[Brendon Murphy]

Konstantin,

Besides pre-rendering “comp A”, I can’t think of anything that would give a more efficient result than just dragging it in. Can you shed some light on your reasons for not wanting to do so?

You could, for instance, create a new solid in “comp B”. Drag “comp A” into the timeline and turn the visibility off. Add the “Set Channels” effect to your solid, and then choose comp A as the source in each channel. This would give you the image of comp A on the solid. However, I can’t think of a reason why this would be better than just using the comp itself.

Brendon Murphy
________________
Visual Effects
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

Matthew,

I’m not sure which parameter you are using to control the strength, but you could try one of the following:

-Keyframe the slider so it goes from 0 to your desired amount on the correct frame, and then back to 0.

OR

-Add the below expression to the parameter – it makes the slider affect only the second keyframe. You’ll need to change “Strength Slider” in the first line to the name of your slider (I’m assuming the slider is on the same layer as your Form effect). The strengthKey value can also be changed to whichever keyframe you want to affect.

strengthControl = effect("Strength Slider")("Slider");
strengthKey = 2

n = 0;
if (numKeys > 0) {
n = nearestKey(time).index;
if (key(n).time > time) n--;
};

if(n==strengthKey){
value+strengthControl} else value;

Brendon Murphy
________________
Visual Effects
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

And probably “WindowsButton+down arrow” on a PC

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

Not to my knowledge, but you can quickly select the lower duplicate by using “Command+down arrow”

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

I usually precompose the mattes, and then enable the “collapse transformations” switch so that the 3d placement is preserved in the main comp. Use the precomp as your track matte.

best,

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

The biggest problem right off the bat is that you will want to work at the same size the colorist is working. VFX work is not an “offline” process in the same way that editing is, and many effects and masks are not easily scalable.

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

You can make this process easier by adding an expression.

First, precompose your scene, and then alt-click the stop watch next to the position property. You’ll see an area appear where you can insert text (an expression). Select any text that’s there and replace it with “wiggle(x,y)” – not including the quotations. For x, put the number of shakes you want per second. For y, enter the value for how large the shake should be (in pixels).

If you want to control this even more so that the wiggle only happens at a certain time, drop a “Slider Control” effect on your layer. This time make your expression say “wiggle(x,” and then drag the pick whip to where it says “slider” on your Slider Control effect. Finish by adding the “)” at the end. It should now read wiggle(x,effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”))

Now, the wiggle amount will follow your slider value, which you can keyframe to occur at the right time.

You can check out this documentation for further clarification:
https://helpx.adobe.com/en/after-effects/using/expression-basics.html

best,

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

I agree, the shatter effect is a very simple way to do this.

A more difficult option is to create perfectly fitting puzzle pieces on different layers (preferably white pieces exported with black BG), bring them into AE, and use each one as a track matte for duplicate logo layers. Precompose each logo layer with its matte. Make each precomp 3D, and then manually animate the precomps to simulate a reverse-shatter effect. Add a “bevel alpha” filter to each precomp. Tweak so that the filter accurately simulates the rounded the edges of each puzzle piece. And then you may want to create an expression that makes the bevel angle follow the desired light direction as the piece animates.

In other words, the shatter effect may save you hours of time, depending on your needs!

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

I don’t think you can do this with the repeater. To my knowledge there is no way to affect instances individually in that way. You COULD, however, create your windows using the Mosaic effect. It would go something like this:

1. Create a new square solid
2. Add fractal noise
3. Add the Stylize->Mosaic effect. This uses the fractal noise to randomize color value, but keeps each square uniform.
4. Add a grid, invert it, and then set the blending mode to “Stencil Alpha”. This is the space between windows
5. Animate the evolution of the Fractal noise

You can then use this solid as a track matte for your orange window color:
-Add a black solid under your mosaic, and then precompose them together. That’s your matte.
-Use it as a Luma Matte for an orange solid.
-Precompose those together, and then drop your glow fx on that precomp.

Andrew Kramer does something very similar in this tutorial at 14:24 and 28:04 if a visual would help you:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/energetic_titles/

Let me know if that does it!

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net

[Brendon Murphy]

Todd’s exactly right. I usually start by exporting the highest res version of my full video from the editing app (whether that’s Premiere, FCP, AE, etc), and then compress for each use in Media Encoder or Compressor. Every distributor has station-specific format requirements.

Brendon Murphy
________________
Creative/Post
http://www.brendonmurphy.net