Match Frame in After Effects?

[David Markey]

Hi fellow Dave,

That’s a step in the right direction, but my sequences don’t start at ‘frame 0.’ More like IMG_01863… random numbers like that. I can change the start frame in the Comp Settings, but with multiple sequences starting at different points in the Comp, things get convoluted. For instance, Frame 1863 might appear at Frame 104 of the Comp. Maybe PreComping all the sequences and setting all the Start Frames to correspond is the solution, but at that point the cost/benefit is starting to tip.

Thoughts?

[Jeremy Allen]

There is an app called File Wrangler that allows you to quickly rename files in a folder anyway you want. So you could put each image sequence in a folder and re-number them from zero. May be worth a look.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 18GB RAM, OSX 10.5.8

C4D 12
AE CS5 (10.0.2.4)
FCP 7.0.3
QT 7.6.4

[David Markey]

Time-remapping and/or trimming layers would booger any file-renaming solutions.

Unfortunately, I can’t set a ‘Start TC’ under Interpret Footage the way I can set a start TC for a Comp, so I’m thinking the best method is to PreComp all sequences, and set their start TCs to match. Using the Timecode effect might offer some benefit too.

What I really want is something like ‘Reveal in Finder,’ but more specific… ‘Reveal Frame in Finder.’ Maybe I’m just being fussy.

Thanks for your suggestions. It got me thinking about it.

[Conrad Olson]

You can add a text effect to your layer and write and expression that changed the on every frame to display the frame number. I’m not sure if you could go further and get it to look up the frame name. I often to it when I’m working with re-time effects so I can get back to the source frame.

You can can work with the effect on and then just switch it off to render.

I haven’t used AE for a while so can’t remember the syntax of the expression but I’m sure someone else can help you out with that.

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conradolson.com