Automate multiple data point moves on a chart

[Jessariah67]

Hi All,

I have a client who wants 300 "dots" to move along the Y axis (static X) simultaneously over time. No lines, color changes, etc. Just 300 dots laid out, then all move to a different Y position over a few seconds time.

Haven't quite found what I'm looking for, but I'm pretty sure something like this would be pretty easy using CSV or JSON files - I'm just a complete noob when it comes to that kind of thing. But I'm pretty sure that something is out there that would allow me to automate two different position keyframes for a series of "dots" with values within a spreadsheet.

Appreciate any help! 

[Mylenium]

That's what mJSON, AE's custom motion graphics flavor would do. Difficult to create the actual files, though, since it's not yet a format supported by mainstream data generating apps. If it's really just two keys for each point, you might get by using conventional JSON, though, as long as you define the values in pairs. A simple linear() expression would do the trick then.

Mylenium

[Jessariah67]

What I'm trying to accomplish is the effect you see in the graphs on this page: https://nickchk.com/causalgraphs.html

It looks like this needs something entirely outside of "video software"

[Mylenium]

It doesn't require anything beyond AE, though of course the science nerds use tools like Mathematica, Graph Tool and what have you. Outside that scatter plots are simply just pairs of two-dimensional data. As I said, all you need to do is set up your basic JSON and use simple linear() functions in the form

linear (time,startTime,endTime,startPosition,endposition)

The rest is more a case of formatting the data in Excel so it can be easily retreived and the nodes/ data pairs accessed elegantly. Start by reading the relevant online help sections. It's really not that difficult.

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/data-driven-animations.html

Mylenium

[Warren Heaton]

Rather than coding these, you could create most of them with a Test Animator.  Create a text layer using a fonts with a filled circle (Webdings or Option 8 for many Mac fonts), add a Position Animator, enable Random and adjust.  Two keyframes for the Range Selector should take care of the rest.

Some of the other animations leave the dots with their relative distribution.  For those, set one of the dot layers as the Parent layer and all of the Child layers will follow as you animated the Position of the parent.