[Greg Sage]

Yeah, thx.

I can see from some old threads I dug up that it’s a difficult question to clarify.

I’d love to learn that I am wrong, but from what I can tell, all the AE functions center things by the center of the image, not the anchor point.

I’ve tried half a dozen experiments, and regardless of where I set the anchor point, if I align layers either to each other, or to comp, the thing that is being aligned is the overall dimensions of the layer, and centering always refers to the center of the layer, and not the anchor point. I can move the anchor point clear to the other end of the pic, and it will have no impact on the alignment. Maybe I’m missing or misunderstanding something, but that’s what happened when I tried.

I do think I’ve got it sorted, though. The key is to always use the center position for the comp as the position for all layers. I then zoom in until the opposite sides of whatever I want to center just hit the edges of the comp, and adjust the anchor point only until it’s an exact match. This sets the anchor point, and perfectly centers the image on that anchor point since the position is already set to the center position for the comp.

Anyway, it’s not exactly automated, but it does work. Unfortunately, if I try parenting one to another, it causes some issues as the different sizes of the various pics cause the position to change from the default center. That’s a whole other issue, though, and I’ve found a workaround by creating an expression that parents the scale only while leaving the position unchanged at the exact comp center for every layer.

[Greg Sage]

Yeah, thx guys. That’s basically what I ended up working out. I skipped the /100 part only because I ran the null from 1 on up rather than 100.

I’ve noticed some issues that appear to be rounding errors once the scaling gets above 17 zero’s which is where the scientific notation kicks in… so I thought I’d see if I could buy myself a couple extra digits by starting with 1.

The issue with just parenting by daisy chaining is that once those numbers get above the threshold, I get all kinds of seemingly random movement. I assume it’s rounding errors.

So… I played around with the pickwhip until I came up with:

FollowX = transform.scale[0]*thisComp.layer(“Null”).transform.scale[0];
FollowY = transform.scale[1]*thisComp.layer(“Null”).transform.scale[1];
[FollowX, FollowY]

As for the “placeholder”, I wasn’t sure if I could use a stored value for the x and y coordinate at the same time as generating a new value for them, so I thought I’d have to create a null or something to store the starting value since the parented value would take over. I thought there might be a loop where I’m trying to read something, over-write it, and store it simultaneously.

Apparently, you can do both, and the transform.scale[0] refers to that starting point as opposed to the adjusted value. The output doesn’t replace it, but rather takes over the value since the expression is enabled while still retaining the starting point in the disabled spot (it reverts to the starting point if I disable the expression).

Anyway, it’s my first time attempting to both read AND overwrite a value simultaneously in the same field, so I just wasn’t sure if it could be done.

I’ve got a couple dozen scales tied together with this expression now, and it seems to be working. Digging in a bit further to see if I can resolve the other issues.

[Greg Sage]

The align only seems to go by the center of each layer… not where I place the anchor point. I need to have it treat the anchor as the new center even though it may not be near the center of the layer.

Even with comp selected in align panel, it alligns each layer with center of comp… but does so for each layer according to it’s center, not anchor point.

I’ve found a few round-about approaches to this, but nothing that works so far. Should be simple enough.

[Greg Sage]

Well, after running a half dozen different experiments, best I’ve found so far is to use some kind of “frame averaging”

When I get this worked out, I’ll end up using some version of this on a lot of other projects since I constantly need to try and smooth things out.

Any other suggestions? Neat video seems like it’s not ideal because it wants you to zero in on one particular type of area to define noise while the nature of this project is that it’s constantly shifting.

It’s really like a “reduce chatter” sort of thing that I need.

Also, anyone using something like this in conjunction with keying software to smooth out their keys?

Also interested to hear if anyone is using something like twixtor to smooth out frames without shifting the frame rate. I only ask because it seems to be very good at what it does which is a related task.

[Greg Sage]

Tried a bunch more things. I converted one of the stills to a png, and it loaded in PS with straight alpha no problems.

I’ve got thousands of frames already rendered in Tiff though… Would be VERY preferable to figure out how to get Tiff interpreted properly.

[Greg Sage]

Yeah, I’m already processing video in PS. Just wasn’t sure if there was a way to somehow port the plugs over, link the programs, or otherwise avoid having to render, import to photoshop, render again, import back into AE.

[Greg Sage]

Yeah. Very strange… but discovering that doesn’t seem to have helped. I don’t see how to do it in media encoder since I don’t see the output options I need. Seems geared more toward delivery media (mp3,etc)

QT pro appears to have the tools, though, so I transcoded to mono 48k.

No dice. Trying to render a 1 minute section at quarter resolution which can spit out a couple frames a second without the audio results in 10+ minutes of “locking existing frames” after which I lost patience.

In the meantime, I did manage to trash the prefs file. No help there either. I’ve tried buffer settings between 512 and 2048, and it doesn’t appear to make any difference.

Prefs reset also undid the “render multiple frames simultaneously” options in the processing window… again, no help.

I also went into the prefs for my soundcard (duet), and set it independently for 48k. No help.

