Hey Kevin, thanks again for all your work on this. I tried doing it through this method, the problem is that it takes around 2000 of these single character layers to properly fill my work area. After Effects crashes around 1200 or so.
I also found this other technique:
http://www.creative-workflow-hacks.com/2007/08/27/more-fun-with-sampleimage...
It uses the expression:
target = thisComp.layer("layerToSample.mov");
samples = new Array();
var spacing = 10;
var w = target.width / spacing ;
var layerOrder = 1;
var h = 10 * layerOrder;
letters = " .,:!-+=;iot76x0s&8%#@$";
for(x= 0; x < w; x++){
samples[x] = target.sampleImage([x* spacing ,h],[spacing , spacing], false, time);
}
var string = '';
for(z = 0; z < samples.length; z++){
var y = Math.round((0.299 * samples[z][0] + 0.587 * samples[z][1] + 0.114* samples[z][2]) * 100)/ 4;
string = string + letters.substring(y,y + 1);
I applied this to the text field and it gives me an error: " Class "Layer" has no property or Method named "Target" " on line 5. I'm really new to After Effects scripting, so I don't know why it's giving me that error.
But I think this one is set up to replicate the whole grid rather than just a single character.
