[Chris Voelz]

The “continuously rasterize” switch behaves differently when applied to a composition it also serves as the “collapse transformation” switch. It basically changes how AE processes your layers when engaged.

[Chris Voelz]

Depending on how complex the comp is you could try to add a null object, pick whip everything to the null, and then scale the null down. If you do this make sure to pick whip everything with your scrubber at the end of your timeline.

If your computer is struggling with the 4k comp this wont really free up an resources. Like Eric said it may best at this point to just work in the 4k space.

[Chris Voelz]

You could use the linear expression. Or assign the values a rank 1-5 and then always use a bar height for those ranks.

[Chris Voelz]

It could be a lot of things, but without seeing how you have your project set up, settings, etc. it is going to be hard to help. You can check your material settings on the background layer and make sure accept lights and more importantly accept shadows is turned on. Make sure your light has cast shadows enabled.

[Chris Voelz]

I never send my comps to Media Encoder, I’ve experience numerous errors when trying to do so. I wish Adobe never allowed this as an option. Best practice in my opinion and many others is to always do your encode through Render Queue and make any finals in Media Encoder. Your specific issue is probably because Media Encoder doesn’t know what to do or how to render the Element plugin.

[Chris Voelz]

You can simple pick whip the position value of the null as the position value for where to sample. Or set that as a variable and use the variable. Using Dans example.

target = thisComp.layer("background");null = thisComp.layer(“yournulllayer”).transform.position;
target.sampleImage(null, [width, height]/2, true, time)

[Chris Voelz]

You have to convert the shape to a Bezier Path in order to control individual points. Right click on the Shape Path under Contents and an option will be there to convert it. Alternatively use the pen tool to draw a shape.

View -> Snap to Guides

Reference the Info panel when positioning guides as it will give you the coordinates. You can zoom in to get more granular with the position read out.

[Chris Voelz]

You could us the sampleimage expression for this.

[Chris Voelz]

If you are using AE 2021 (18.**) have you tried using AE 2020(17.**)? Does the footage use effects or plugins not installed on the machine? Those are the only other things I can think of that could cause crashing. I have not utilized the newest AE because when I tried it kept crashing on me.

[Chris Voelz]

What’s the pixel dimension of the photoshop file? If it is really large it could be crashing AE.

Are all the files local? I’ve experienced issues when trying to work off a server.