So I am looking for some general advice. For my final project in my Computational Physics class. I have to complete the following problem.
(4.16 from Computation Physics 2nd Edition By Giordano and Nakanishi) -Carry out a true three-body simulation in which the motions of Earth, Jupiter, and the Sun are all calculated. Since all three bodies are now in motion, it is useful to take the center of mass of the three-body system as the origin, rather than the position of Sun. We also suggest that you give Sun and initial velocity which makes the total momentum of the system exactly zero(so that the center of mass will remain fixed). Study the motion of Earth with different initial conditions. Also, try increasing the mass of Jupiter to 10, 100, and 1000 times its true mass.
My question: Is it possible to write the code for the problem above, and then import that code(or the result) into Adobe After Effects to model the three-body simulation? My teacher has expressed that if i am able to do so, he would be inclined to give me extra credit, which i desperately need.
It is possible to do some scripting in After Effects, but the language is Javascript (or rather, ExtendScript), not Matlab. I would do everything in a javascript: first calculate your solution (3 streams of position data), and use these to keyframe the corresponding layers in After Effects. You will have to learn a bit of the After Effects object model, but in that case you wont need much: the Layer object and how to keyframe its position property. You should go to the Adobe After Effects scripting forum https://forums.adobe.com/community/aftereffects_general_discussion/ae_scripting/ for some script examples.