[Darby Edelen]

[Anti_M] “thisComp.layer(index-1).rotationY.value_at_time(time-thisComp.layer(“Dragon conrol”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”))”

I’m pretty sure that this line should read:

thisComp.layer(index-1).transform.yRotation.value_at_time(time-thisComp.layer("Dragon conrol").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"))

Unless you’re using a much older version of AE in which the syntax is different… Then I can’t be sure =)

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

You have to enable frame blending for the layer. There are 2 options: frame-mix and pixel motion. The first is probably better for fast changes as the second tries to work by using vectors and interpolating positions of pixels over the missing frames (it can result in trippy liquified acid trip effects on fast footage), timewarp does a better job with pixel motion.

Then you also need to enable frame blending for the comp, just like motion blur it won’t appear in your comp unless you say you want to see it (motion blur and frame blending can slow down rendering quite a bit). It’s between the motion blur and shy buttons at the top of your timeline for future reference.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

[Steve Roberts] “You can’t draw a 3D path in AE.”

You can’t edit masks in 3D but you can edit motion paths in 3D. Use 4 Views of your comp (Camera, Top, Left/Right and Front) and you can use the pen tool to drag out bezier curves from any keyframe. It will show you the curve your camera will follow. Make sure that you check the path in all 4 viewing windows as sometimes the bezier handles will snap to one dimension only. This can cause bezier interpolation, for example, in the Z-axis but not the X and Y axes.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

[QueJet] “Let me be clear: When i say alpha. I don’t mean go into the channels tab and hit new channel. That channel isn’t ACTUALLY ALPHA!”

But that is where Alpha channels will appear when Photoshop reads them. If Photoshop isn’t able to read the Alpha out of a PNG-24 as anything but transparency then that doesn’t change the fact that you shouldn’t be using a PNG-24 if you want control over Alpha in Photoshop.

I appreciate your desire to be perfectly clear, but you shouldn’t be so stubborn as to ignore the fact that the semantics you’re presenting here haven’t changed the fact that Targas, TIFFs, PICTs, and PSDs will preserve the Alpha Channel when saved with the ‘Alpha Channels’ checkbox marked.

I can understand using a PNG-24 if you’re working for the web, otherwise I can’t understand why you want to use it.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

Those look like they’re just two layers animated to come together with a slight bounce. You’d probably go ahead and create the ripped look on those layers in Photoshop, import them into AE and animate them towards each other.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

[QueJet] “Now what if i import this layer into photoshop. Now i have the image, alpha channel and all in the layer, but what if i want to raise that alpha channel, or make the alpha channel for that layer to be 255 or 0? As it stands the only way I know of modifying this channel in this sense is to duplicate the layer on top of itself, if thats not enough i’ll duplicate several times, merge down, then duplicate several more times.”

You can edit the Alpha Channel just like any other grayscale layer in Photoshop in the “Channels” tab I mentioned earlier. You can apply Levels adjustments, blurs, spatter, noise, or anything else you can do in grayscale. Just select the alpha channel, make it visible and do what you want to do =)

I think the problem is your use of PNG. I can’t seem to find anyway to save a PNG out of Photoshop with RGB + Alpha. PNG-24 can be saved from the Save for Web option, but I still can’t seem to get it to preserve an alpha channel. It looks to me as though PNG-24 doesn’t save an alpha channel but does save transparency. Note: If you are seeing transparency in the RGB channels of Photoshop then you are actually not dealing with an Alpha Channel. Photoshop does not translate alpha channels directly into transparency information as After Effects does.

You can use a number of common formats that support an alpha channel, including: TIFF, PICT, TGA, BMP and PSD. I wouldn’t recommend using PNG. You can save losslessly with any of the aforementioned formats (most of them even have lossless compression).

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

Well now, that’s a much easier way to approach it =) I’d recommend rotating the sphere instead of moving the camera as Dave suggests.

[Darby Edelen]

I think it would be difficult to write an expression that would handle this for you. You won’t want to animate the point of interest, you want the camera to always be looking at the center of the sphere. The only thing you need to animate is the position property so that the camera moves.

You might be able to devise an expression based on Dan Ebberts’s excellent tutorial here:

https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/random-sphere.html

That would allow you to specify a distance (radius) for your camera to maintain from its point of interest and animate sliders for the theta and phi values to have your camera move in a perfectly spherical fashion as well. However, this will still require numerous keyframes to get your camera to look at each of 130 images. You might try posting in the AE Expressions forum for more help, Dan Ebberts cruises through there and he often comes up with brilliant solutions to things I dismiss as ‘too hard’ =)

[Darby Edelen]

I’ve only heard of these certifications in passing. I’m interested in them as well, but not sure if its something that will really benefit me. How much of the software is covered in the certification? Do they explore every feature? What percentage of these features do they expect you to be intimately familiar with in order to ‘pass’? Are there different levels of certification? Could I possibly ask any more questions? =)

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Darby Edelen]

It sounds like some of the points on the motion path might have linear spatial interpolation, try using the pen tool in convert mode (hold down opt/alt) and click & drag on those points. See if anything changes.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA