[John Cuevas]

Positioning them just requires doing some math. I would create my smaller comp, bring in the large comp, and move the anchor point to 0,0. That will be the first position. If the small comps are 1920×1080. Then just click in the anchor point of the larger comp x position and type in “+1920” and that will move it over exactly one comp. You can even type in something like “+(1920*2)” to move it over 2 comps. Do that fall all your comps and you’ll be set.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

The big one, when rendering more RAM allows for more multi-processing. Which if you combine that with a large SSD drive for disk cache, AE will be able to pull those pre-rendered frames quickly into your final render.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

It can speed up final rendering, in multiple ways. Check this out: Improve performance

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

Happy to help.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

You could could create 4 nulls, parent them to a solid in the four corners, then move that solid to the same position and rotation of the precomp in your video. No tracking is necessary.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

So you get that all sorted out?

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

I went to a big school, huge music department and for one project we did, we just asked some of the students in the music department to compose for us—all it cost us was some pizza and credits in the video.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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 don’t mind paying for a plugin BadTV will get you there.

Otherwise, I would look at mosiac effects, displacement maps, fractal noise and probably a lot more.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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]

Use the expression comnmand lookAt(fromPoint, atPoint), you can find it under the vector math expressions. You apply it to the orientation property of your layer.

A finished version of the expression will look like this: lookAt(transform.position, thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").transform.position)

In that expression, the “fromPoint” you use the layers own position “transform.position”. The atPoint, I just picked whipped to the position of the layer I want my lookie to orient.

Now using that will orient all the directions, X,Y,Z. If you just want to move on the Y axis, you would want to add this expression to orientation.

x = transform.orientation[0];
y = lookAt(transform.position, thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").transform.position)[1];
z= transform.orientation[2];

[x,y,z]
Here’s a sample project with both expressions. 7602_lookat.aep.zip

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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 add on to what George said, with the timeline highlighted in the project panel, or if it’s the active panel you are using, press “cntl + K” to open up the Comp Settings. That’s one a shortcut everyone should memorize.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“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.