Kevin Camp
Forum Replies Created
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[Driss Devadip] “Error at line 0 in property “Stroke Width” of layer 12 (“Untitled-1 Outlines 60) in comp ‘Pre-Comp16’. Invalid Numeric Result (Divide by zero?).”
that’s the divide by zero error that i had suspected if the layer scale as zero. using the Math.max() function should prevent the expression from ever reaching zero… note that it could present an issue if the scale was negative… not so likely, but just an FYI.
that’s an interesting note about the color change and long render times… i’m not sure why that would effect the render time so dramatically…
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i’m not sure what codec you rendered too, but what if you bring the render file back into ae, can you see the video there? or, possibly vlc or another viewer…?
quicktime now seems to try and convert most (maybe all) video files to prores when you open them, it’s possible that the conversion is causing the video not to appear.
as for codecs, i’ve render out stadium ring animations in lossless animation (per delivery instructions), but photo-jpeg would be another good intermediate codec to try to render to before converting to avi.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
got it, try this:
freq = 2;
amp = 150;startFrame = framesToTime( 20 );
stopFrame = framesToTime( 200 );
easeOver = framesToTime( 20 );w = wiggle( freq, amp );
if( time >= startFrame && time < stopFrame ) {
if( time >= startFrame && time <= startFrame + easeOver ) {
linear( time, startFrame, startFrame + easeOver, value, [ value[0], w[1] ] );
} else {
if( time >= stopFrame - easeOver ) {
linear( time, stopFrame - easeOver, stopFrame, [ value[0], w[1] ], value );
} else {
[value[0], w[1]];
}
}
} else {
value;
}
you were very close, you just needed to interpolate from the wiggle position back to the original value in line 15, also start with the original value in line 12.Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
[Driss Devadip] “A youtuber also suggested to convert expression into keyframes, but he also suggested to delete these keyframes after being done with manipulating and then activating the expression, he claims it to drastically reduce render time. What do you think of that?”
if there is no animation, you could delete the keyframes. I’m not sure removing the keyframes will reduce the render time significantly, but if there’s no animation, you definitely don’t need the keyframes.
[Driss Devadip] “So, according to you, the expression will become:
s = Math.max( scale[0], .01 );
scaleFactor = 100/s;
value*scaleFactor;
Did I get it right?”correct. it wouldn’t address the render time, but it might address the error you mentioned… if you voted the error message, we could troubleshoot that more, if needed.
[Driss Devadip] “What do you think of splitting the project into 2 (or more) parts, and then joining them together in iMovie or AE? Will it have any bad consequence on the size/quality of the video?”
unless you felt like you might make need to make changes to individual parts, and thus would avoid having to re-render the entire project if you changed just a part of it, i don’t think this approach will have too much advantage… but i could be wrong.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
here’s a link that describes how to create looping wiggle:
https://motionscript.com/design-guide/looping-wiggle.html
modifying dan’s code to fit what you are trying to do, i came up with this which creates looping vertical wiggle:
freq = 2;
amp = 150;
loopTime = thisComp.duration;
t = time % loopTime;
wiggle1 = wiggle( freq, amp, 1, 0.5, t );
wiggle2 = wiggle( freq, amp, 1, 0.5, t - loopTime );
w = linear( t, 0, loopTime, wiggle1, wiggle2 );
[ value[0], w[1] ]
if you need it to start and stop, like in your current expression (which wouldn’t exactly be looping anymore), it would need further modification.Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
your expression is pretty simple, but with hundreds of them it may be causing a slow down…. if you are done manipulating the scale of the layers, you can cover the expression to keyframes (animation>keyframe assistant>cover expression to keyframes) and see what effect that has.
you mentioned that you were getting an error with the expression. looking at the expression, it could be due to the layer’s scale being zero. if that is the case, just never set the layer to 0%, or change the first line to something like this:
s = Math.max( scale[0], .01 );
rasterizing of vector illustrator layers every frame also takes some render time. possibly importing those into photoshop to rasterize them at the size you need and then importing the photoshop file into ae may reduce render time…. but i think you may be importing the vector files and then converting them to shape layers to use trim paths and such, so i’m not sure that would work for you.you also might try rendering with the render queue in ae rather than media encoder. ae usually renders quicker. render to a good intermediate codec like quicktime photo-jpeg, prores 422 or avid’s dnxhd (to name a few) and then take that rendered file into media encoder, mpeg-stream clip or handbrake (or another compressing prog) to do the compression for youtube.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
motion tile would likely work for this. adjusting the tile width and height properties will ‘replicate’ the image/footage.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
look at some tutorials on using the puppet tool and creating an ik (inverse kinematics) rig in after effects to see some techniques for doing character animations in ae.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i would try reseting the preferences before that. I’d also see if there might be any driver updates for your video card… this feels like a slight compatibility issue between the os, after effects and/or a driver….
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i know adobe doesn’t officially support that workflow (files on network drives/servers). and even though i’ve worked that way before, there’s always been some quirks, particularly with OS X and SMB since about 2008.
if you transfer some of the files locally, does it allow relinking the media? i know it’s not a fix, but i’m curious and it might help for troubleshooting… also, have you tried it with an earlier version of ae?
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW