/aep2neopixel

A production pipeline to convert After Effects animations to Arduino-controlled Neopixels

Primary LanguageProcessingGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

aep2neopixel

A production pipeline to convert After Effects animations to Arduino-controlled Neopixels

When to use

  • You want to prototype animations for a Neopixel-style LED strip
  • You feel comfortable using After Effects for animation prototyping
  • You are looking for a simple way to transfer the animations to a Arduino-controlled LED strip

How to use

Here is a high-level description of the process:

  1. Create animation in After Effects
  2. Export the animation as a PNG sequence
  3. Convert the PNG sequence to .ino file, using Processing sketch, see src/ folder
  4. Include .ino file from previous step in provided Arduino sketch, see src/ folder
  5. Build and upload the resulting code to your Arduino board
  6. Enjoy animation on your Neopixel strip

Required tools

  • A copy of the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) (free download)
  • A copy of Processing (free download)
  • A copy of After Effects (paid software)

Detailed instructions

These steps assume that you have already exported your animation as a sequence of PNG files to a folder. Let's call this folder new_anim.

  1. Copy new_anim to src/02_Processing/png2ino/data
  2. Navigate to src/02_Processing/png2ino and open png2ino.pde with Processing.
  3. Edit variables in the processing file to describe your animation:
    • folderName to the name of your animation folder (e.g. new_anim)
    • numberOfFrames to the number of frames/images in your animation
    • numberOfLEDs to the number of LEDs in your LED strip
  4. Run the sketch: A file named animation.ino will be created.
  5. Copy animation.ino to src/03_Arduino/arduino_simple_playback. Choose to overwrite if the file already exists.
  6. Navigate to src/03_Arduino/arduino_simple_playback and open arduino_simple_playback.ino in Arduino.
  7. Verify (compile) and upload to your Arduino board.
  8. Attach LED strip to correct Arduino pin (defined with #define LED_PIN 4)

Authors

Jan Hillmann-Regett and Jakob Lehr