Daily Blender Tip – Pulsating light without keyframes
Jan van den Hemel writes:
Using expressions is common in motion graphics to create movement without setting any keyframes. In Blender, it’s possible as well – here’s a look at creating some pulsating light using a simple expression.
Wow!
Thank you, Jan!
I just started learning Blender last week and I do appreciate this simple effect of yours. More power to you!
Thanks Joe, and good luck (and have fun) on your Blender journey! Check out http://www.blendersecrets.org for many more videos and some articles.
Welcome always, Jan! Keep well and safe, sir.
General equation could be something like:
#A*cos(B*frame**C+D)+E
A adjusts the brightest point.
B adjusts the overall rate of flashing. B can be a fraction e.g. 1/10 or 0.1, and can be a multiple of Pi. Pi helps align brightest points to specific frames.
C adjusts the acceleration/deceleration of flashing. 1 = no change in pulse rate. >1 = acceleration. <1 = deceleration.
D adjusts whether you start bright, dark, or somewhere in between.
E adjusts the minimum and maximum brightness levels where E-A is the minimum, and E+A is the maximum. Anything 0 or negative is "off."
Using drivers can make it easier to adjust these things on the fly and reducing keyframes. (Using drivers also eliminates the need for **C.)
I find, though, that Blender tends to stop responding to changes to this value over time, and needs to be rebooted.
Thoughts?