[Darby Edelen]

I can’t decipher the expression you included, but based on your description it sounds to me like you just need:

loopIn("cycle", 2);

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

In my opinion higher bit depth is always preferred. However, it does come with a performance penalty in terms of render speed and memory usage. To that end here are some guidelines for when you’d benefit most from higher bit depth.

High bit depth becomes especially important when your project will include subtle gradations of color. An ideal gradient is a smooth continuous change in color value, but in the digital world there are 256 discrete values in an 8 bit color channel. This results in discrete steps in the gradient (“banding”). 16bpc has 65,536 steps available in each color channel. There are still steps, but they’re so close together that we perceive them as being more continuous.

Another scenario where higher bit depth is important is when adjusting color dramatically. Every operation that modifies color will result in a value that needs to fit into one of the buckets o’ bits. When working in 8bpc you only have 256 buckets for each color channel, which results in color transformations being rounded less accurately than they would in 16bpc or 32bpc. This problem gets compounded with each additional color transform.

The last scenario where I’d say 16/32bpc is actually required is when linearizing your working color profile. Human vision is more sensitive to darker colors so in the interest of pushing more of the 8 bits available into that darker range we use gamma encoded images. When the gamma is linearized in 8bpc it results in dramatic banding in the low end of color values. If you ever linearize your working profile you must use at least 16bpc.

Lastly, some codecs support higher bit depth outputs, but even if you’re outputting to an 8 bit image you’ll benefit from working at a higher bit depth. Gradients will be calculated internally at the higher bit depth and then dithered to fit into 8bpc, resulting in a more perceptually continuous gradient.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Assuming that the layers are parented to the center rotator I think you could use something like this expression on the scale:

center = parent.toWorld(parent.anchorPoint);
p = toWorld(anchorPoint);
v = p - center;
linear(normalize(v)[1], -1, 1, value, 0.85 * value)

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Not sure if i understand the usage but you might try the silhouette alpha blend mode.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

I haven’t looked at your file but this sounds like you’d benefit from using layer space transforms, perhaps the toWorld() or toComp() methods.

No math required! 🙂

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

That’s not the proper form for toWorld(). Here it is fixed:

l = thisComp.layer("SuckSpot");
GetX = l.toWorld(l.anchorPoint);

This stores the layer object in a variable called “l”. The toWorld() is a method of the layer object so l.toWorld() calls the toWorld() function of the layer l.

For toWorld() to work correctly you need to provide a coordinate in the layer’s coordinate system. The anchorPoint is usually a good option, l.anchorPoint returns the l layer’s anchorPoint

So essentially the call “l.toWorld(l.anchorPoint)” is saying “Give me the position in world space of the anchor point of the layer l”.

If your layer doesn’t have an anchorPoint then you can provide an arbitrary coordinate, so for a light or camera:

l.toWorld([0,0,0]);

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

You might try switching the layer to bicubic sampling as detailed here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/layers.html#layer_image_quality_and_subpixel_positioning

Alternatively, you can apply effects to the layer to smooth (Fast Blur) or sharpen (Unsharp Mask) the image. Generally effects are rendered before layer transformations like Scaling are rendered, so if the image is being scammed to 50% then a1 pixel radius blur will end up being a 0.5 pixel blur after the scaling.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Have you looked into using the speed graph at all?

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Justin Mettam] “Is there a way to make a normal map (in AE) out of a photo or a grey shaded graphic? I”

You can kind of get close by using Emboss, Shift Channels and the Add blend mode. Unfortunately AE lacks the tools to perform normalization on the resulting color values. Perhaps there’s a 3rd party solution.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Glenn Tak] “One of the more annoying features of Linear Space is that my color libraries don’t really work. If I use the color picker from a library swatch I created in Adobe Color, I get a much more washed out version.”

Apply just one Color Profile Converter and set the Input Profile to sRGB (or the native color space the color was initially defined in).

Darby Edelen