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Colour blocks appearing in After Effects
Hi there,
I’m just learning After Effects, and I have come up against a problem I just can’t find an answer to – maybe I’m not searching for the right thing?I’m making an animation in After Effects.
I imported an image sequence – and everything was fine. Saved it. Opened it the next day and part of the image sequence is brightly coloured blocks, like CYMK colours almost, or printing test pages. And it rotates as the images were set to underneath, and the rest of the sequence works fine.
So I re-imported the image sequence, and re-did the rotation/scale/positioning, and pre-composed it (not that I really know what that does, but it seemed a suggestion I came across on image sequences.)
But again when I reopened the AE file today – the coloured blocks appear again.
If you know how to fix this – or what I can search to get the answer, I would be really grateful. I’m stuck! I’ve been trying to find answers to this all day! I don’t mind re-doing it again, Im just worried it will happen a lot later on, and it will take forever to redo the whole thing, and I’ll never be able to close the program!!!Thanks in advance,
Lucy -
4 Replies
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By “colored blocks” do you mean color bars, like you see on TV accompanied by a test tone? That means After Effects has lost the link to your elements.
When you import something into AE, you don’t actually bring the items into the program; you just create a link to the files stored on your hard drive, external drive, what have you. If you move (or remove) those files, AE can no longer find them and puts up a color-bar placeholder to let you know it can no longer show them. No need to rebuild the animation, though. Just relink the missing file (right-click on the missing file name in your Project window and choose Replace Footage… and select the appropriate file) and your footage should reappear with all your previous animation work intact.
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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too. -
Thanks Jeff, that’s exactly what I mean.
The only issues I have is – I have pre-composed the footage – so I can’t replace it now to the original footage.
And also what is strange, is that the files have stayed exactly where they are – so I don’t see how the links would have broken – the only thing I might have done, is cropped a bit off, that I didn’t want – would that effect footage that is created from an image sequence?
Thank you so much for your help.
Really appreciated.
Lucy -
You can still reconnect your footage even if it is precomped. Just go to your Project window and find the original sequence in the list. Right-click the file and select Replace Footage… and navigate to the original files. However, if by “precomp” you mean you actually rendered it out with the missing frames and imported the resulting movie file, then no, you can’t reconnect that. But you should still have your original sequence comp in your project that you can pull back in the original sequence files.
As to how could the links break without moving them? You’d be surprised. I’ve had entire multi-layer images go missing from AE overnight with the computer off. Computers like to mess with you sometimes. It’s their only joy.
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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too. -
Thank you so much Jeff!
It has fixed the problem! Phew! I thought I was going to have to redo it all again! Fortunately no, I hadn’t rendered it out; just pre-comped it!
Yes my computer sure likes to keep me on my toes!!!
Thanks again Jeff, really really appreciated. : )
Lucy
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