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Home > Archive > Adobe After Effects > June 2005 > Re: TIMECODE - Creating a countdown timer





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Author Re: TIMECODE - Creating a countdown timer
Rick_Hincks@adobeforums.com

2005-06-02, 7:37 pm

Right I've sorted that out, I was reading in to it the wrong way. I didnt see one number as hundreths and the other as tenths.

I sorted it by key framing three decimal places to start at 100 on frame one, and masked out the 1. Then I key framed the countdown to finish at 000 on frame 30 (1 sec). i then began the process of copying and pasting to 10 secs, then so on and then just
copied and pasted entire minutes, so it only took 10mins.

What I would like to know now though is if I rendered this off at 99 fps so that then numbers change better rather than in multiples of 3 would it view right on screen playing off a dvd player, or would it revert back to changing in multiples of 3?

If you understand that jibberish I just wrote and can reply with an answer, thanks. If not I will re write it when im free. Cheers
Rick_Gerard@adobeforums.com

2005-06-02, 7:37 pm

Changing the FPS won't work. I'd use an expression added to the source text of a text tool.

Here's an expression i've used a lot.:

//countdown clock in miliseconds
ClockStart = 5; //Start time in minutes
start = ClockStart*60; //start time in seconds
compTime = start - time;
eTime = Math.floor(compTime);
csec = Math.floor((compTime - eTime)*100);
ms1 = Math.floor(csec/10);
ms2 = csec%10;
hr = Math.floor(eTime/3600);
h1 = Math.floor(hr/10);
h2 = hr%10;
min = Math.floor((eTime - hr*3600)/60);
m1 = min;
m2 = min%10;
sec = eTime - hr*3600 - min*60;
s1 = Math.floor(sec/10);
s2 = sec%10;
m1 + ':' + s1 + s2 + '.' + ms1 + ms2




You can use any font if you select the type layer and set kerning to 0. This way you are not limited to monospaced fonts. You can also adjust the ClockStart to any value you wish. This timer counts in miliseconds. If you just want tenths then delete the +
ms2 definition and the + ms2 from the last line of the expression.

Have fun...
Rick_Hincks@adobeforums.com

2005-06-02, 11:31 pm

Genius!

Im just glad that the effort I put in was only 10 minutes. It works like a charm. The tenths and hundreths do drop in width when it reaches below 20 but im sure that is acceptable. I just need to add everything else to it to make sure it works and looks a
lright.

Much appreciated, thanks
Rick_Gerard@adobeforums.com

2005-06-02, 11:31 pm

If you set metrics to 0 the type shouldn't jump around. You can turn off the expression, add some dummy type and select all, then set metrics to 0. If that fails, select a monospaced font and justify the paragraph to the right.
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