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  • Multiple Clips, same look…

    Posted by Brian Lynn on July 22, 2006 at 6:43 pm

    I have a large number of clips to compose that involve Text Effects, .jpeg animation, some Shine plugin, and a nice background layer…

    I’ve done tons of After Effects work but never anything this… involved. Typically its a 2 to 3 minute peice and I’m done. This project is almost 100 30-second clips.

    What I am wondering is… Is there a way to build some sort of Master Template that I can then go and copy, replace the information, repeat and get my 100 clips—– but here is the kicker—–I would like to be able to make a change to the master and have to reflected throughout all the clips that use the Master for its layout (kinda like a Master Slide in Powerpoint).

    Like if I increase font size in the master, have that reflected across all the slave clips…

    Is this possible?

    Brian Lynn replied 18 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Brian Lynn

    July 22, 2006 at 6:50 pm

    OH… guess I should mention I am using A# 5.5 Production Bundle…

  • Mike Clasby

    July 23, 2006 at 10:26 pm

    Methinks you can.

    Linking Expressions from one Comp to the Master Comp (therefore only properties with Stop watches), then change the Master and it changes the Slaves.

    Setup your Master Comp the way you want.

    Dup it, then grab the tab of Master 2, pulling it up and away to make a second timeline.
    Now if you use Effect>Text>Basic Text (Yeah, this might be the deal breaker because I don’t know if there’s a stopwatch for AE’s latest new Text Tool and I find it a bit of a pain to have to select the text I want to change the font /size,etc for then make changes in the Character Palette… maybe there’s an easier way, but you still need a stopwatch to link the expressions, so… that’s why I’m using the Effect>Text Effects).

    Anyway Alt click the Fill Color on the Master 2, then pickwhip it to the Fill Color in the Master layer. Do the same for Size (font size in the Basic Text Effect), and any other property you want to ripple from the Master through the Slaves (Master 2, in this setup).

    So now if you make the changes in the Master, it’s reflected in Master 2. Hey it even works without both comps being open (as I guess it should).

    So dup the Dup as many times as you want for as many instances as you want. It might be a good idea to change the name of Master 2 to “Slave”, to limit confusion, then Dups of the Dup will be Slave2, Slave 3, etc.

    And, if you want to change something in say Slave 47 to be different from the Master, just disable the expression and change away. Like I said you should be able to do this for anything that has a stopwatch, so transforms (animation – size, rotation,opacity…) and Shine is a go (if it’s in the Master).

    It would take a little setting up, but worth the effort if I’m understanding what you want.

  • Brian Lynn

    July 23, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    Lost my original log-in info, so this is Goblynn93…

    Thanks for the response! I was so deep into that project at the time I forgot to say thank you! Worked like a charm. Took forever to setup but it would have been much longer had I needed to change each individual clip!

    Thanks for the help!

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