Countdown Motion Effect on a Pixel Star

[Capt Ike]

I'd like to use the Countdown motion effect in the star of my pixel tree, but when I build it in the effects window, you can't make out any numbers.  I don't know if the software is distorting the number into the shape of the star or what, but it does the same thing when I try to use the Picture motion effect as well.  I tried adding a wreath png and you can't make out what it's supposed to be.  Again, it looks like it's being distorted.  For the countdown, I'm envisioning the star with the numbers in the center counting down from 10.  I hope this makes sense, but if not, I can upload images of what its doing.  Is this possible or do I just have to use the countdown on the tree and not the star?  Thanks in advance.

[Don]

You might consider making a Motion Effect row for each of the numbers - This way you would be able to control exactly where the pixels for each number will be.

Edit: The ME's would be custom, wherein you modify each ME to have only the pixels on that you want.

[k6ccc]

Your biggest issue is that there just are not enough pixels to make it look right.

 

[Capt Ike]

3 hours ago, Don said:

You might consider making a Motion Effect row for each of the numbers - This way you would be able to control exactly where the pixels for each number will be.

Edit: The ME's would be custom, wherein you modify each ME to have only the pixels on that you want.

I thought about that, but was wondering (or really hoping) that the default motion effect would be easier/quicker.

57 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Your biggest issue is that there just are not enough pixels to make it look right.

 

Really? That would be a bummer. This is my first year with pixels, but when looking at the physical prop, I imagined it could do the job with what I have.  I'm using a 6 nested star with 270 nodes (pic attached).  I wasn't hoping for anything fancy, just some block numbers.  I thought that could be displayed with that many pixels.

[k6ccc]

About the only way you could do it is on a single arm of the star - the top arm would be best I would think.  Print out a photo of the star and mark pixels with a Sharpie and see how hard it will be to make number look good.  On a nice perfectly squared up grid, you can get fairly decent single digit number with about 7 pixels high by 5 wide.  But this is a far cry from a perfectly squared up grid.