Time remapping stop motion effect bug

[Dennis Rockhill]

Thanks, Cesar – I’ll give it a try and report back.

[Isabelle Joosen]

Hi,

A simple workaround that seems to fix the problem is this:
Add a new null object. Copy the slider-effect animation from the layer that seems to generate the bug.
Delete that layer. Relink your expressions. This should fix the problem.
Still a mystery though what seems to generate the problem…

[Cesar Siena]

Hi, Isabelle, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I’ve tried this already (transferring to a null), but didn’t work in my case. It’s sort of a random bug, occurring in some systems but not in others. The number of the repliers of this thread shows that this is a growing problem in after effects, although infrequent.

[Christoph Müller]

I have the same problem and just posted a new thread (which I shouldn’t have) but I didn’t find this thread earlier. I use CC2014 with the latest update and I have this problem from the beginning. It doesn’t matter how many keyframes I use it just randomly takes whatever position of the blink composition I refer too. It does this with every puppet I create. Very weird, because I am following the steps exactly as seen in Digital Tutorials or others on Youtube. I thought it was a problem because the blinks and the expression were in another comp, but no, it doesn’t matter either. 🙁

[Christoph Müller]

I just found two solutions to this problem:

1. Render your pre-comp out and import the MOV-file again. If you have your mouth shapes or blinks as a video file the problem does not happen.

2. In your pre-comp open the composition settings with cmd+k (on a Mac) or ctrl+k (I suppose on windows) and open the advance tab. Select ‘Preserve Frame Rate when Nested‘. Then purge All Memory & Disk Cache (from the Edit/Purge option in the menu). This even works with several layers from PS or AI or what ever you have done to your pre-comp.

I really don’t know why, but both options have worked for me. Hopefully it works for someone else too.

[Cesar Siena]

Christoph, in my case, it’s not feasible importing it as MOV file.
Purging the disk cache works only a few times, but not in others.
I didn’t try yet the option of preserving the frame rate of nested comps, but I suspect that it solves only a few instances of the problem, because it has occurred also in projects where the entire puppet wasn’t a nested comp, but the main comp.
Again, I think it seems a random problem and should deserve more attention from Adobe. I know that Ae isn’t made specifically to animate puppets, but this is a exponential growing use, since the inverse kinematics eased by Duik Tools.
Thanks for the help, although the problem continues.

[Christoph Müller]

You should try (the 2. option). I applied it on all my present projects and it works since then without any issues. Also, how could you have a mouth or blink sequence without having it in a pre-comp?

[Cesar Siena]

. I understood now what you have said. There was a solution from others that was similar to yours; it teached dividing the frame rate of the comp for the number of frames per second of the main comp. I works for some people, but not for others. Using the expression framesToTime(f) also was one solution given.
. I will definitely try your option just for curiosity! But one thing that I’m doing in all projects since this bug appeared, is NOT using time remapping for blinks, mouth shapes or what ever, but using check boxes expression controllers instead. That is, instead of changing the numbers of the time remapped layer and having all the trouble to remember which layer each number means, I suggest simply clicking on the respective check box (ie., connected with the opacity*100 of each blink or mouth layer), while unclicking the previous check box.
. Each check box can have a representative name, easing the identification process of which layer they represent.
. I hope this tip is useful for others that were tired of time remapping problems in Ae.
. Thanks again for the help and for the new solution suggested!

[Adam Cohen]

Christoph, THANK YOU for solution #2 – after a week of struggling with this problem, that worked!!! Can’t tell you how grateful I am!

[Cesar Siena]

New: maybe one root/cause of this bug comes from “edit – preferences – sequence layers at — /frames per second”. In other words, there is a chance that many of us are creating comps like mouth or blink, clicking “keyframe assistant – sequence layers” and it sequences that layer with the pre-definitions in “preferences”, not in the actual frame rate of our main comp. Thats why Christoph Müller’s solution “preserve frame rate when nested” works in many cases. This seems pretty basic, but hasn’t been pointed out in any other topic. This might be prevented in the future by Adobe, if “keyframe assistant – sequence layers” command asked for the frame rate wanted. This has been causing too much trouble around for some time now. I hope it dawns on some idea on understanding and on solving this issue. Best regards.