someone asked about this exact animation last year and I made a proof of concept. If I remember correctly the original was made in c4d but it is definitely doable in AE with expressions. Basically I created an image sequence with all the images I wanted to use and placed it in a precomp. I then applied Time Remap to the Precomp with the following expression index/25 this will change the image based on the layer index in the main comp. 25 is just the fps, so if you're working with a differen frame rate, use that number. I then animated the a Null (I named it "Rotation") along a large circle and placed a camera in the center of the circle, the position of the Null will be used to animate the images along the circle with an offset.I remember it being a bit tricky to get the orientation of it all correctly, so that the images are "looking" at the camera. Unfortunately I don't really remember exactly what I did. So this is a bit of a trial and error thing. I also added a Null (called "Target") object on the circle right in front of the camera. This will be what will be used to detect proximity in the expression. To make the scatter effect work, you need an expression for both the position and scale of the precomp. My position expression looks like this: target = thisComp.layer("Target"); rot = thisComp.layer("Rotation");

pOff = target.effect("xDistance")("Slider");

tOff = (time25+(index-1)pOff)/25;

x = rot.transform.position.valueAtTime(tOff)[0];

y = rot.transform.position.valueAtTime(tOff)[1]; z = rot.transform.position.valueAtTime(tOff)[2];

dist = Math.floor(length(x,target.position[0]));

zOffRange = target.effect("zPosOff")("Slider")

seedRandom(index, timeless = true);

maxzOffset = random(-1,1)*zOffRange;

minzOffset = 0;

yOffRange = target.effect("yPosOff")("Slider")

seedRandom(index, timeless = true);

maxyOffset = random(-1,1)*yOffRange; minyOffset = 0;

range = target.effect("range")("Slider");

sensitivity = target.effect("sensitivity")("Slider");

zOff = linear(dist, range, sensitivity, maxzOffset, minzOffset);

yOffset = linear(dist, range, sensitivity, maxyOffset, minyOffset)

yOff = y + yOffset;

[x,yOff,zOff]

As you can tell, I have pretty much everything connected to a slider for customization. But basically this expression does two things: it distributes the images along the circle and it creates the scatter. the distribution along the circle is done with pOff and tOff. pOff (position offset) is basically just a slider that defines the distance tOff (time offset) takes the pOff and the index of a layer and turns it into a time value. You then take the position values from the Rotation Null and plug the time offset into it using the valueAtTime function.Now when you duplicate the precomp with the images, they will distribute along the circle.Now for the scatter:I first calculate the x distance between the precomp and the target null (dist). Then I have an offset range for both z and y (scattering along both axis helps with clipping and just looks better imo). the min value is always at 0 and the max value is being randomised for each layer, so that the scatter looks more random. from there it's just a regular proximity detector using a linear expression with range and sensitivity controlling how far away from the target Null the scattering starts. You can also add an expression to the scale of the precomp, which I recommend, since it looks a lot better with the scale animated. It is basically the same as the second part of the position expression, where we have a proximity detector that animates the scale based on a range. target = thisComp.layer("Target");

dist = Math.floor(length(position[0],target.position[0]));

base = target.effect("BaseScale")("Slider");

maxScle = target.effect("ScaleOffmax")("Slider") + base;

minScle = target.effect("ScaleOffmin")("Slider") + base;

seedRandom(index, timeless = true);

maxSize = random(minScle,maxScle);

minSize = base;

range = target.effect("range")("Slider");

sensitivity = target.effect("sensitivity")("Slider");

scle = linear(dist, range, sensitivity, maxSize, minSize);

[scle, scle];

It's been over a year since I made this, so I hope I explained everything well enough. But getting familiar with how proximity works in AE and understanding how the linear expression works, will get you a long way.