[Dan Fredley]

I’ve never tried to manually copy and paste the presets–looks like they’re in binary. But in your preferences file ( User/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/Adobe After Effects 10.5-x64 Prefs ) there is a section called:

[“Composition Presets Section v8”]

I’d make a backup copy of your preferences file before manually editing it, but it might be worth a try.

[Dan Fredley]

And yet another way, which might be a little more like Motion:

Make sure no layers are selected and double-click the rectangle tool–a composition-sized Shape Layer will be created. Then animate the fill color.

[Dan Fredley]

The trick is to separate the wiggle dimensions.

Assuming that your 3D null’s original position is at the center of the comp and the light’s z depth stays at 0 you can use this:
x = wiggle(.2, thisComp.width/2)[0];
y = wiggle(.2, thisComp.height/2)[1];
z = 0;
[x,y,z]
Once you start going back and forth in Z-space it’s a lot harder to limit the movement to comp space. Maybe somebody else has an expression for that.

You can play around with Z wiggle values to see if it gives you what you want:
x = wiggle(.2, thisComp.width/2)[0];
y = wiggle(.2, thisComp.height/2)[1];
z = wiggle(.2, 450)[2];
[x,y,z]

[Dan Fredley]

Is motion blur enabled for the layer? It might be turned off for preview but shows up during render if set to “Best”.

[Dan Fredley]

It seems that there are much easier ways of going about this depending on what you are trying to accomplish. But here is one way you could feasibly do it with expressions.

Assuming you have a data file with the image names on each line and assuming your text layer reading the data file is the first layer of each comp, you would have to put every single image into each composition with this Opacity expression:

(thisComp.layer(1).text.sourceText == thisLayer.name) ? 100 : 0

This expression sets opacity to 100 if the name matches or sets it to 0 if it doesn’t. This is only helpful if you’re trying to match a lot of images with specific text in separate compositions. Otherwise it’d probably be better to just import the images into separate compositions using built-in tools and scripts.

If you import the images using “New Composition from Selection” then choose multiple compositions, you could use the names of the images as your comp names in your data file to match the text.

Dan Fredley

[Dan Fredley]

I believe this script does what you need:

https://f1.creativecow.net/4241/framesplitter-script

// This After Effects script splits a layer into individual frames within the work area of the composition

Dan Fredley

[Dan Fredley]

There are a few smoke presets and a “sky type” preset that come with Particular–something to start with at least.

Also, check out this:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_trails/

Dan Fredley

[Dan Fredley]

I know this thread is old, but for any future time-remap keyboard shortcut seekers:

https://f1.creativecow.net/4231/timeremapper-script

Dan Fredley

[Dan Fredley]

I’ve seen this issue before without many options to fix it. You can bring it into CS5 and export an image sequence. Then you can “replace footage” in CS6. H.264 is a complex format. It is always better to convert to other more “work-friendly” formats for post-production. MPEG Streamclip is a good converter.

Dan Fredley

[Dan Fredley]

• The logo needs to be below the square shape layer in the timeline window.
• Make sure both layers are visible at this point.
• In the comp window make sure the top of the square shape layer is at the top of the logo.
• Animate the logo so that it comes above the square shape.
• Make sure the square shape layer is set to 100% opacity.
• Then on the logo layer in the timeline set the track matte to “alpha inverted matte.”
• The square shape layer’s visibility switch should be turned off automatically when you set the track matte
• Then as you scrub through your timeline the logo should appear as it rises above the shape layer.

Dan Fredley