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n00b question on moving an object in AE
Sorry this is a SUPER basic question, but it’s so simple, I’m having no google-fu in finding an answer.
How does one move an object on one axis across all anchor points?
I managed to do this a few minutes ago by picking up and dragging, but now I have no idea how I did it.
Everytime I normally drag, it either adds an anchor point if there is none at that time, or changes ONLY the one it is on.I have an object that moves ONLY on the Y axis. The X value is constant across the stage. I want to move the whole thing (keeping the up and down as is) the left.
What I’ve had to do before, is drag it over to where I want whist on one of the anchor points. I then copy the X value and paste it into all the other anchor points, one by one.
There must be an easier way! (There is: I somehow did it.)
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4 Replies
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Why are you not animating the position parameters of the object? I don’t understand the need to animate the anchor point property.
To animate the x and y position property separately, you need to use an expression. In CS3 there is a preset called seperateXYZ in the presets folder. In CS4 and above I guess check this out….
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-after-effects-cs4/animating-precisely-with-separate-dimensions/
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Oops. Fighting off a cold here, so I’m a little muddled.
I meant KEY FRAME, not Anchor Point.
If I grab an object on the screen and try to move it, it either makes a new KEY FRAME or it adjusts only one KEY FRAME.
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Hi there,
This is just the way that After Effects works.
As soon as you’ve clicked on the stopwatch for a property you are basically telling After Effects “OK, record everything I do” to that property. So, if a stopwatch is on, and you move to where there are no keyframes, change that property, a keyframe will be created. This can be very frustrating for new users or those coming from animation systems where KFs need to be added manually (like Flash).
It takes a bit of getting used to but when you do it’s actually a very efficient way to work as you never forget to add keyframes! 🙂
Hope this helps
cheers,
Angie
Angie Taylor animation & illustration for television, film, web and devices
https://www.angietaylor.co.uk
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Linkedin: theangietaylor
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angie-Taylor/118378194869002 -
[Jim blastos] “Oops. Fighting off a cold here, so I’m a little muddled.
I meant KEY FRAME, not Anchor Point.
If I grab an object on the screen and try to move it, it either makes a new KEY FRAME or it adjusts only one KEY FRAME.”
For AE to adjust multiple keyframes of a property at once you have a couple of options, but they all begin with selecting all the keyframes you want to adjust on the property 🙂
For the first method your current time indicator has to be on a frame with one of the selected keyframes, you can then change the values by mousing over the property and dragging the value up or down (you can’t type in new values, it causes all dimensions of the property to update to the value of the current keyframe).
Your second (much easier) option only applies for spatial keyframes. Again, select the keyframes you want to alter in the timeline, then go up to the composition viewer and note the larger squares along the motion path. These represent the keyframes. Solid squares are selected keyframes and empty squares are unselected keyframes. Click and drag one of the solid squares to adjust all of the selected keyframes while maintaining their spatial relationship. It doesn’t matter where your current time indicator is for this second technique.
Darby Edelen
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