[Dan Ebberts]

Yeah, it’s something like this: Orient a white solid to match the perspective of the desk, set its mode to Multiply, Accepts Shadows = On, Accepts Lights = off. I think. 🙂

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Yeah, it’s something like this: Orient a white solid to match the perspective of the desk, set its mode to Multiply, Accepts Shadows = On, Accepts Lights = off. I think. 🙂

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

As an example, this expression will increase a layer’s scale by 10% over the time between its In Point and Out Point:

linear(time,inPoint,outPoint,value,value+[10,10])

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

As an example, this expression will increase a layer’s scale by 10% over the time between its In Point and Out Point:

linear(time,inPoint,outPoint,value,value+[10,10])

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Let me take a crack at it with a simplified example.

Say you have a layer in a precomp and the precomp is in a main comp. In the precomp you have the layer scaled to 25%. In the main comp you have the precomp scaled to 400%. So, in the main comp your layer will appear to be at 100% scale, but it will look like crap because it has been scaled 400%. Unless… you turn on the continuously rasterize switch for the precomp.

With the switch on, when After Effects displays the layer in the main comp is says “Hmmm, scaled down by 25% then up by 400%. How about if we just leave it at 100%?” (That’s what it says – I swear I’ve heard it). So basically it does the minimum transformation necessary to arrive at the final result, which results in optimum sharpness.

The switch performs a different (but similar) function when used with Illustrator layers. Instead of rasterizing the vectors and then scaling (as usual), AE will first recalculate the scaled vectors, then rasterize, maintaining the layer’s sharpness.

Now go read the Meyers’ book. 🙂

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Play around with this one – I think it’s pretty close to what you’re after. Set “dur” to the duration of your animation and “L” to your layer with the markers you want to sync to. You may need to change the behavior somewhat. Right now it will speed up if markers are too close together for it to run at normal speed, but if the markers are far apart the animation will run at normal speed (it doesn’t slow down to fit the space, but that’s a pretty easy mod).

dur = 1; // duration of animation
L = thisComp.layer("control");

hit = marker.key(1).time;
prev = 0;
if (L.marker.numKeys > 0){
  prev = L.marker.nearestKey(time).index;
    if (L.marker.key(prev).time > time) prev--;
}
next = 0; // assume no markers in future
if (L.marker.numKeys > 0){
  next = L.marker.nearestKey(time).index;
    if (L.marker.key(next).time <= time){
      next++;
      if (next > L.marker.numKeys) next = 0;
    }
}
if (prev == 0 && next == 0){
  0;
}else if (prev == 0 || next == 0){
  time - L.marker.key(Math.max(prev,next)).time + hit;
}else{
  t0 = L.marker.key(prev).time;
  t1 = L.marker.key(next).time;
  mid = t0 + (t1 - t0)*(dur - hit)/dur;
  if (time > mid){
    linear(time,mid,t1,0,hit);
  }else{
    linear(time,t0,mid,hit,dur);
  }
}

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Play around with this one – I think it’s pretty close to what you’re after. Set “dur” to the duration of your animation and “L” to your layer with the markers you want to sync to. You may need to change the behavior somewhat. Right now it will speed up if markers are too close together for it to run at normal speed, but if the markers are far apart the animation will run at normal speed (it doesn’t slow down to fit the space, but that’s a pretty easy mod).

dur = 1; // duration of animation
L = thisComp.layer("control");

hit = marker.key(1).time;
prev = 0;
if (L.marker.numKeys > 0){
  prev = L.marker.nearestKey(time).index;
    if (L.marker.key(prev).time > time) prev--;
}
next = 0; // assume no markers in future
if (L.marker.numKeys > 0){
  next = L.marker.nearestKey(time).index;
    if (L.marker.key(next).time <= time){
      next++;
      if (next > L.marker.numKeys) next = 0;
    }
}
if (prev == 0 && next == 0){
  0;
}else if (prev == 0 || next == 0){
  time - L.marker.key(Math.max(prev,next)).time + hit;
}else{
  t0 = L.marker.key(prev).time;
  t1 = L.marker.key(next).time;
  mid = t0 + (t1 - t0)*(dur - hit)/dur;
  if (time > mid){
    linear(time,mid,t1,0,hit);
  }else{
    linear(time,t0,mid,hit,dur);
  }
}

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

6.0? Bummer. I think the text presets arrived with 6.5. Maybe somebody can deconstruct it for you.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

It would go in the Opacity property of the layer you want to control. You’d just Alt-click the stopwatch and paste it in.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Say you have a null in “comp B” with a slider you want to use to control the opacity of a layer in “comp A”. You ccomp(“comp B”).layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”)

Dan