If I take the same 4:16 48k mono AIFF file and place it in a blank AE project, then hit ram preview, it says “Locking existing frames” for approx 1 sec, then plays, scrubs, etc… just fine.

If I remove the audio file from the timeline, there are no other elements that contain audio. If I hit ram preview at that point, the same 1 minute section says “locking existing frame” for approx 1 sec, then starts processing frames at around 2/sec.

I then tried converting a little 4 second clip using QT pro to 48k mono just like the offending file, and… after 5 minutes stuck on “locking existing frames”, I gave up.

So… I tried taking the original offending audio file, and dropping it into a much smaller, simpler AE file… and it rendered a ram preview with no issues.

So… I tried taking the same clip, and putting it into another more complex layered and heavily effected AE project… and it hangs.

Tried opening another complex project that did work previously containing audio… and it hangs works, but only after a ridiculously long period of several minutes before it even starts rendering frames for a 30 sec segment.

I can’t think of anything offhand that has changed about the system config. Maybe a botched install of QT that was then redone. Some kind of error message regarding Encore… but nothing about AE, Bridge, ME, etc.

Really scratching my head here.

It’s clearly getting hung up on something having to do with processing the audio, and it’s a problem with larger files, but I’ve never had this level of issues before… although audio has always seemed to be the thing AE was least adept at handling. There must be some sort of system setting, pref, or something that’s making it choke on the audio.

Found this in another thread having similar issue of audio crippling ram preview:

“Wow! Found the solution, and nice little bug in AE. Thanks for the suggestion of testing out audio in other timelines – the audio worked – so it had to be the sequence. I went through all 456 shots and turned off the source audio, and now it doesn’t lock frames – or only does for a fraction of a second. Looks like everytime you want to preview RAM AE wants to check EVERY audio clip in your sequence (even if you’re not previewing it!)”

I don’t thing there’s any audio anywhere else, though. It’s all keyframe animation of images… maybe there’s a rendered .mov somewhere not being used. Going back and double-checking.

edit: Just tried audio audition only (.) and it’s an endless spinning wheel.

Then tried decreasing default audio preview length from 30sec to 5sec. No change.

Then, tried suggestions found elsewhere like disabling disk cache and shutting down everything else, disabling multi-threading, and increasing ram set to AE. None of this did any good. Reset now.

[Greg Sage]

Memory settings changed.

Looking into some of the above. In the meantime, something very odd just happened. I tried rendering just a short bit, and it took a ridiculously long time to do ram preview, but it finally managed.

Audio was sped up, though… by roughly the amount if you recorded at 44.1 and played back at 48

Thoughts: I did accidentally record the audio at 44.1 into logic, but I set the output to 48k. I then looked at the file in finder, and it’s labeled as being 48k, and plays fine in QT.

AE project is set to 48k… yet somehow it sure sounds like 44.1 audio being sped up to match 48k.

Can I output 44.1 in logic and do the sample rate conversion in Media Encoder?

[Greg Sage]

AE cs6 v 11.0.0.378
Early 2008 Octomac 2.8Ghz
24Gb ram
OSX 10.8.2
All project data on one internal 7200rpm SATA drive
100GB disk cache on another internal 7200 rpm SATA drive
QuickTime™ Version 7.7.1

Thx… good items to check. Let’s see:

Tried changing device from Duet (my audio interface) to internal… no change. Current buffer is set at 512. I’ve only ever used AE on this system, and it has always appeared to have a MUCH harder time dealing with projects once they contain audio. Never made sense to me since data rate is so much lower than video. Should my buffer be set higher or lower?

Tried switching in a different audio track… no change.

Tried a few times doing the three finger salute on opening, but I must’ve gotten something mixed up between using windows keyboard on mac system… since I don’t see any notice or anything different in prefs once open. Will try again.

Project is set at 48k. Using stereo AIFF file at 48k, 16 bit that plays fine in Quicktime and previews ok, although sluggish as always when dropped into blank AE project. In current project, it hangs on spinning wheel trying to lock existing frames even when I turn the eye icon off for every single visual item. Buffer issue?

Only message I’ve noticed upon hitting ram preview is the “locking existing frames”… and then it just keeps going and going.

It is a very complex project with all the layers, but it’s not that long, and I’ve got the ram to cover it… and it renders ok without the audio, so the audio appears to be bottlenecking the preview process somehow.

I can work just fine in the project with the audio in the timeline so long as I don’t do anything that previews it. Waveform shows up fine, etc.

Possible Quicktime issue? Logic works fine, Quicktime plays things fine.

Not sure if it could be related in any way, but attaching screenshot of multiprocessing prefs.

edit: Just tried increasing audio buffer to 2084 and still hanging on “locking existing frames”. It is a rather long bit of audio at just under 5 minutes. Does AE need to process it somehow the first time around?

update 2: hmmmm…. went into prefs and hit “Empty Disk Cache, and it took 5 minutes just to start emptying, and it’s 10 minutes later now, and just over half emptied on the progress bar.

[Greg Sage]

OK, wasn’t sure if the sync should be done in PP or not.

Done.