[John Cuevas]

I whipped together a quick essential graphic and put it in a example comp. Under the “master properties” you can adjust the length you need per ‘girder'(and a few other properties). Then just duplicate that layer and move it into place. Best I could do with an extra hour on what is my Friday. I couldn’t get the math to work out perfectly for the ‘head’ of the graphic, but unless someone zooms to about 800% you should be okay. Hope it helps.

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[John Cuevas]

Thanks Flip—as my co-worker just said “He is the MVP”.

And thanks to everyone else, given me a few different tacks to take at this, that I hadn’t thought of—favorite thing about the COW, the different approaches people come up with to problems.

Now if you all can give me just an extra 20 hours this week, I’ll be all set.

[John Cuevas]

Here is a script that will duplicate Comps/Precomps with the proper linking and hierarchies.

https://aescripts.com/true-comp-duplicator/

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

Then I would use an ease expression on the opacity of the layer you want to turn on and off.

myBeat = PICKWHIP TO SOUNDKEYS BEAT;
ease(myBeat, myBeatMinimum, myBeatMax, 100, 0)

The myBeatMinimum will be the lowest amplitude(volume) where you want the opacity to be 100%. Set myBeatMax to a volume where the beat hits and you want to the layer to turn off.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

If you just want the layer to turn off completely at the beat(certain amplitude), then you could just create an if/else expression on the layer’s opacity.
myBeat = PICKWHIP TO SOUNDKEYS BEAT;
if (myBeat > SET THRESHOLD) 0 else 100

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

In the folder ‘Assets’ open up the composition, “All”. In that comp, Press the ‘Shy’ layers button(looks like a guy peeking over a fence). That will show the hidden layers, just delete or turn off the layer “Letterbox”

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

This is a older book, but it probably still covers about 90% of the bundled effects. The After Effects Illusionist.

https://www.amazon.com/After-Effects-Illusionist-Complete-Guide-ebook/dp/B00CJFATQO/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=after+effects&qid=1598533865&s=books&sr=1-17

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

To follow up on what flip said–duplicate your comp layer, turn off collapse transformations, add the shadow effect and check ‘shadow’ only.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

If you can’t export the camera data from the 3D program, I would use Mocha Planar tracker.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

All of my co-workers use Macs have the same problem since recent Avid update. They are telling me that they can render from AE to .mov wrapper, but they have to link to the files, can’t import. Not sure why it’s different on PC, but I haven’t had this issue yet.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
ThinkCK

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.