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problem with expressions & the scale of a layer
i have several layers of solids with a mask applied and radial blur to give the illusion of a spotlight.
the mask is a small circle feathered with heavy cc radial blur to give the beam effect.
i have attached all of the radial blur center’s to a single controller so that they all move as one.
im having a problem when i try and add a lens flare or other effects.
this is because when i mask the layer after effects immediatly seems to crop the layer around the mask, so the movement of that layers center point is different to the layers like lens flare that use the whole original layer size.
how would i compensate for this?
i have tried creating a mask that is the same size as the original layer to prevent the scaling issue but it does not seem to be working.
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4 Replies
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I’m having a hard time understanding the problem. Can you post some pictures or a scene file to show the issue? There are buttons to do this above the reply message box.
Darby Edelen
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Thanks for replying
its actually much simpler then i explained it looking back at my post.
my question is.
when you create a mask on a layer, AE auto adjusts the bounding box of that layer, essentially ‘cropping’ the layer to fit the mask.
i used a series of solids, masks and radial blurs on a few layers to create a fake spotlight.
i tied all of these layers together via a point controller and expressions so that they all follow the same path etc, so i have a functioning fake spotlight.
However when i add a layer where i have not added a mask and therefore ‘cropped’ such as lens flare; which seems to simply multiply over the layer it is added onto, when i add that layer to the point controller it does not follow the movements of the whole spotlight, its movements are that of a layer with a different scale value.
i can match the movements by scaling the lensflare down till it sits in the middle of the spotlight, then with the correct scale values it works fine, however the edges of the layer are then visible and it looks terrible.
i think it would it simply work to add all the masks on seperate layers as trackmattes to all the solids that make up the spotlight so their scale values are not different from that of any other layer, however i have run across this scale problem before when i apply a mask directly to a layer i wish to manipulate, and am looking for a kind of global fix to this scaling issue.
again, thanks for taking the time
Josh -
Lens Flares are one of those effects that should almost always be applied to a comp-sized 2D solid. Don’t move the layer it’s applied to, instead control the size and location of the lens flare with the flare’s effect controls.
Part of the reason I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around your setup is that it sounds much more complicated than it needs to be for the effect I think you’re trying to achieve. This makes me think I’m not understanding it properly.
Pictures or a project file would really help. Otherwise all the suggestions you get will be guesses based on assumptions and our own experience rather than solutions that we know will work based on your actual situation.
Darby Edelen
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