Expression driven wing flap with For-each point loop

[omegauser9]

Hey all,

 

I've been trying to learn more about how loops work, right now I've got a faerie, its wings are expression driven (Sin function tied to a controller) and I have the main build in one shelf with a point cloud that it's instanced to in another. I needed to figure out how to randomly reverse the sin function for points/particles so that they aren't all flapping in unison. Right now I'm close to starting over because I learned maybe a for-each point loop with a timeshift could help, but I feel as though there's a simpler way. Granted this is my third project total in houdini so I'm VERY inexperienced with this. I have the Tokeru site up to help kinda learn how loops work but I'd love some guidance on how to get this to work.

Also, what am i screwing up? I tried to export the animation so I could just re-import the baked animation to a particle source so as they spawn in they're offset from each other just based on life, but it doesn't save the animation. Do expression driven animations get baked to disk?

To clarify my focuses:

I need to completely offset the flapping wings of the instanced copies so they aren't in unison

 

PS: Thank you to anyone who helps, I appreciate it.

test_Navi.hip