Collapse transformations changing motion?

[Darby Edelen]

Effects are no longer in Layer Space when a layer has its continuously rasterize/collapse transformations switch enabled. Instead the effect acts in Composition Space. The easiest way to think about this is that the effect no longer looks at the layer’s boundaries or transformations, instead it acts in the composition’s boundaries and transformation space.

For example, if you have an effect that creates a radial wipe beginning from [0,0] on a source layer and you continuously rasterize that source layer the center of the radial wipe will now be [0,0] in the composition which is always the upper left corner, even if the layer is moved or rotated the center of the radial wipe will be [0,0]. Not only that but the starting degree of the radial wipe, if it’s 0 degrees, will always point straight up in the composition no matter how you rotate the layer.

While this may seem like a problem initially, it can actually be quite useful once you understand how it works. In your case, for example, you could enable continuous rasterization then place the center of the radial wipe at the center of the four layers (you could even use a Null object to represent the center of the radial wipe, link it by expression, and parent the 4 footage layers to it). Now animate the radial wipe on one layer from 0% to 100% completion over the duration you want the entire transition of all four layers to take. Copy this effect and paste it to the other 3 layers.

Alternatively, use an Adjustment Layer to do the above. It would actually be simpler in this case but you wouldn’t get the same insight into how continuous rasterization works 🙂

Darby Edelen

[Mike Mackenzie]

Very enlightening, thanks man!

Motion Graphics Designer / Art Director
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