Is there a way to select the points in order to arrange them manually? I can't figure out how to select the individual points without selecting the entire shape layer.
You can arrange the point layers individual when you expand the Contents of the layer, as shown at 2:10. If you expand the individual points, you'll see the Position property for that point.
@@creationeffects I saw that but the only way to adjust the position is through the property slider. There doesn't seem to be a way to simply grab the points and move them. It automatically selects the whole layer. ?
Is it possible to replace the dots with other shapes like squares or hearts? I tried to put a star in to the group of dots but this way doesn't work. THX ...great tut btw.
Hi Sebastian. Yes, it's possible, with a little bit of work. In your timeline, open the Points layer, then open the "Contents" section. You should see a bunch shapes named Point 1, Point 2, etc. Select and delete all of the shapes except Point 1(do no delete "PointCounter (Ignore)"). Next to "Contents" click the "Add" button and choose any new shape, like "Rectangle". Drag the rectangle shape to be above PointCounter (Ignore), where the other Point shapes were. Now open "Point 1", then open its "Size" and "Position" properties so you can see the expressions. Open the Rectangle shape as well. Copy the expressions from Point 1 to the Rectangle. Note that some shapes may not have the same properties as Point 1, Like a Polystar doesn't have a "Size" property, so instead, copy the Size expression into the Polystar's "Outer Radius" property. (Tip: click the stopwatch icon next to the property to open its expression box). Now rename the Rectangle shape to "Point 1", and the delete the original Point 1 shape that was there. Finally, select your new Point 1 shape, and duplicate it as many times as needed (Command- or Control-D).
Is there any way to do this withouth renaming the layers? I would like to use this while starting with a predefined shape of dots that I would import from illustrator...
@@ferzanflores_01 If you want the dots and lines to make the shape of text, you will have to drag each point to their place. There's no way to make them automatically form text.
Hi. There's no way to add a file and automatically apply the data to the dots. You can position or scale dots manually, but that method wouldn't be practical if you had a lot of data.
There's no way to do that with the controls, unfortunately. It can be done with multiple shape layers, but you'd have to animate each polygon separately - a lot of work.
Hi I am getting the following error: After Effects errorTDL: outline contains trianlge that are too small to be rendered. Check for very thin triangles in original artwork. ( 88 :: 3)
I've never seen or heard of that error before. A quick google search and I learned that sometimes you can fix the problem by changing the font. I don't know if you're using text, but you could try that. Or also, if you enabled 3D on some layer, that might also create the error. From what I was reading, it is thought to be an After Effects bug. As I do with unexplained errors, I would recommend you just work backward, undoing the things that you changed, until you no longer get the error. Then come up with a different way of accomplishing what you needed.
@@creationeffects To reply to my error, I was using Cinema 4D as rederer. I changed it to Classic 3D renderer and it seemed to solve the problem. Just FYI ;)
Glad to hear you figured out! And thanks for the kind feedback. If you're feeling generous, please consider leaving a review on the web page: www.creationeffects.com/network.html. Thanks,@@WallitDesigns!
Kamla Sultan Alolama sorry for the late reply. I’m not sure what you mean exactly, but you can create multiple “points”, from where the lines can emit from. It takes a bit of work to arrange them in a specific order, but a variety of arrangements can be made
I think it can do what you want, but you'd have to animate the lines manually by opening up the individual Beam effects, disabling the expression on the Length property, and then keyframing it to make the lines travel from dot to dot. That kind of control is possible, but this tool is better suited for more random displays of dots and lines.
Is it possible to replace the dots with words? I tried making shapes from text, putting the characters in a group, and following the rest of your suggestions for swapping the dot for a different shape but it's not working. I think the Group is messing it up but I'm not sure how to get around that. Thanks for your help!
Hi Dustins. Someone else had that same question a few weeks ago. I believe the way to do it is to write out your text with the Text tool, so that each string of text is its own separate layer. Since each dot has a Position property, you should be able to pick whip each text layer's Position to the Position of a dot. Once you've done that, you'll need to adjust the Text's position so that it's directly over the dot, and then hide the dot, so all you see is the text. I haven't tried this, but I believe it'll work. Although it may be a lot of work, depending on how many text-dots you need.
Hi, is there any way to put a beam at a certain position? I tried to pick whip the position of the end of a beam to a position of point, but the position of point begins from 0.0 while the position of a beam from 960.540 so it does not match
Hi Jeon. if you open the expression box for the position of the beam, you'll see that it references the position of the point (if you have pick-whipped it). At the end of the expression, you can add "- [960,540]" to subtract that amount.
