Re: MEL: assign a unique multiplier

[Geoff Bailey] "how to avoid 1200 expressions."

That's AE-mind-set. You don't have to. Not everything in life is a "layer".

Treat it like an object and simply have the mel script create the "layers" by copying the "master object" with a + or - frame offset 1200 times.

You can add a complementary number of hold frames to each in order to have all start from the same moment in time. It will work somewhat like the "duplicate" panel with a repetition or instance of 1200 and a (constant, variable or random) transformation in the TIME "channel". Grok?

"Instances" are lighter in ram (being the SAME as the master object with a 3d+time transform) and WILL have the same animation and characteristics. For diversity of objects use "copies" instead.

If original placement of the copies is crucial, you can feed the initial positions to all copies from a simple coordinate list in ascii text stored in disk and read at runtime. If different shapes are desired, a similar list can replace the filename reference in a runtime variable from any number of shapes you can read directly from disk.

If you want to have the "above/below" effect when having the objects move, offset their position per copy in the same 3D axis that the camera looks at the objects, say -Z.

You can group them in a container group so in the event of a correction being needed, delete the container group, re-animate the "master" object and run the script again to create your clones.

take care

.k.