[Kevin Camp]

it may be due to the order of the expressions… assuming that ae processes the expressions in order of layer order (which is what it seems to do), your would need your check box expression to be the topmost layers.

however, to make things easier, i think i’d try putting all the check boxes on a single null (name it ‘controls’ or something), and name each check box for what it does. it can make updating easier if there is only one place to look, and a little more intuitive to see all the options in one place. you can even add a layer marker and comment telling the user to use controls on that layer before rendering.

then i’d remove the expressions from the check boxes and just train the user on which check boxes do what, and any rules, like at least on check box must be selected, but never more than two, or whatever…

you could then create a text layer at the top of the comp, make it a guide layer so it won’t render, and then have you check boxes change the text to help them out… like if no check boxes are checked it says ‘please select one check box’ or if 2 ‘non-compatible’ check boxes are checked, it would alert them to uncheck one of the check boxes.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i think the problem is that ‘mar’ is wider than the other months and you aren’t really creating equal spacing between the end of one month and the start of the next month, your creating equal spacing between the start of one month and the start of the next month.

if you were to use your expression on a chain of solids that were all say 50px wide, then it would work as expected.

you might try using a fixed width font, with all text layers using the same kern/tracking values.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

that is really cool… now i have something new to go out and learn

thanks Declan

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

this might be slightly better:

x = thisComp.layer(“a”).effect(“Use This”)(“Checkbox”);
y = thisComp.layer(“b”).effect(“Use This”)(“Checkbox”);
z = thisComp.layer(“c”).effect(“Use This”)(“Checkbox”);

if (z == true) true;
else if (y == false) true;
else false;

but there will always be an inconsistency when toggling the ‘c’ control. if you select ‘b’ to be true, ‘a’ becomes false. if you then select ‘c’ to be true, both ‘a’ & ‘b’ become true. if you toggle ‘c’ back to false, ‘a’ will be true and ‘b’ will be false.

i assume this happens due to order of evaluation of each expression, which is probably the layer order (top most being evaluated first).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i don’t know of a way to do it in ae, at least not with the standard effects. some nle’s will allow you to stretch audio but keep the correct pitch.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the cpus are upgradeable in the current configuration of the new mac pros (hard to say if they’ll keep it that way in the future):

https://blog.macsales.com/22188-owc-confirms-mac-pro-2013-processor-upgradeable

so you could upgrade the cpu when you felt the bang for the buck made sense.

owc also has posted some mac pro benchmarks with other non-oem cpus that they’ve been throwing in them.

https://blog.macsales.com/22312-owcs-mac-pro-2013-processor-upgrade-benchmarking?APC=XLR8YourMac13

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

it’s hard to tell why the blur is effected, but the issue is probably with the ‘c’ control…

if c is true, then both a and b are true… but a must be false if b is true, or b must be false if a is true. so it’s a logic issue.

you might be able to try something like this with an ‘or’ opperator (‘||’):

x = thisComp.layer("a").effect("Use This")("Checkbox");
y = thisComp.layer("b").effect("Use This")("Checkbox");
z = thisComp.layer("c").effect("Use This")("Checkbox");

if (x == true) false;
if (x == false || z == true) true;

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

a hardware conversion will also do a better job of up-rezing the footage.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you’ll also need to change the speed of the footage to 25fps. the adobe manual describes 2 methods to convert 25p to 24p (https://helpx.adobe.com/en/after-effects/using/converting-movies.html#convert_dv_footage_from_pal_to_ntsc_using_pulldown)), you’ll just need to do the reverse.

one method is to simply use the interpret footage settings to change the frame rate from 23.976 to 25, and put that into a 25p comp. note, this will cause some audio sync issues.

the other is to drop the 23.976 footage into a 25p comp then time stretch it 104.709% (25/23.976). note, this will change the pitch of the audio.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i think you’d need to go the other way… effecting color prior to the puppet tool.

you could have 4 precomps, one each for the shirt, pants, shoes, hands. those are then used by the puppet tool comp for the character animation. that would separate color from the animation.

to change the color of the shirt, you’d go into the shirt comp and set a new color with a new solid, layer or color effect…

it’s possible to make all the color changes in a single ‘color palette’ comp, which could save time in the long run if you need to make many changes, but there’s more time spent upfront for the setup… and some limitations.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW