[Kevin Camp]

[Andy Engelkemier] “It doesn’t appear that expressions can access a layer font size?”

yep…

i’d try to create what you are doing with the numbers effect in a text layer, probably the same text layer so that it would be the same size, font, etc. if that’s what you need.

you can have an expression pull the value of the numbers effect into your text layer like this:

target = thisComp.layer("Solid 1"); // make this your layer that has the numbers effect on it
num = target.effect("Numbers")("Value/Offset/Random Max").value;
txt = text.sourceText;
txt + " " + num

however none of the numbers formatting will come with it, which is what you may want. there are ways to do number formatting in a text layer with expressions.

what’s in your text layer and what’s going on in your numbers effect layer?

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the original opacity for a shape in illustrator should be maintained after importing into after effects, however after effects will say the opacity is 100%…

ex: a path in ai has an opacity of 50%. when imported into ae as a comp, ae says the layer is 100%, however if you placed a layer under that ai layer, you’d see that the layer is in fact transparent.

ps, sorry for hijacking your original post.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

yep… the ownership group that owns the stations i work for has been talking about upgrading all it’s stations (i’ve lost count of how many, but it’s over 20 now) to the same version so we can exchange files for years (at least since cs5.5 was current).

i usually point out to our IT guy or chief engineer (whichever mentions it) that we will also need to upgrade our os’s before we can even install something new and we will need to upgrade our third party plugins to have the same functionality… and then i never hear anymore about it.

i guess the osx update is free now, and i think our effects machines would be fine with mavericks (though i’d need to do a full software check), but there may be issues with mavericks and fcp 7, which our promo producers are clinging to for dear life…. and even if they were ok with a switch to fcp x, there would be one more thing to have to upgrade… and they have third-party fcp plugins too.

however, i do get a little tired of having to rebuild network packages in CS4…. however that is job security, and i can rebuild their projects to be significantly easier to update.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

[Walter Soyka] “You can also convert vector art to shapes [link] with Ae CS6 and CC, subject to some limitations outlined in the linked doc.”

yet, another reason my stations’ management need to let us upgrade…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i can’t think a an easy way to accomplish this…

i’m not sure that they need to actually rotate, i think you could use a radial blur to simulate motion blur on the wheels, but you’d be doing that to each wheel, and the wheels would need to be individually blurred, and the center of the blurs would need to track with each wheel… so, it’s still a lot of work.

even if you just created the motion blurred wheels in photoshop (cut each wheel type out on to separate layers, center them and apply radial blur), then imported those layers into ae to use to cover the existing wheels, you’d still need to track each wheel to replace with a blurred wheel.

i suppose for some shots, where the tanks move straight across the frame, you could try building out a pre-blurred wheel/tread assembly, then track just that single element with the tank (for each tank)…

i do think you did a great job with what you have right now… for the next one, you might try to get/make moving wheels on the models, so as the change positions the wheels can change rotations, which i think would be enough to make this work nicely.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

in illustrator try moving your paths to separate layers in illustrator. an easy way to do that is to select all the paths, then click on the menu button in the upper-right corner of layers palette and choose ‘release to layers (sequence)’.

then save that of as an ai file (you’ll want ‘pdf compatibility’ checked in the window that follows the first ‘save as’ window).

import that into ae as a comp, and the rectangles should be on there own layers.

however, they will not be editable paths but can have ‘continuously rasterize’ enabled, and the fill/stroke properties should be maintained.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

sorry, it looks like i gave you bad advice by telling you to set up particular to use the ‘null can’ as a layer emitter.

you want to set particular up with a point emitter and make it directional. then you need to link the point emitter’s position to “null can’s” position with expressions.
so you could use something like this for xy position:

target = thisComp.layer(“Null Can”);
fromComp([target.position[0],target.position[1]])

and this for z:

thisComp.layer(“Null Can”).position[2]

also, i tested the parenting of the light emitter to another 3d layer, and that did break the tracking too, so if you are parenting the ‘null can’ to another layer, you might reverse the parenting and parent the other can layers to the null can

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

is your ‘null can’ tracking your locator layer using the lookAt() expression?

if so, you should just need the orientation of ‘null can’ in the rotation properties of emitter in particular…

is the ‘null can’ parented to another layer? if so that may foul up the relationship… i’d have to look at that. using a light as an emitter would probably get around that issue.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

there is a script that can aid in the duplication of a comp and nested comps, there is also a method of importing a project to do the versioning out. both are explained in this thread:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/1047231

another option is to make the comp longer and define different sections to render in the render settings for each instance in the queue.

so, in your example, say your comp is 30 seocnds long. you’d double that to a minute, make layers 1-3 start at 0 and end at :30 (or one frame shy of :30), then layers 4-6 would start at :30 and go to the end of the comp.

you’d then send the comp to the render queue, click the render settings and define the ‘time span’ by clck the custom button and setting start to 0:00:00, and duration to 0:30:00. set the output module and output to as needed.

then command-shift-d (duplicate) that comp in the render queue and set the render settings to start at 0:30:00 and duration 0:30:00. the output module will be the same,so just click the output to and set a new file name.

now you’ll have two items in the queue, hit render and it will output both.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

time remapping isn’t an effect, it’s a function (or option).

from the menu bar, choose layer>time>enable time remapping…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW