[Kevin Camp]

so you have a layer (i’ll call slider) that animates vertically, and another layer (i’ll call page) that needs to be linked to that movement.

an expression like this should work…

y = layer(“slider”).position[1] * -2;
[value[0],y]

paste it into the ‘page’ layer’s position expression field. the ‘-2’ is the multiplier for the position of the page relative to the slider, so you will need to make some adjustment to that variable. you may also need to add and offset to fine tune the positioning… that would change it to something liek this…

y = (layer(“slider”).position[1] * -2) + 100;
[value[0],y]

where ‘100’ acts as an offset variable, again you would need to adjust that variable to suit your needs.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

even better…

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the animation codec set to lossless should give you the best results… as good as any uncompressed format, but with the potential of smaller files. i say potenetial, because areas of flat color (like areas around a keyed graphic) will get losslessly compressed to reduce file size, but maintain full quality.

lossless animation will also allow you to include and alpha channel in your render.

other high quality output formats would be tiff, targa, and png sequences… they are all lossless or uncompressed and all support alpha channels.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i think i maight try a combination of what dave mentioined… add a little noise to your cg elements to try and match any graininess in the dv footage. then render that to dv, but also render a separate matte to use as a track matte when you recomposite your cg footage over the shot footage.

you can usually create a matte by just adding a white solid at the top of you comp that you used to render the cg footage to dv, then, in the modes column of the timeline, click the ‘t’ box. this should make the white solid fill in all the non-transparent areas. make sure the background color is set to black, then render that.

when you recomposite, you’ll need to get rid of the fringing. pre-comping your cg footage and matte, then applying the remove background color effect should do the trick.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i completely rewrote the flickerfree credit roll preset… now you can apply it as before, and it will automaticly create the move based on credit length (height), comp size and comp duration, with control for field friendly movement. plus, you can a keyframe for start postion (which will also act as a start postion for the animation), and/or a keyframe for end postion.

i posted the preset at MercuryJones.com/aeprests.html.

patrick, if you come across this post again, try the preset and let me know how it works out this time… the main advantage of the preset is that if the credit list changes (or duration of the roll changes) the expresion will automaticly adjust the movement without needing to manually recalculate the end keyframe (although, if you had postion keyframes using the preset, you may need to make adjustments to them, but it should be easier than recalculating manually)

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i figured out a way to do it using if(numKey > 0)….

what i was trying to do was simplify and expression that started to get pretty complicated with unnecessary controls that had been adding based on feedback from some people who tried it.

it started as a fairly simple expression to create y movement for a list of credits that would not flicker due to field interference using a process outlined by dave laronde here a few months ago. i had just started looking into what expressions could do beyond randomness and linking attributes, and i thought this would be a fun exercise, and i came up with this:

startY = thisComp.height + (thisLayer.height / 2); // Start position based on layer Y height;
endY = (thisLayer.height / 2) * -1; // End postion based on credit length (height)
frameRate = 1 / thisComp.frameDuration;
duration = frameRate * thisComp.duration;
displace = startY – endY;
frameNum = frameRate * time;
Yinc = (Math.round(((displace / duration) / 2) + 0.5)) * 2; // make movement field friendly (mult of 2)

y = startY – (Yinc * frameNum);

[value[0],y]

then after some feedback, i added controls for field friendly movement or anti-alias friendly movement, adding sliders to add padding to the front and end, adding control for placement at the front…. but it seemed that it should be easier to use, and most people, if the needed to, would just want to add a keyframe where they wanted to have the credit roll start and end rather than deal with sliders.

so this is what i came up with so far… (it works, but it may still need some refinement.. this is my first real expression)

n = numKeys;
if (n > 0){
if (n == 1){ // If only one key, determine if it is start or end key
if (key(1).time < thisComp.duration / 2){ // If key is in the first half of comp, assume start key startY = key(1).value[1]; // Start postion based on Y position from keyframe startT = key(1).time; // Start time based on first keyframe endY = (thisLayer.height / 2) * -1; // End postion based on credit length (height) endT = thisComp.duration; }else{ // If key is in last half of comp, assume end key startY = thisComp.height + (thisLayer.height / 2); // Start position based on layer Y height; startT = 0; endY = key(1).value[1]; // End postion based on Y position from keyframe endT = key(1).time; // End time based on keyframe } }else{ startY = key(1).value[1]; // Start postion based on Y position from first key startT = key(1).time; // Start time based on first key endY = key(n).value[1]; // End postion based on Y position from last key endT = key(n).time; // End time based on last key } }else{ startY = thisComp.height + (thisLayer.height / 2); // Start position based on layer Y height; startT = 0; endY = (thisLayer.height / 2) * -1; // End postion based on credit length (height) endT = thisComp.duration; } frameRate = 1 / thisComp.frameDuration; duration = frameRate * (endT - startT); // Duration (frames) between keyframes displace = startY - endY; frameNum = (frameRate * (time - startT)); if (frameNum < 0){ // If uing keyframes, there is no movement until the first key frameNum = 0; }else{ frameNum; } // Allow Y movement to be calulated as field friendly (multiple of 2) or just anti-alias friendly if (effect("Field Friendly Movement")("Checkbox") == true){ Yinc = (Math.round(((displace / duration) / 2) + 0.5)) * 2; }else{ Yinc = Math.round((displace / duration) + 0.5); } yPos = startY - (Yinc * frameNum); if (yPos < endY){ // If using keyframes, take final postion from end key y = endY; }else{ y = yPos; } [value[0],y] Kevin Camp Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

there seems to be a problem using speed… it works great, except when the keyframes are not at the beginning and end of the comp, then it calculates new position data until it detects speed (the first keyframe) where it jumps the the keyframed postion, then works great. then similar but reverse effect happens when the last keyframe is before the end of the comp, where it finished the move, but then jumps to the non-speed detected postion.

i am trying to get it to hold prior to the first keyframe and after the last, if the layer has movement (or keyframes), but create movement if it does not.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you may also be able to use a duplicate of your particular layer as a track matte for your adjustment layer (alpha inverted).

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

thanks, i’ll see what i can do with this.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

sorry, i misunderstood what wasn’t working in your last post… the method i described would work for a 2d layer that you wanted to insert between the particular emitters.

however, you may be able to use that method to create 2 separte particle comps (with the color adjustment you need) and then composite them around the middle layer.

i assume you can’t apply your adjustment layer effectsw to the particular layer directly? which color effects are you using?

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW