• Adobe After Effects

  Imported AI file + CC Bend It = ???

  Posted by Ryan Hill on September 20, 2012 at 2:24 am

  So I imported layers of AI files for the parts of an animated silhouette character, and used CC Bend It on his arms and legs.

  But I’ve noticed when I toggle on and off the Continuous Rasterize button, it changes the start and end position of the bend.

  Why does it do that?

  Added: Okay, further experiments show it ignores parenting in continuous rasterize mode.

  I wasn’t expecting that. I’ll have to approach this differently.

  So, follow up question, is there a different bending effect I should use? CC Bender works with the parenting correctly, but it skews more than it bends, not really the movement I’m looking for.

  Or maybe I could do the pieces of these guys as high-res photoshops or something instead.

  Any suggestions?

  Added Part 2:
  Or maybe I could add some expressions to them all to translate the positions from relative to global or whatever I need.

  Roland R. kahlenberg replied 13 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Ryan Hill

  September 20, 2012 at 3:00 am

  Okay, I think what will work for me is I create two Point Control expressions, called Start and End, and use this in the matching Start and ENd of the CC Bend It
  toComp(effect("Start")("Point"))

  But I’m still curious if there’s a reason behind this or if it’s just a random bug.
• 

  Roland R. kahlenberg

  September 20, 2012 at 3:06 am

  Your issues relate to some advanced AE thingies such as Render Pipeline and how Distortion Effects work with Collapse Transformations/Continuously Rasterize (CT/CR). There is a lot written about the Render Pipeline, so you should find ample info there.

  There is however very little written about how distortion effects with position parameters are affected by CT/CR. For such distortion effects, their position parameter refers to (is relative to) the layer size and not the size of the comp. If you apply CT/CR to a layer with such a distortion effect then the effect’s position parameter becomes relative the size of the comp it is in – hence the change in the values.

  What you should do to alleviate this problem is to scale up your AI layers and switch on CR in a lower level comp (child comp). Then nest these layers into a ‘final comp’ where you do not need to apply CT/CR. Then apply the required distortion effects onto the layers in the ‘final comp’. Hope that makes sense.

  Lastly, for what you’re doing, there is a very good chance that the Puppet Tool will be a more functional solution than either of the distortion tools.

  HTH
  RoRK

  Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
  Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer

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