[Jim Lefevre]

Once again the amazing Mr Ebberts gives the thing he does best. Skill, clarity and generosity.

Up until 5 minutes ago I’d been bashing my head against this (returning rotation values from an auto orient layer).

I really want to learn more about Sin, Cos and radians, they seem so ingrained in so many solutions to these tricky things.

Many many thanks,

Jim

– oh the script worked perfectly by the way!

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Ah yes!! Wonderful!

I suddenly realise that there is a whole raft of things that can be taken from thisComp. I shall try and track down a list and study it on the train!

Thank you so much Dan. I do hope you know what a great gift you are to the millions of fumbling-blind scripters out there, you are very much appreciated. Thank you.

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Matthias…

I’m actually doing a similar thing right now (and am about to post a slightly different question) but I’m using an adjustment layer (called “EXPRESSION_DRIVER”) in my main comp (called “TOP_COMP”) which has an ‘effect control/effects checkbox’ within it.

In my sub-comps I’m putting the opacity to have this expression…

n =comp("TOP_COMP").layer("EXPRESSION_DRIVER").effect("TURN_LAYER_SET_A_ON")("Checkbox");

if (n==1) {100} else {0}

meaning when the checkbox “TURN_LAYER_SET_A_ON” in my TOP_COMP is ticked then all layers with that expression are on (100% opacity) if it’s unticked then it’s off (0% opacity) which means I can have easier control from the main comp to turn various layers on and off. ‘All’ you have to do is select the opacity from the sub-comp layer and copy it to all the animation layers that you want to turn off at that point and then set up different checkboxes to turn on and off the ones you want. If you want different sets then create a new checkbox expression with a different name (“TURN_LAYER_SET_B_ON” for instance).

I suspect I might be getting your question wrong and also doing this the long way round too!!!

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Thank you all for this!!

Going through the exact same thing as I’m using some press advert layouts from a print thing and creating a film with them but a lot of it has ‘perfectly’ laid out type from the designers so the ‘select-text-copy-paste’ thing isn’t an option for me.

Here’s a quote from the super useful link above from Video Co Pilot in case you can’t get to it…

The workaround for this is to “Export” your Illustrator file to the Photoshop (.psd) format. Then open the .psd in After Effect as a Composition, select the text layer and choose Layer > Convert to Editable Text.

Best wishes,

John Dickinson
https://www.motionworks.com.au

although I would add that it only exports from Illustrator as layers if it is in CMYK mode and so I had to pass it through Photoshop to convert it to RGB (otherwise it was just bringing it in as a single layer into AE when it was CMYK).

All you Creative Cows rock!

Jim

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

I MUST REMEMBER THIS!!!

I used to go down the ‘deleting app data prefs’ route which I now can’t find any reference to but this is a nice new one on me and worked!

THANK YOU!

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Hmmm…. this is happening again but without Photoshop sequence checked (in fact without any other files that could be construed as a sequence within it…)

grrrr….

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Hey hye,

an old thread that this is (I’m sure there are some newer solutions) but I’ve been using the CC Cylinder effect which is doing me quite well – a bit tricky but still useful!

jim

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

OK!!!

I’ve Done IT!

(I say I, in fact I mean the Mighty Patrick Hearn who works with me)

If anyone needs it I have a program that Patrick wrote that converts the REALVIZ ACII point tracks (.txt file) into a perfect .txt. file with tracking points that can be copy and pasted into any position value you want for every track point from the Matchmover file.

It’s SOOOOO helpful I can’t tell you.

All hail Patrick Hearn!!

(PM me for the program and if I don’t respond maybe try me on jim at nexusproductions dot com)

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

AHA!!!!

SUCCESS

I’ve actually plumped for the parsing approach and, courtesy of the most brilliant brain residing in a colleague of mine, Patrick Hearn, we’ve managed to isolate the best Export file from Matchmover that has the 2D points in their entirety (RealivizAscii) and he has created a brilliant brilliant application which strips all of the information out and gives you individual .txt. files for each 2D tracking point.!!!

I’ve mentioned to Patrick that there have been a few people looking for exactly this so I’m hoping he is going to be generous enough to release it for public consumption and I shall update this post accordingly.

HOWEVER if anyone stumbles on this and I haven’t then please PM me and I shall hound Patrick once more.

jim

http://www.jimlefevre.com

[Jim Lefevre]

Ah… yes, that sounds interesting…

Do you mean using that expression with the .ma approach? or Is that with my re-formatted shake/txt file which I’ve managed to do (i.e. a colleague has created a parser that reformats the Matchmover info into After Effects friednly format although it transpires that the shake info is not what I need as it very much doesn’t work!)

If it is the former (using the Null’s brought in with the Matchmover file)- is that expression to be put into the respective 2D Null’s position.

Apologies as I’ve managed to confuse myself into a corner here!!

http://www.jimlefevre.com