[Eric Chard]

If it’s an animation, it’s an animation, not a frame.

Turn on TIME REMAPPING. This will allow you to hold on the last frame of your layer.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Another way:

Assuming your flowers are all on one layer, select the layer and hit DUPLICATE as many times as your # of flowers. Then distribute the layers in time, and use a simple rectangular mask on each layer.

Alternatively, you could draw the masks BEFORE duplication, and turn/delete the masks from the duplicated layers.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Use HOLD KEYFRAMES on your Mask Shape.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Kevin, thanks for the time you’ve spent on this– it’s really just an exercise I set for myself, so nothing’s at stake except education.

If I had to do this (for pay), I’d probably go for expressions. I would have expected linking the Anchor Point of the layer to the 2nd child would work, but off hand I’m not sure what screen coords the anchor point coords correspond to.

I attach an AE7 version so you can see what I’m goofing around with.

‘Parent in Place’ in LW also complicates things, compared to the old simple minded way of doing things. It’s nice that in LW you can revert to the old methods if it simplifies the setup. That’d be a swell feature for AE also: ‘Absolute Parenting’, i.e., without spatial compensation. (Scarcely worth implementing though.)

Thanks again for looking into this!

6229_anchorpointae7.zip

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Kevin, thanks so much, but TMK that doesn’t work. (see attached, green square.)

I think an expression would have to reference the Anchor Point of the layer in question. The Position channel has been automagically offset by Pan Behind to give the illusion of the parent (gray) not moving…. although it would seem that.. that …. I got nuthin’.

6216_anchorpointexerciseexpression.zip

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Like this: the blue child square should follow the Anchor Point around the gray square, but it does not. (I’m sure it’s doing what it’s mathematically SUPPOSED to do, but not what I’d like it to do.)

6215_anchorpointexercise.zip

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

R U trying just to draw a static outline, or have the outline animate around the figure?

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

screen-grab your render queue with render settings twirled down so we can see how many frames AE’s been told to render.

My guess is you have WORK AREA ONLY turned on (I hate that thing) and your work area set to a very small length.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

I was trying to follow this, but got lost in the weeds:

Is the problem the OP wasn’t using the 3D camera in the MAIN comp?

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Eric Chard]

Tip sharing is Good.

I just worked with a bunch of great AE operators and everybody was very generous with supplying knowledge. Pass it forward.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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