Connected network of dots in After Effects (2 ways)

[@Arilysal]

Plexus Nexus, sounds like a magic class from Harry Potter, thank you Prof ShiveringCactus!

[@ShiveringCactus]

Commentious Welcomiosa!

[@Making-Memories1]

Love your tuts. Even if I don't do them all, I always pick up something that helps me in other projects. So, Mr. Plexis Nexsis, thanks a lot!

[@ShiveringCactus]

Thank you, comments like this mean a lot to me. Very nice to meet you, Rich White

[@mystixa]

plexus nexus.. this was a good one to think about.. thank you.

[@ShiveringCactus]

Haha, thank you and nice to meet you

[@abhinowyt8564]

Amazing!! that u used element 3D

[@ShiveringCactus]

VC Element remains my “go to” plug-in.

[@clubware]

Awesome tut. Plexus Nexus ;-)

[@ShiveringCactus]

Hey…. You posted the thing! Thank you. And nice to meet you.

[@themuckyman]

Bah! plexus nexus! The E3d version looks the nicest and with some other effects would look quite stunning.

[@ShiveringCactus]

Thank you for commenting! I agree with you about Element, but at the same time, I was quite pleased with solving the coding problem for the 2D version.

[@simply_mang0s]

Thanks for the tutorial! Have a quick question though, what if you want some of the lines disconnect and connect to a different point while moving? How should I go about doing that?

[@ShiveringCactus]

That’s a very good question. I can think of a few ways…you can convert expressions to keyframes or you could split the layers and change the order as needed (might want to precomp). Or you could have the running in the background and fake the connection changes with extra dots over the top.

[@bondodesign]

Clever 🙂

[@ShiveringCactus]

I try. I fail most of the time, but every so often…

[@Liliana063086]

Hi, this is so great thank you! I was wondering if I wanted the circles to be different colors? Randomize from a palette

[@ShiveringCactus]

Yes you can! And it's really cool. And this expression to the shape's transform opacity: ----------------------------------------------------- groupIndex = thisProperty.propertyGroup(2).propertyIndex*5 ----------------------------------------------------- This identifies the number of the shape (ellipse 1, ellipse 2 etc...) and uses that to set the opacity of the shape. So they fade up. I've added a *5 so you can see what's going on more easily. Then duplicate your ellipse as in the tutorial. Then on the layer, apply the Colorama effect. Set the Input's Get Phase From to Alpha. All the shapes will be solid in rainbow colours.

[@Liliana063086]

Thank you!!

[@andreiniculae8299]

You are doing such a good work, thank you so much for all. I have a problem while trying to recreate that amazing effect: my problem is that when I scroll the video for preview the dots are connected, but when I play the video the dots are no longer connected. How can I fix this? That will mean a lot for me, thank you in advance!

[@ShiveringCactus]

Thank you. It’s hard to tell what the issue might be, drop me a line using the contact form on my website shiveringcactus.net. We can swap emails and project files.

[@nebula_eater]

you can also do this in the tao plugin, just random form + wireframe shader

[@ShiveringCactus]

I’ve never used Tao, and while I hear good things, now that it’s part of the Maxon subscription, I doubt I’ll get the chance.

[@ethanlyons-gd5gn]

plexus nexus

[@ShiveringCactus]

Yay! Thank you. Hope you found this useful.

[@gotthisbro]

Plexus Nexus

[@ShiveringCactus]

Thank you, nice to meet you.