[Filip Vandueren]

If your layer-names and photoshop-layout are identical, try renaming the photoshop-files and re-opening the After effects project.

Perhaps you can ‘fool’ after effects. 😎

[Filip Vandueren]

from After Effects Shortcut Preferences:

“ToggleLayerControls” = “(Cmd+Shift+H)”

that’s prob. Ctrl instead of Cmd on Windows

[Filip Vandueren]

You can copy-paste all the layers from the pre-comp to the main comp.
Make the precomp layer invisible.

then parent the layers to your precomp-layer, so they inheret all the motion keyframes from it.

But if you’ve blurred the precomp or added another effect to the precomp

[Filip Vandueren]

There is no other way to restrict a filter.

The BorisFX filters and some other 3rd party plugins have stuff built in to restrict to a certain color, or a portion of the screen.
But that’s all stuff that always can be done with two layers in AE.

Sometimes it’s a drag, but it keeps thing very flexible.

[Filip Vandueren]

1. Create your text layer with all the lines in it
2. Add an animator: Animate: Opacity. set opacity to 0, your text will disappear
3. Twirl open “Range Selector” -> “Advanced” and set Units to “index” and Based On to “lines”
4. Close the Advanced Twirl
5. give the AnchorPoint this expression:

   leading = 50; // change this value to the leading of your textlayer
animOffset = text.animator(1).selector(1).offset;
[0,leading]*animOffset;

6. Now animate the Offset-parameter of the Animation Range from 0 – # of lines

The trick lies in animating with pauses and hold-keyframes, so it actually looks like someone is reading, then sending instead of just a stream.

[Filip Vandueren]

1. Create your text layer with all the lines in it
2. Add an animator: Animate: Opacity. set opacity to 0, your text will disappear
3. Twirl open “Range Selector” -> “Advanced” and set Units to “index” and Based On to “lines”
4. Close the Advanced Twirl
5. give the AnchorPoint this expression:

   leading = 50; // change this value to the leading of your textlayer
animOffset = text.animator(1).selector(1).offset;
[0,leading]*animOffset;

6. Now animate the Offset-parameter of the Animation Range from 0 – # of lines

The trick lies in animating with pauses and hold-keyframes, so it actually looks like someone is reading, then sending instead of just a stream.

[Filip Vandueren]

Hello Indy;

I’ve tried to come up with an expression, but I’m not sure it will help.
This expression assumes that all lines have the same leading, and that the anchorPoint is currently set to [0,0] (and text is centered of course).

Apply this expression to the anchorPoint of the text-layer:


leading=50; // this value cannot be retrieved using expressions! Set it manually
linefeedch = "r" // if it doesn't work try changing this to "n", works on mac maybe not on win

theText=thisLayer.text.sourceText.value

numlines=theText.split(linefeedch).length -1;

anchorPoint + (leading * [0, (numlines/2) -0.2]) // the 0.2 value depends on your Font & typesize


[0,0] is actually the baseline, so the -0.2 is used to center the anchorPoint for a 1-line text,
but you may need to change it depending on the design of your font and the ratio between leading and fontsize

hope that helps.

[Filip Vandueren]

Hello Indy;

I’ve tried to come up with an expression, but I’m not sure it will help.
This expression assumes that all lines have the same leading, and that the anchorPoint is currently set to [0,0] (and text is centered of course).

Apply this expression to the anchorPoint of the text-layer:


leading=50; // this value cannot be retrieved using expressions! Set it manually
linefeedch = "r" // if it doesn't work try changing this to "n", works on mac maybe not on win

theText=thisLayer.text.sourceText.value

numlines=theText.split(linefeedch).length -1;

anchorPoint + (leading * [0, (numlines/2) -0.2]) // the 0.2 value depends on your Font & typesize


[0,0] is actually the baseline, so the -0.2 is used to center the anchorPoint for a 1-line text,
but you may need to change it depending on the design of your font and the ratio between leading and fontsize

hope that helps.

[Filip Vandueren]

Don’t forget about proxies !

If you use the smaller file as a proxy after effects will scale it up, and you can work much faster on your pans but with less detail.
When it’s time to render, use Best Quality, or disable the proxy and they will be ignored giving you the high quality.

[Filip Vandueren]

Try to copy all of the pre-comped layers backinto your main comp,

if the precomp-layer scale, position etc. was animated, keep that layer but hide it,
and use it as a parent for all the other layers.
That way the animation should look the same.