 times within that time. You are working in 30fps. The math would be as follows:

Frames to seconds: 24frames/30fps = 0.8 seconds

Total duration of work area in seconds: 14 seconds + 0.8 seconds = 14.8 seconds

Wave Speed: 5loops/14.8seconds = 0.3378

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbY7V6bJITA
This video best explains it around 2:30-3:00 in. Hope this helps 🙂

love you

johnt53984649  wrote So how can I make wave warp loop seamlessly?

it loops automatically using 'Wave Speed'

Is there some reason you're using key frames & a loop out?

Either way Mylenium gave you the correct answer. 

It's the math.  Luckily, the effect does the math for you if you use 'Wave Speed'.

There's no keyframing or Loop Outs necessary

Hi JohnT,

So how can I make wave warp loop seamlessly?

Did you get this working according to your needs? How did you do this?

Thanks,
Kevin

I'm not clear what you are saying. The exact repeats are dependent on the Wave Width, which is user controlled and the phase is merely an offset for the underlying formula. Of course for a sine wave it will have something to do with the equivalent angles to multiples of Pi. It's not a linear function. Additionally of course there may be an uneven fractional number of waves depending on how you set the width. Similar logic applies to other wave types. There's nothing wrong here. You just need to understand the math and eitehr tweak your values accordingly or create a smart expression for it.

Mylenium