Is there a way to keep the quality/resolution of the lines and dots while using the camera zoom? When I zoom in especially the lines seem to lose their resolution and start to look crappy.. can this be fixed somehow?
Once you precompose layers, there's no way to increase the resolution of those layers - except for going back to the original comp and increasing the comp resolution in the Composition Settings. The dots will maintain their resolution if you have "Continuously Rasterize" enabled, because they are vector-based. The lines are not vector-based though, so their resolution won't increase when you zoom in - unless you increase the resolution in the original comp.
There's no way to automatically change them all. You'd have attach an image to each dot, one by one. You would bring in your image into the comp, and duplicate it so there are enough layers for each dot. Then pick-whip the position of the image layers to the position of the points (expand the points, in the Contents folder). You'd also need to add "-[960,540]" to the expression on each image's position to account for the offset.
@@creationeffects please, please expand on this a bit. I choose a point - say, point 2, and I pick whip position from my image to the position of point 2 - and it puts my image up to the left, out of frame. when I add the offset, it moves it even farther up and left. - not a power user with this, but I feel really close to getting what I need.
@@dan2dublin I'm sorry, I must have meant "+[960,540]". Or, you could add "+ value", and then you'll be able to drag the Position values until the image is positioned perfectly over the point.
Hanns-Peter Nagel you can perhaps assign separate colors to groups of dots on the same layer, but I don’t think you can to individual dots. Sorry, I’d like to get on After Effects and confirm but I’m traveling this week.
wow, amazing effects
Is there a way to select the points in order to arrange them manually? I can't figure out how to select the individual points without selecting the entire shape layer.
You can arrange the point layers individual when you expand the Contents of the layer, as shown at 2:10. If you expand the individual points, you'll see the Position property for that point.
@@creationeffects I saw that but the only way to adjust the position is through the property slider. There doesn't seem to be a way to simply grab the points and move them. It automatically selects the whole layer. ?
@@amoebalabs Oh I understand now. Yes, unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to select individual points to drag them around.
Very good tutorial..In the demo . 2nd one I like it .Make it that tutorial
Do you know how to do a similar effect in Divinci Resolve?
dont be silly james
Is it possible to replace the dots with other shapes like squares or hearts? I tried to put a star in to the group of dots but this way doesn't work. THX ...great tut btw.
Hi Sebastian. Yes, it's possible, with a little bit of work. In your timeline, open the Points layer, then open the "Contents" section. You should see a bunch shapes named Point 1, Point 2, etc. Select and delete all of the shapes except Point 1(do no delete "PointCounter (Ignore)"). Next to "Contents" click the "Add" button and choose any new shape, like "Rectangle". Drag the rectangle shape to be above PointCounter (Ignore), where the other Point shapes were. Now open "Point 1", then open its "Size" and "Position" properties so you can see the expressions. Open the Rectangle shape as well. Copy the expressions from Point 1 to the Rectangle. Note that some shapes may not have the same properties as Point 1, Like a Polystar doesn't have a "Size" property, so instead, copy the Size expression into the Polystar's "Outer Radius" property. (Tip: click the stopwatch icon next to the property to open its expression box). Now rename the Rectangle shape to "Point 1", and the delete the original Point 1 shape that was there. Finally, select your new Point 1 shape, and duplicate it as many times as needed (Command- or Control-D).
Is there any way to do this withouth renaming the layers?
I would like to use this while starting with a predefined shape of dots that I would import from illustrator...
Love You.
@@creationeffects hello! How to do the dots and lines network with place text in after effects?
@@ferzanflores_01 If you want the dots and lines to make the shape of text, you will have to drag each point to their place. There's no way to make them automatically form text.
hello, just purchased it, wondering if it is possible to make this as a looping animation?
Sorry, it's not possible to loop the positions of dots and lines. You can only do it by by dissolving (fading) the end of your clip to the beginning.
Hi is it possible to add a .json file or CSV data file to the dots in a simple way? IE to show off raw data using the points?
Hi. There's no way to add a file and automatically apply the data to the dots. You can position or scale dots manually, but that method wouldn't be practical if you had a lot of data.
can we fill in the inside of the beams ? To make polygons kinda...
There's no way to do that with the controls, unfortunately. It can be done with multiple shape layers, but you'd have to animate each polygon separately - a lot of work.
Hi I am getting the following error: After Effects errorTDL: outline contains trianlge that are too small to be rendered. Check for very thin triangles in original artwork. ( 88 :: 3)
Sorry Using windows and latest After Effects CC
I've never seen or heard of that error before. A quick google search and I learned that sometimes you can fix the problem by changing the font. I don't know if you're using text, but you could try that. Or also, if you enabled 3D on some layer, that might also create the error. From what I was reading, it is thought to be an After Effects bug. As I do with unexplained errors, I would recommend you just work backward, undoing the things that you changed, until you no longer get the error. Then come up with a different way of accomplishing what you needed.
