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AE 2015: Has something changed about how parenting works?
I’ve just upgraded from the 2014 release to AE 13.5 and am experiencing weirdness with the parenting system.
In this case I have a very simple composition – just need to track a lens flare into my footage.
I’ve motion tracked the X+Y position and applied the data to a null object (null 1). The tracking wasn’t perfect, so I’ve parented null 1 to a second null and added a couple of position keyframes to compensate. The XY position of the lens flare (Optical Flares) is then parented to null 1. This has always been my standard procedure in previous versions of AE.
The problem I’m having now is this: As soon as I parent null 1 to null 2, null 1’s numerical position switches from being in the center of the comp to something like -3.0,-70. In previous versions, null 1 would simply follow null 2, rather than jump to its position (this isn’t even null 2’s position). Visibly the null does not appear to have shifted, but the lens flare has jumped off-screen. Moving null 2 moves the visible position of null 1, but the position of the lens flare is unaffected. I thought it might be an issue with Optical Flares, but I’ve tested with simple shape layers and the same thing happens.
Is this another bug? Is last year’s release still unfinished? Or has something changed? Thanks.
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3 Replies
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Thats how its been since I’ve known After effects… Once you’ve parented, the child’s position value changes to show the diference from its parent.
And I bet you’re not parenting your flare to it. You’re linking it through a expression, right?
Anyway, instead of the pickwipped expression you get, paste this:
a=thisComp.layer("null 1");
a.toComp(a.anchorPoint)Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com -
You’re right Cassius, that expression worked! I’m still confused though as to why the behavior has changed… I’ve used God knows how many lens flares in the past and have always gone with the same method (pickwhip expression). I reloaded my project in AE 2014 earlier and the behavior was normal. Ah well, problem solved anyway – thanks!
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glad it worked.
nothing changed though. You must have never used before a child layer as the target for the pickwip. With the previous link you are essentialy telling the flare to use that value as its position. The value being the diference from the parent/child relation and not the layer’s position in relation to your composition. which is what the new expressions does.
Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com
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