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Number/Text Grid: Using Particle Playground

random number
Author: Project by Richard Lainhart,
Technical Director at Atomic Power Corporation
Skill Level: Medium
Version: AE 4.1 or later
Project Files: Download Project Files
Movie Sample: View Quicktime
Plug-ins Used: No third party plug-ins used

The NumberGrid uses Particle Playground to generate a randomly-varying grid of numbers or text, along with randomly-generated "sci-fi" boops and beeps, to simulate a 50's style computer screen display. It's pretty easy to set up, and can be tweaked for a variety of effects.

  1. First, make a new comp called NumberGrid. Apply Particle Playground to a solid comp-sized layer, with Cannon disabled (set Particles Per Second to zero) and Grid enabled. Set the width and height to something less than your comp size. Set the Color to green, to simulate an old video display, and set Particles Across and Down to 15 each, or whatever looks good. Go into Options, into Edit Grid Text, and set the Grid Text to any character - Particle Playground needs at least one character to generate the grid, but we'll use a random image to actually set the characters displayed, so the character you set in Grid Text Options doesn't matter. Choose a font, and be sure to enable Use Grid and Loop Text. Back in Particle Playground, set Gravity to zero to keep the text in place, set the Font Size to 25, or whatever looks good, and keyframe the Font Size to zero on the second frame to prevent Grid from generating new text.
  2. Next, set up another comp, say 20% larger than the NumberGrid comp, and apply Noise to a solid layer in the comp. Set the Amount to the maximum, check Clip Result Values, and uncheck Use Color Noise. Follow that with a Gaussian Blur set to 5 or so, to blur and clump the noise together. Render out one frame of this noise, and reimport it. This Noise frame will provide the randomness we need to generate seemingly random numbers and letters. Because Noise generates new noise on every frame, using just a precomp of the Noise will make the numbers change every frame, which is not the effect we want here. Instead, we're going to animate the position of a static noise frame to make the text change randomly. Rendering and reimporting the frame saves significant render time, too.
  3. Add this Noise frame to a new comp the size of your NumberGrid comp (call it NoiseWiggle), and apply some Wiggler position keyframes to it to wiggle it around in the comp, say 50 pixels in a video-res frame. This is why we rendered the Noise frame larger than the final comp - so it wouldn't run off the edge of the comp. Apply Easy Ease to the position keyframes to smooth the motion, if you like. These position keyframes will determine how the numbers change, so create smooth motion if you want smooth changes, and rough motion if you want abrupt changes. Next add the Levels filter to maximize the grayscale range of the Noise image. Add this comp to the NumberGrid comp, and turn off its visibility.
  4. In Particle Playground, under Persistent Properties, set Use Layer As Map to the NoiseWiggle comp. Under Affects, set Map Red To to Character. We've just told Particle Playground to use the grayscale values in the NoiseWiggle comp to set the characters displayed in the grid; the random motion of the Noise frame will make the numbers vary randomly. Adjust the Min and Max offset values to set the range of characters that will be displayed in the grid. Try Min=47, Max=50 for 0s and 1s, and Min=30, Max=120 for capital letters. These values may vary depending on the range of grayscale values in your Noise frame. Set Min and Max to different ranges and values to display different types of characters.
  5. Once you've set up the Grid to your liking, add the Glow filter, set to Use Color Channels, and add a slight glow to the characters. Adjust the Glow to taste.
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