@@creationeffects To reply to my error, I was using Cinema 4D as rederer. I changed it to Classic 3D renderer and it seemed to solve the problem. Just FYI ;)
Also Love the tuts you made! really great! thanks and keep it up!
Glad to hear you figured out! And thanks for the kind feedback. If you're feeling generous, please consider leaving a review on the web page: www.creationeffects.com/network.html. Thanks,@@WallitDesigns!
Hi! Is it possible to create multiple centers for the plasma ball?
Kamla Sultan Alolama sorry for the late reply. I’m not sure what you mean exactly, but you can create multiple “points”, from where the lines can emit from. It takes a bit of work to arrange them in a specific order, but a variety of arrangements can be made
Hi, is there a way for the beam to travel to a dot over time and connect more dots with the beam?
I think it can do what you want, but you'd have to animate the lines manually by opening up the individual Beam effects, disabling the expression on the Length property, and then keyframing it to make the lines travel from dot to dot. That kind of control is possible, but this tool is better suited for more random displays of dots and lines.
@@noelpowell4108 Right, thank you! Time to get to work then
Is it possible to replace the dots with words? I tried making shapes from text, putting the characters in a group, and following the rest of your suggestions for swapping the dot for a different shape but it's not working. I think the Group is messing it up but I'm not sure how to get around that. Thanks for your help!
Hi Dustins. Someone else had that same question a few weeks ago. I believe the way to do it is to write out your text with the Text tool, so that each string of text is its own separate layer. Since each dot has a Position property, you should be able to pick whip each text layer's Position to the Position of a dot. Once you've done that, you'll need to adjust the Text's position so that it's directly over the dot, and then hide the dot, so all you see is the text. I haven't tried this, but I believe it'll work. Although it may be a lot of work, depending on how many text-dots you need.
Hi, is there any way to put a beam at a certain position? I tried to pick whip the position of the end of a beam to a position of point, but the position of point begins from 0.0 while the position of a beam from 960.540 so it does not match
Hi Jeon. if you open the expression box for the position of the beam, you'll see that it references the position of the point (if you have pick-whipped it). At the end of the expression, you can add "- [960,540]" to subtract that amount.
Is there a way to keep the quality/resolution of the lines and dots while using the camera zoom? When I zoom in especially the lines seem to lose their resolution and start to look crappy.. can this be fixed somehow?
Once you precompose layers, there's no way to increase the resolution of those layers - except for going back to the original comp and increasing the comp resolution in the Composition Settings. The dots will maintain their resolution if you have "Continuously Rasterize" enabled, because they are vector-based. The lines are not vector-based though, so their resolution won't increase when you zoom in - unless you increase the resolution in the original comp.
Would like to purchase this but it seems the site is down?
Hey D-Mak, yes we are aware of the server issues and working to restore it. Sorry for the inconvenience!
The page should be working now, if you would like to try again.
very good tutorial
This might seem like a weird question but is there a way to change the dots into images (circle shaped)?
There's no way to automatically change them all. You'd have attach an image to each dot, one by one. You would bring in your image into the comp, and duplicate it so there are enough layers for each dot. Then pick-whip the position of the image layers to the position of the points (expand the points, in the Contents folder). You'd also need to add "-[960,540]" to the expression on each image's position to account for the offset.
@@creationeffects please, please expand on this a bit. I choose a point - say, point 2, and I pick whip position from my image to the position of point 2 - and it puts my image up to the left, out of frame. when I add the offset, it moves it even farther up and left. - not a power user with this, but I feel really close to getting what I need.
got it, needed the "+" sign. thisComp.layer("Points - Group 1").content("Point 2").position +[960,540];
@@dan2dublin I'm sorry, I must have meant "+[960,540]". Or, you could add "+ value", and then you'll be able to drag the Position values until the image is positioned perfectly over the point.
Is there a way for individual points have different colors? Thanks!
Hanns-Peter Nagel you can perhaps assign separate colors to groups of dots on the same layer, but I don’t think you can to individual dots. Sorry, I’d like to get on After Effects and confirm but I’m traveling this week.
hey
Sorry, there’s no video. The Effects all come from my “Creation Film Effects” template and “Creation Lens Flares” template.
Are the lines vector?
In a sense, yes. They're made procedurally, using the Beam effect.
More tutorial pls.