Composition too small for trapcode effect but increasing the compositoin size ruins trapcode effect

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Use the Scale Composition Script that comes with AE to resize your comp. That should take care of the issue. If however, the layer you are applying the effect to is an image limited to 500×500 pixels and you have no option to use a larger version, then precompose the image making sure the precomp is the same size as the final comp and apply effect to that.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Walter Soyka]

[Erick Wilczynski] “So I created a 400×400 comp with three Trapcode effects: Particular, Shine, & Lux. Lux is causing some glow spill off the edge of my canvas so I would like to increase my composition size. However when I change the comp to 500×500 I get a weird crop where I only see part of my original canvas. If I try to change it to 1000×1000 then I cannot see any of my work. I realize that this is inherently silly because I made my comp too small to start with, but I’m wondering why I can’t make it larger. I’ve run into similar problems in Photoshop but I can always expand my canvas.”

Tudor and Dave answered your question — but I can add a little background as to why this is happening.

Effects like Particular, Shine, and Lux are generally added to solids, and solids have a size that’s independent of your comp size. You can create solids at the size of your comp, but you can also create them larger or smaller, and any any aspect ratio you choose.

When you change the size of the comp, it does not automatically change the size of the solids within it, so when you change your 500×500 comp to 1000×1000, the 500×500 solid with Particular remains 500×500.

This behavior is actually the same as in Photoshop — changing the canvas size does not affect the size of any of the layers in your PSD (except the background layer). The Scale Composition script is somewhat analogous to Photoshop’s Image Size command in that it both changes the comp size and scales all the layers to fit.

As Tudor mentioned, the Scale Composition script adjusts both the comp size as well all the elements within it.

You can manually change the size of any solid through its Solid Settings (Ctrl-Shift-Y on PC, Cmd-Shift-Y on Mac, or Layer > Solid Settings) at any time, and there is a button in that dialog box to match the solid’s size to the comp size.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Erick Wilczynski]

Thank you all. It makes sense now.

I had wondered about simply changing the size of my solid layer but thought I would consult the more experienced and knowledgeable.

Also I wanted to know so I can work myself out of a silly situation if I find myself there again in the future.

-E
-vimeo.com/36013051 (reel)
-RambozMediaGroup.com (production house)