Creating a timeline with counters?

J

jimmygreen

Member
Hi.. I want to place a fluctuating timeline above some footage... i had planned on having a counter that swings back and forth depending on the date relevant - counting up or down to where it needs to be ... how would i go about this? Would it be at all possible in Premiere because i'm not good with after effects?... any help would be appreciated... thanks
 
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Can you clear up what you want a bit?
Explain what you want to happen visually.

Ie, you say you want a counter that swings back and forth while counting up and down?

Do you mean you want some number, ie a date/time/whatever to increase the more it moves to the right and decease the more it moves to the left?
 
Hi.. thanks for the replies... i've been messing around with 'Effect>Text>Numbers' and some other things, but can't seem to get what i want...

to clarify it a bit -

I want to place a simple number above some footage in a set stationary position - i.e. '1937.07' (year.month - so i have to make the 2 numbers after the decimal point flip back to '01' after they reach '12' everytime or vice versa depending on which direction it moves in!)

So I purely want to pre-programme the number movements to put above some footage, so nothing interactive is involved at all...

If I can't manage to make the number visibly climb and fall, i'll just have to turn it into a changing title... i'd love to do it the other way though...

it sounds a bit complicated, but it's actually pretty simple...


1943.06 (stay for 2 mins)

(FOOTAGE)


[climbing to]


1957.02 (stay for 1 min)

(FOOTAGE)


[falling to]


1934.11 etc

(FOOTAGE)


So if anyone can help i'd be really grateful... thanks
 
you can do that with numbers.

if the format is not in the presets, you can make it work for you, if you don't want the day for example you can duplicate the footage and place a mask on the day, so it would show the month and year only, if you want a dot instead of a forward slash, you can mask the slash and put a dot in it's place, if you want the year first then the month then after you finish the animation, you can duplicate the effect mask and change the position that way, you can work with what the software will give you to make it a fast and easy process, either work with the presets available or make them work for you, or create your own effects in a photo or 3d app, and work with that, it's your choice.

for the stoping part, i'll give you an example, you got to frame one at 0 then go to frame 100 at 100 and you want it to stop, set another keyframe at 101 with 100, it will stop, when you want to resume agian, lets say at frame 200 set a keyframe at 199 for 100, then it will resume at the next frame and so on.
 
just to point out, you can make your own presets and effects anyway you want, but it might involve some coding and what not even a simple format can waste a long time trying to figure out how to make if you can at all, working with the tools you know is much faster and doesn't take allot of time to figure out.
 
it's an option, but,
that would take much more time to make, not to mention positioning and stopping part would not fly easily. using an existing preset seems much less work and time involved, that's how lazy people roll.
 
amrrahmy said:
it's an option, but,
that would take much more time to make, not to mention positioning and stopping part would not fly easily. using an existing preset seems much less work and time involved, that's how lazy people roll.
Click to expand...

Well, actually, it's not that much more time consuming, and, if you used right it'll be faster and easier in the long run. No preset will drop and play and work without any tweaking for what he wants to do, and people who say it's "less work and time" are usually ignorant of how useful expressions are. This is coming from someone who doesn't write code as well.
 
if you already have a preset, like in this case it's easier to tweak it instead of making an expression.you can time yourself and go wild, it's less than a few clicks with the preset.
 
amrrahmy said:
if you already have a preset, like in this case it's easier to tweak it instead of making an expression.you can time yourself and go wild, it's less than a few clicks with the preset.
Click to expand...

An expression is only one click :)

Either way, I just suggested an ulterior method. It's easier to edit, you have more control, and it'll save you time in the long run. The method you mentioned involves masking, doing this, doing that, many keyframes, etc. Why do all that when you can have one expression that does it all and you only have to change a little text to alter how long it holds, how it counts, etc.

Time yourself and go wild with that.
 
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