Kevin Camp
Forum Replies Created
-
you may be able to use the transform effect prior to the set matte effect to do the transforms… it depends a bit on what properties you are animating, but the transform effect will allow you to animate most of the same properties that are in the layer transforms, but no 3d transforms.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
when you import as footage, there’s the option to merge layers or choose layer. if you choose ‘choose layer’ there’s an option to import at the document size or the layer size. choosing document size should maintain the 1500×880 size of the psd.
if you import as composition, make sure you don’t choose the ‘retain layer sizes’ option.
if it’s none of that, post either a screen shot or a psd that doesn’t import correctly so we can troubleshoot further
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
That’s cool. I knew there would be a way to find that, just never looked into it…
Thanks Darby
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
it should update as the source text changes.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
this should work if all the layers are parented to the same layer/null.
s = parent.scale[0];
scaleFactor = 100/s;
value*scaleFactor;
it will kick up an error if either the layer is not parented, or the scale of the parent is 0. there are ways to write the expression if that is a problem.having the shapes all on one layer would also solve this problem, but might introduce other issues, depending on how you want the layers to interact.
pre-composing the figure with it’s current layers and without a parent might also work, but might be limiting or introduce a more complicated workflow as you continue to animate, depending on what you are doing.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i’m not sure if you are using the expression that was in my last post, but if you are, you may need to link the stroke size to the scale of the parent. try this if you are using my expression:
value * 100 / parent.scale[0]
if you are using a different expression, post it and we can take look.Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
[Robert Maric] “I know I could precompose but then I would lose the ability to scale or 3d rotate the animation from the parent comp.”
if you click the ‘continuously rasterize/collapse transformations’ switch for that pre-comp layer, you should be able to scale or 3d rotate the pre-comp within the main comp. it’s the switch that looks like a little sun or spikes ball in the timeline (when switches are visible).
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you’re not actually parenting, you are simply linking the property of one layer to the property of another layer with an expression. in this case you are linking the scale property, and scale is relative to the individual layer’s anchor point.
as Daniel points out, shape layers complicate thing a bit, since they have multiple scale and anchor point properties and also a size property that is much like scale… you can even have multiple shape on the same layer. all of this makes it hard to trouble shoot what is happening in your comp.
in your original post, you mentioned that you were using shape layers so you could keep the stroke thickness the same when you scaled the layer. you could do that with an expression on a solid if that makes the rest of your set up easier….
example:
- add a new solid, make it 500×500.
- double click the mask tool to add a mask that is the same size as the solid
- add the stroke effect and set the bush size to 10
- option-click or alt-click the brush size property and copy/paste this into the expression field: value * 100 / scale[0]
now if you scale the solid, the stroke will remain constant. one caveat is if the scale is zero, it will kick up an error since you can’t divide a number by zero.
on other potential issue, the expression only looks at the x-scale, so if you are scaling x and y separately, it may not work for you….
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
take a look at these 2 tutorials:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_camera_projection/
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_camera_projection_2/i’m not sure it’s exactly what you are looking fro, but seems close. I’d recommend doing a quick test with a simple shot of the stair case, and use the techniques here to see if it can do what you need it to do.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
as Ken points out, you should know the delivery specs before starting a project.
but i do think that 1920×1080 at either 29.97 or 23.976 fps is a pretty good bet for most general-purpose uses. most tv stations will accept 1080, it will work for blu-ray, you-tube, vimeo, etc. and i think it is likely that the commercial played in theaters before the trailers start are likely 1080 — otherwise i think they’ed have a tough time getting spots if they required clients to have special media created.
file type and codec are another thing entirely. different hardware and software will have different requirements, so you’ll likely need to create those from a high quality master render as needed. I would consider Avid’s DNxHD, ProRes 422 or Quicktime Photo-JPEG (quality set around 90) for the master. DNxHD is mulit-platform, as is Photo-JPEG (which just requires Quicktime to be installed). ProRes requires OS X to encode.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW