Kevin Camp
Forum Replies Created
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you should be able to simply enable expression for the offset turbulence property and then use the expression pickwhip and drag that to the null’s position property (note it has to be the position property, not the layer itself… so that may be you issue)
the resulting expression should look similar to this:
thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).transform.positionKevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
if you just wanted the positive values on the upward swing (then jump back to the original y value and repeat), then this might work for you.:
yAmp = 200; // max y offset value
y = Math.abs(Math.sin(time%(Math.PI/2)))*yAmp;
value – [0,y]Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i’d try it with a text animator for fill color, then link the end property to the keyframes for the bouncing ball.
since there are several ways to animate the ball, it’s a little hard to write an expression that would work in any situation, so i’ve attached a preset file called bouncingball.ffx that adds the circle effect and a fill text animator to a text layer.
install the preset by downloading and moving it to you after effects/presets folder. then restart after effects.
in a comp, add a text layer with a line from the song then apply the preset (either from the effects & preset panel or animation>apply animation preset).
simply animate the x component of center property of the circle effect to stop at each word in the line, the expressions will highlight the word with each keyframe and will interpolate the vertical ‘bounce’ in between.
to change the height of the bounce, type ‘ee’ (two fast letter e’s) to reveal the expressions on the layer. modify the first line for yMax, entering the new value in pixels (the default is 100).
you can also disable the expression on the range selector ‘start’ property if you want the words to remain in the highlight color after the ball passes.
note that the expression assumes the start position of the ball, is off the first word rather than on it, but that can be changed if needed.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you would commonly see that error if the cti was at the end of the comp work area and tried a ram preview from current time.
if that’s the case here, then you may need something in the script to either do a ram preview for the whole work area, or move the cti from the last frame of the comp/work area.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
here’s a few things i typically try in similar scenarios.
first, try opening the project from after effects (file>open).
second, try opening the project with the caps lock on (this prevents rendering the preview, which can help if it is an effect that is causing the crash). if that works, then you’ll need to go through the open comp and try to find the offending effect, which can be tedious if you have many layers and effects.
third, try importing the project rather than opening it.
fourth, reset the prefs by either moving them to a folder on your desktop and or by starting ae while holding ctrl-alt-shift.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
it might help to have a screen shot to illustrate what’s happening, but i think it is one of two things…
either you have many small layers that all fit well within the frame of the psd but want the layers cropped to the edges of the layer (rather than the frame size), or you have many large layers that extend beyond the edges of the psd but you want cropped to the frame size.
if you want the edges of each layer cropped only to the size of the layer, then choose to import as composition-cropped layers.
if you want all the layers to cropped to the frames size only choose to import as composition.
if you have a combination of small layers and large layers, and want the small layers to be cropped to the size of the layer, but the large layers to be cropped to the frame size, you’ll need to crop the file in photoshop (select all, then image>crop), then import as composition>cropped.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
you shouldn’t need to do a freeze frame on a second layer. simply extending the outpoint of the time remapped layer beyond the last time remap keyframe will cause the clip to hold and that last frame, producing a freeze frame.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
i’m with dave. i don’t think you’ll have any problems simply rendering your 29.97p footage as 59.94i without adding the frame blending.
if you were mixing footage and/or graphcis that were where some was interlaced and some was progressive, then you’d like to make them all the same (either all interlaced of all progressive), but since it sounds like you have one piece that’s all progressive, i don’t think you’ll need to worry about it.
that being said, if you want to do the frame blending trick, drop the footage into a new comp. enable pixel motion frame blending for the footage layer, add the comp to the render queue, click the render settings (probably says ‘best’) and in the field rendering setting choose upper field and render.
the output will be interlaced.
one pitfall with this method is if there are cuts in the piece, the interpolated field created by the pixel motion will be garbage. it may not be too noticeable at playout speed (heck it’s only 1/60 of second), but it may be an issue. the only way to get rid of that issue is prior to rendering with fields you need to split your clip at each cut (move the cti in the timeline to the frame after a cut and then hit command-shift-d). once you’ve done that at each cut, render as with fields and you should be good.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
on your existing shape layer, remove the stroke effect and then twirl down the shape layer’s ‘rectangle 1’ property to get to the stroke properties for that shape (color, thickness, opacity, etc)
to use the generate>stroke effect, create a new solid. with that solid selected in the timeline, create a mask on the solid (using the same tool and the shape – the tool changes function based on whether you hav a layer selected or not).
then, with the layer still selected, add effects>generate>stroke. by default it should select the first mask as the ‘path’, but it is definable by the path dropdown menu, or by clicking the option for ‘all masks’.
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW -
do you want to connect several keyframed properties of the same layer to a slider on the same layer (like position, scale, etc.) or connect several keyframed properties of different layers to the same slider?
if it is properties on the same layer, then the same expression should work, but you’d need to have the expression on each property.
if you needed properties on multiple layers, then you may want to move the slider to a separate layer, like a null layer. this isn’t required, but it means the expression will be the same for each layer then you’ll need to direct the expression to that layer by adding this line to the expression, changing the layer name to your slider layer:
ctrl = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”);
then modify the next line in the expression to use the ctrl layer:
slider = ctrl.effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW