nested compositions and expression control problem

[Dan Ebberts]

I tried it using your comp/layer/effect names, and it worked for me (after I changed “slider” to “Slider”).

Dan

[Jan Sickinger]

hey dan,

thanks for trying. i tried in another comp an there it worked well. may it be, that when the main project is getting to big, ater effects won`t handle this anymore? or is there something like general expression settings where i may have changed something unluckily?
i don´t get any error messages from the expressions. and when i set the first keyframe, and work on this time-position, the expression does what it should. only when i try to make a keyframed animation, it stops working proper.

thanks a lot! jan

[Dan Ebberts]

There was this thread a while back:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/17315

Please report back if you figure out what the problem is.

Dan

[Jan Sickinger]

hey there,

the answer to my problem was quite simpel. the control-layer-time didn´t match with the nested-comp-time.
maybe there is some kind of expression wich fix this problem too. if not, just keep an eye on timematching with nested comps and overall time settings.

all the best, jan

[Marlon Lewis]

I am having the same problem – I am animating a character and using a null to control the position of the characters pupils so that the character can look left,right, up and down.

My comp Hierarchy is something like this:

Main Comp > Eye_LFT(Precomp that is Time re-mapped so I can animate the blinking)> Pupil_LFT (This contains the white of the eye and the pupil.)

I can move my null controller and the eyes will move as needed, but adding key frames and changing the position just doesn’t work.

I’ve been through the solutions on this thread and rearranged my layers and comps so they all have the same start and ending time (Except for some layers within the ‘Eye_LFT’ pre-comp which are only a single frame in duration, which I use for the blinking effect.

Now if I disable time re-mapping, I can animate the movement of the pupils with keyframes, but I can no longer make my character blink and vice versa.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions at all as to why I would still have this problem?

Many thanks

Marlon

[Everton Gois]

I now this is over few years but I have the same issue here.
Marlon, did you get this sorted some how?

Many thanks

everton

Everton Gois
Digital Artist

[Dan Ebberts]

If your precomp doesn’t start at time = 0 in the main comp, you have to compensate for the offset, like this:

C = comp(“main comp”);
ctrl = C.layer(“controls”).effect(“Point Control”)(“Point”);
L = C.layer(thisComp.name);
ctrl.valueAtTime(time + L.startTime)

Dan

[Everton Gois]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your quick help. Unfortunately I didn’t understand
“If your pre comp doesn’t start at time = 0 in the main comp, you have to compensate for the offset”

Do you mean as ‘main comp= City?’. For instance, if the character don’t start at frame ‘0’ in the scene ( e.g.: city), I’ll need to use that code above, right?…where?.

Or
Main Comp = Full character?…this is how its is structured at the moment.

Full character Comp –>Heads( L/R &Front = 5 Min Length)–>Eyes ( 4 Frames Length )–> Pupil ( linked to Null Pos in the Full Character Comp)

So, the Pupil Moves according to the null but only on first few frames, but if a keyframe is set, it won’t work.

Am I crazy here?

Thanks for your help

Everton Gois
Digital Artist

[Dan Ebberts]

Ah, that’s more complex (with multi-level nesting). It’s probably going to look more like this:

t = comp(“Heads”).layer(“Eyes”).startTime;
t += comp(“Full Character”).layer(“Heads”).startTime;
ctrl = comp(“Full Character”).layer(“Null Pos”).position;
ctrl.valueAtTime(time + t);

and would be applied to the position property of the layer (Pupil ?) linked to the null in the main comp.

Dan