[Gerald Hapeman]

The tutorial said incidentally to use Random – Still image and in the tut they don’t pop in and out but hold for as long as the project runs… Go figure?

[Gerald Hapeman]

Thanks John… Yes, exactly. I actually went thru each of them, even thinking the freeze frame would be the better shot, but they still pop in and out right in the middle of the screen.

[Gerald Hapeman]

Thanks Dave… Yes… I viewed frame by frame and they just randomly appear. To simplify… I’ve taken sets of leaves, set them up on separate layers – each two seconds in length – set that comp as my images which is set to random – still images under textures. They should just flow down but every now and then one pops into birth, foreground and background randomly as they are falling. Can’t get it to adjust at all…

Thinking either my leaf layers are either too long or too short, but I watched a tutorial on setting that time remap and each image is set to only one frame, so I thought two seconds would be even better?

[Gerald Hapeman]

Thank you friend… Always very helpful… I shall!

[Gerald Hapeman]

Hey Andrew… Yea, there is a way. I answered it this way in this same post. Just a bit of self discovery from trial and error: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/1040044

As well… you can later, crop the image size later if anything is too large by clicking on the region of interest box and then go to Crop Comp to Region of Interest if need be, but I did that so it just wasn’t so large, but be careful you again don’t cut off your animation. But my above link seemed to do the trick…

[Gerald Hapeman]

Thank you, Stephen… very much! Appreciate the very thorough walk-thru…! Well… I did discover one stupid headache with your notes – I still had Motion Blur on… helped a little to turn that off. I also did as you suggested and only solo’d the layers I need for right now to get past this walk cycle part of the animation – and incredibly, even at Full Resolution, I was able to move things as they should with no wait time. THANKS! I do believe that my character (for this walk cycle) was quite large, as I was really going for some close up detail as well, and panning away – which I know now the size isn’t really all that necessary. Still don’t understand why in the original walk cycle project when I tried to make those layers a comp – the expressions fell apart, but when I simply just opened that project to add to an existing project – it automatically of course put it nice and neatly into a comp. Again, go figure. Either way… I got thru it! Now… the utter madness of the render. Guess it’s a good time to go on vacation! 85 hours, Stephen!? Wow! Maybe the same for me… Who knows… Maybe the render Gods have something quite else in store… Thanks again Stephen… and everyone else.

[Gerald Hapeman]

Very appreciative everyone. So, what I resolved from your replies is that I have this ‘puppet’ walk cycle created in a project of it’s own, as it was largely experimental, but in the end, I really liked the way it turned out. So, I opened up my other main project I’ve been working on and then just File – Import my walk cycle project into my that main project. It does open of course with all the layers, but as well, creates it’s own comp, which by my main question, wouldn’t allow me without creating those expression problems in the original walk cycle composition. Go figure. So after all that, there’s my precomp of the walk cycle neatly placed into my other project… all original layers shyed and color coded and intact. BUT… since this ‘puppet’ walk cycle is one heady work of puppetry (many layers moving), I can barely move it in my new project without AE flipping out (not responding – flickering screen) and or just drags it’s snail heels before I can move it barely one frame. I believe I have more than enough power:

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor, 2700 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 6 Logical Processor(s)
16GB
Available Physical Memory 9.74 GB
Total Virtual Memory 32.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 25.2 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460

Is it just a fact of life with AE with a very heavy load of animation?

Many many thanks for the helpful responses!

[Gerald Hapeman]

Yes… Tedious… but workable. Whew! Many thanks!

[Gerald Hapeman]

Thank you bud… I did figure it out and much appreciate your timely reply…!

[Gerald Hapeman]

Sorry to chime in, but yep, same problem. Precomping doesn’t work either. I’ve done everything by the book, word for word and still the problem. I know Dan Geis has his latest tutorials up for rigging with Duik on his Rocket Randee so maybe he provides some info there…?