How can I manually replicate the Exponential Scale effect in standard?

[Jeff Mcbride]

Use the graph editor and adjust the waves to smooth the scale out.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

I’ve tried that, but no matter what I do it’s never remotely smooth. This tutorial I am replicating is a series of still images linked together and each resized a fraction of the one under it. Then they are all linked to layer #1, so you can scale them all based on a 1-100 scale. You’d have to watch the tutorial to see exactly what I mean. Because they’re linked and different sizes when I scale from 0.01% to 1% on screen it scales the images (because they’re parented) more than when I scale from 60 to 80%. So how to you get a smooth scale when its not uniform?

[Jeff Mcbride]

Hey Tom

The graph editor will let you do exactly what exponential scale will do. Setup two scale points then select both at hit F9. This will Easy Ease both of them and give you bezier handles in the graph editor. Now go into the graph editor and grab the first handle and drag it straight down to the level of the other one (Hold Shift while dragging), the end scale keyframe handle can come straight left towards the first. This will create an exponential scale.

[Mike Clasby]

You might want to try this exponential scale expression from an earlier Dan post. Copy the expression, then Alt Click the Scale Stopwatch of that Layer 1/SanFran.psd, then Paste.

I plugged in Andrew’s 100% to .0005% over 6 seconds. This expression will override any keyframes, so you don’t need any on that top layer. I don’t have AE7, my bad, so I can’t download Andrew’s project file to test it, but it should be smooth.

Dan Ebberts earlier post, with your parameters:

Date: Apr 27, 2005 at 15:46 gmt

Subject: Re: is it possible to us expression for?
Try this:

v1 = 100;
v2 = .0005;
t1 = 0; //start time
t2 = 6; //end time

if (time <= t1){ s = v1; }else if (time > t1 && time < t2){ t = time - t1; T = t2 - t1; k = Math.log(v2/v1)/T; s = v1*Math.exp(k*t) }else{ s = v2; } [s,s]

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

I’m sorry, I don’t follow what you are saying. I tried changing the levels on the graph and still no change 50% of the scale happens in the first 5 frames and 50% happens in the remaining seconds. Here is a screencap of the graph…

https://www.509films.com/aftereffects.jpg

What should it look like for an even zoom?
Thanks

[Jeff Mcbride]

Here are three graphs for examples, these are AE 7.0 so it’ll be a bit different. I believe these graphs are how your Value: Scale should be (it’s a different system in 7) The first is a linear zoom, the second has Ease Out on keyframe 1 and Ease In on keyframe 2, and the third is the altered graph with the exponential curve. Hope this helps!

Even Zoom

Eased Graph

Exponential Graph – Not shown, but the first keyframe bezier handle is at (0%,0f) and the 2nd keyframe handle is on (0%, 25f)

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Thanks! I think I got it. Just had to play with the graph handles a bit. Still needs a little fine tuning, but definitely close. Thanks again!

[Sam Moulton]

You can also simply use the basic 3D plug-in instead of scale and ease in the keyframes. I saw Brian Maffitt do this a while back. Since then, if I didn’t want to use 3d I’ve used Basic 3D for all my scaling.