[Christian Kim]

just to add few more notes.

finding all this very interesting. comping with opacity is one of the most basic things to do in PSD or AE.

however..

if you have one layer with opacity 70%.
another layer with opacity 30%.

resulting layer is actually not solid. infact its a transparent layer.
this is the behaviour both in AE and PSD.

and for some odd reason, its making sense. as in i can understand why it does that on tip of my thoughts, just can’t really explain mathmetically for me to understand.

basically it would be great! if any GURU can explain in mathmetical or any other terms why the transparency is compted like that.

At the end of the day, what i am trying to do is to add a layer with 70% opacity and 30% opacity to a 100% opacity image. is that possible?

thanks again for your time : )

[Christian Kim]

HI Frank.

also the beauty of using [comps] is that they can be “instanced” to other comps.

as in, if you were to insert [compB-with music] into [compA-effects], you do not need to “jump” between comps.

beauty of it is, say if you had to make some changes to music as well to get the timing perfect, you could adjust [compB-with music] to your liking within [compA-effects]. then it will update on your [final comp] as well since you are literally editing the same thing.

and once you are done, you could just delete [compB-with music] in [compA-effects].

anyway, point i am trying to make is that once “comped” they behave like instaces.

[Christian Kim]

Thanks matthew!

you are right, i actually figured it out last night after posting here.
was going to remove the post but since i am a new memeber, it took a while for this post to come alive, and it sliped my mind.

you are right about the mid grey being “0” transform.

i am coming from 3d animation packages, and usually white is “0”, got me confused.

anyway! hope this post helps other users who might have same question.

thanks again Matthew!

[Christian Kim]

thank you David, Michael for your input.

its good to hear from other experts that its not possible as of yet, then i can focus on coming up with workaround or requesting : )

i totally understand that it is difference between node based vs layer based.

regarding keyframes, you guys are right, as keyframes directly control the parameters… hmm i guess i will have to think this through.

well anyway, for a quick fix + workaround, i was hoping [presets] could bridge the gap.

like forexample, i apply a curve effect, change parameters, save to preset. then on other curve effects, i apply the [preset], then the second curve effect remembers what preset its “linked” to, then when the preset is modified, it updates it self to the preset.

however, currecntly presets are one off thing which just overrides the parameters, but do not retain the relationship.

maybye really easy way around this is to implement some kind of [sticky preset], where when preset is modified, the effects update them selves. easy fix really (for simplicity, keyframe has to be instanced as well)

anyway, thank you all for your input, as i said, just learning that AE does not have built in instancing alone was very beneficial!

[Christian Kim]

Thanks Walter, David.

I have thought of both methods, pickwhipping and adjustment layers.

however, i found there are times when i really wish i could just copy an effect to other layers while maintaining its instanced relationship. so i could modify one effect and others will be modified as well.

like in 3ds max (for anyone who uses it), you can copy modifiers from one object to others as either a copy or an instance. when instanced, modification made to one instance gets applied to all others.

which gives users ability to mix and match for example.

but it seems there is no “built in” way of doing so in AE.

again thanks for your replies : )