[Brendon Murphy]

I’m a proponent of putting your log source into a linear space using OCIO in-comp (not color management). Then all of your sRGB elements can be converted or graded to something closer to linear, which is less of a stretch than trying to make them look log. Round trip everything back to log at the end with an adjustment layer at the top of comp. Of course, you can always check things under your LUT before rendering.

[Brendon Murphy]

Put all three masks on the same layer. Car mask on top, set to “add”. The window masks below, set to “subtract” (do not check the invert boxes).

[Brendon Murphy]

Are your render settings above the output module set to “Best Quality”? It’s possible your preset defaults to something else.

[Brendon Murphy]

Happy to help!

As far as the color management conversation – it’s good to understand it, but for most cases in AE, especially when working with graphics for display on the web, I recommend working in an unmanaged color space. This passes through the actual RGB values of your assets without otherwise manipulating the appearance. You can then make any necessary color transforms on layers within the comp.

For instance, if you have a piece of log footage and a piece of linear footage, use OCIO to convert one asset WITHIN your composition, not under the hood, to get both assets into the same working color space. Similarly, you can always output a different color space at the end by applying a color transform to the final comp (precomp it, or add an adjustment layer to the top).

I’ll note that these kinds of management acrobatics will almost never comp up when you’re working with RGB graphics (like something created in photoshop), and outputting to the web. Both your source and your output are sRGB… the working color space of computer monitors.

[Brendon Murphy]

I would guess it’s not a color management issue, but rather an effect or adjustment layer within the psd file that gets interpreted different when pulled into AE. Take a look through the psd layers – if there’s an effect or layer style somewhere, do a save-as and then rasterize/bake the effect into the layer. See if that does it!

[Brendon Murphy]

Interesting – I do not have the script editor issue on PC. You could try saving the script as a plain text file and then manually changing the extension to jsx. Otherwise, I could send you a download link when I’m back near a computer.

[Brendon Murphy]

David,

I’m not sure how you are attempting to compile it, but in AE you can go to File>Scripts>Open Script Editor. Paste the code into the editor and then save it as a jsx in your scripts folder (not Scripts UI). Restart After Effects.

To run the script:

-Move the playhead to the frame you want, and then select the layer you want to freeze

-Go to File>Scripts>Freeze Layer.jsx

That should do it!

[Brendon Murphy]

Perhaps it’s a hidden file? You could try enabling hidden files like this: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-access-your-macs-hidden-files

[Brendon Murphy]

There’s actually a Sample Image Expression utility in newer versions of AE that simplifies that process quite a bit – you can find it in under Effects & Presets.

You could in theory put a bunch of the utilities on your gradient layer (precompose it first if your gradient is created using effects), and then tie each utility to one of the flower’s positions. Then tie that flower’s CC Bend It to the sampled value. This works even when the flowers are 3D, though bear in mind it will only use X and Y values to determine the sampled position within the gradient layer.

Would a wiggle expression on the rotation of the flowers serve your purposes just as well? Or maybe a wave warp effect?

Brendon

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[Brendon Murphy]

David, if it helps, here’s a script you can run to quickly duplicate the selected layer and freeze it at the current frame. It also puts a checkbox on the frozen layer that allows you to quickly toggle it on/off (if you prefer that over the layer switch).

app.beginUndoGroup("Freeze Layer");
var activeComp = app.project.activeItem;
var activeLayers = activeComp.selectedLayers;
var currLayer = activeLayers[0];
//duplicate and freeze layer at the current time
var frozenLayer = currLayer.duplicate()
frozenLayer.timeRemapEnabled = true;
var timeRemapProp = frozenLayer.property("ADBE Time Remapping");
var currTime = frozenLayer.time
var firstTime = frozenLayer.inPoint;
var lastTime = frozenLayer.outPoint;
timeRemapProp.setValueAtTime(firstTime, currTime);
timeRemapProp.setValueAtTime(lastTime, currTime);
//add toggle switch for freezing or unfreezing
var freezeSwitch = frozenLayer.Effects.addProperty("Checkbox Control");
freezeSwitch.name = "Enable Freeze"
freezeSwitch("Checkbox").setValue(true);
frozenLayer.transform.opacity.expression = 'if(effect("Enable Freeze")("Checkbox")==1){100;}\relse\r{0;};';
app.endUndoGroup();

Brendon

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