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Proper Nesting of Comps to sync with sound?
Problem Overview:
I am an intermediate user of AfterEffects, and am very frustrated with how to develop the proper structure for my comps so that I can have flexibility and control over how I animate. I want to have one master comp, with nested comps inside.
The nested comps all relate to each other in a scene that all share the same dialogue soundtrack in the master comp.The problem is, when Im in a nested comp, I’m not able to tell where I am timing wise compared to the rest of the other comps and the Master Comp (where the soundtrack file is located)….. All my comps are animated to the same soundtrack, yet I can’t compare my comps to visually see what else is going on; what the timing context for my nested comp is. In other words it is very confusing as to how the timing of my nested comps relate to the master comp and to get their timing to sync up.
1. Am I working in a way that is counter-intuative to how AE was designed?
2. What can I do to maintain control over the organization of my files / be able to animate successfully?
3. are there other, simpler ways to arrive at the same results?
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I realize that I could just develop a flat comp (no nested comps) to see everything in 1 timeline, but that results in a comp with too many layers to be manageable – often the layers alone could fill up the entire screen!
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Example:
Lets say I want to animate a person. And I want to have the following nested comp structure:1. whole body
⁃ head
⁃ eye1
⁃ eye2
⁃ mouthLets say I have the sound file of dialogue of a person talking in the head composition. I want the character to sound out the words, and so a separate comp is used for the mouth. I also want the eyes to move independently so that the character can blink at specific words, and to facilitate facial expressions. What is the easiest way to do this?
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1 Reply
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[Shlomo Goltz] “Lets say I have the sound file of dialogue of a person talking in the head composition. I want the character to sound out the words, and so a separate comp is used for the mouth. I also want the eyes to move independently so that the character can blink at specific words, and to facilitate facial expressions. What is the easiest way to do this?”
you might want to check this link out: https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/marker-sync.html
it describes how to use layer markers to trigger animations very similar to what you are describing.
and here is an older tutorial, also by dan ebberts, for syncing various character animations to audio, also largely using layer markers and expressions: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/audio_sync.php
i think these may help you out.
also, ae is not well suited for character animations if that is what you are primarily looking for… but dan also has an inverse kinematics method, or procedure, with expression for linking movements of body parts together that may help you if you are doing character animations.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
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