Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 - Position, Rotation, and Scale Controls for the Card Dance Effect; Rows, Columns, Layer, and Order Controls for the Card Dance Effect

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
User Guide
492
Consider the following example: If you select a vertical grayscale gradient (black on top, white on bottom) from the
GradientLayer1menuandthenselectIntensity1fromtheXRotationSourcemenu,CardDanceusestheintensity
of the gradient to animate the x-axis rotation of the cards. It assigns a numeric value to the center pixel of each card
on the gradient layer, based on the pixel’s intensity. Pure white equals 1, pure black equals –1, and 50% gray equals
0. Card Dance then multiplies that value by the X Rotation Multiplier value and rotates each card that amount.
If X Rotation Multiplier is set to 90, the cards in the top row rotate almost 90˚ backward, the cards in the bottom row
rotate almost 90˚ forward, and cards in middle rows rotate by lesser amounts. Cards in the 50% gray area don’t rotate
at all.
Ifyouwanthalfofthecardsinalayertocomeinfromtheright,andtheotherhalftocomeinfromtheleft,createa
gradient layer that is half black and half white. Set the gradient as the source for X Position, and set X Position Multi-
plier to 5, and animate it to 0. The cards in the black area initially appear at the left, and the cards in the white area
initially appear at the right.
Rows, Columns, Layer, and Order controls for the Card Dance effect
Rows & Columns Specifies the interaction of the numbers of rows and columns. When you choose Columns Follow
Rows, the number of columns is always the same as the number of rows.
Rows, Columns Define the number of rows or columns up to 1,000.
Note: Rows and columns are always evenly distributed across a layer, so odd-shaped rectangular tiles don’t appear along
the edges of a layer, unless you are using an alpha channel.
Back Layer Defines what appears on the back sides of the cards when they rotate into view, or when the camera
rotatesaroundtothebackofthelayer.Youcanuseanyimagefileinthecomposition;itsvisibilitycanbeturnedoff.
Gradient Layer 1 Specifies the first gradient that you want to use to make the cards “dance.” You can use any grayscale
(grayscale produces the most predictable results) or color image, movie, or composition. The gradient layer acts as
a displacement map for animating the cards. The pixel luminance of the gradient layer directly controls the
geometrics of the Card Dance tiles.
Gradient Layer 2 Specifiesasecondgradient,whichyoucanusetoaddanotherlevelofanimationtothecarddance.
Rotation Order Determines the order in which the cards rotate around multiple axes, when using more than one axis
for rotation. This control can greatly affect the appearance of the animation.
Transformation Order Determines the order in which the transformational properties occur (scale, rotation, and
position). This control can also greatly affect the appearance of the animation.
Position, Rotation, and Scale controls for the Card Dance effect
Position (X, Y, Z), Rotation (X, Y, Z), and Scale (X, Y) specify the transformation properties you want to adjust.
Because Card Dance is a 3D effect, you can control these properties separately for each axis of the cards. However,
because the cards themselves are still 2D, they have no inherent depth—hence the absence of z scaling.
Source Specifies the gradient layer channel you want to use to control the transformation. For example, select
Intensity 2 to use the Intensity from Gradient Layer 2.
Multiplier Specifies the amount of transformation applied to the cards.
Offset Specifies the value at which the transformation begins. It is added to the transformation value (a card’s center
pixel value times the Multiplier amount) so that you can start the transformation from some place other than 0.