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Link position and scale of child layers to the time-remapping of a parent layer?
I’ve used After Effects for ages, but I am pretty new to expressions. I am finding them very useful, but haven’t had to write my own yet, just ‘borrowed’ from other people.
I am wondering if the following is possible: Have the position and scale of some child layers adapt based on the time-remapping of the parent layer. Something like this:
If time remap of layer “Head” = 00:00:03:04, then scale this layer (85,100,100) / If time remap of layer “Head” = 00:03:04:05 then scale this layer (80,100,100) …. And then so on for perhaps 20 different time remapped frames. And then I’d need to do the same for the position value.
If time remap of layer “Head” = 00:00:03:04, then position this layer (2543,893,0) / If time remap of layer “Head” = 00:03:04:05 then position this layer (2964,403,0)… and so on for the same 20 or so time-remapped frames.
I know what I have written above is definitely not the correct syntax, but I thought it might explain what I am trying to do, which is attach eyes and a mouth (the child layers) to a head (the parent layer.) The parent layer of the head is a QuickTime made up of different drawings of head positions… looking left, looking right, etc… (And yes, I’ve tried DUik Bassel but it’s not quite what I am looking for here.)
Thanks in advance 🙂
Phil
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3 Replies
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Hey Philip, the main concern here is this: you mentioned 20 or so time remapped frames.
How different position/scale values will become on each of these frames? Because one way or another I assume you will have to pre-define them somewhere? If thats the case, it sounds like you need a different type of workaround to make this work, otherwise its too much manual labour even for a rig to be used later.
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Hi Tomas – yes, I will have to predefine those scale and position values for all 20 or so time-remapped frames. It would be a manual process of me working out what looks best, and then a an hour of data entry into the expressions. But that’s not too much effort, because I would be spending a year animating with this rig, so it would be time well spent.
Thanks
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Philip, I would suggest to explore this toolkit for rigging – it feels like it could be helpful for your purpose: https://aescripts.com/joysticks-n-sliders/
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