[Kevin Reiner]

Depends on how complex of an animation you want. Do you simply want all of the cars to follow the same motion path in a line? Or do you want more complex interplay between the cars (like they stretch out a bit going up hill and then compress a bit when they hit the bottom of a slope)? That would take some expression work most likely and I would post the question in the AE expression forum as well as read Dan Ebbert’s website on expressions at https://www.motionscript.com/.

For the simple way. Make a motion path that follows the path of your rollercoaster (making a mask path and then copy and paste into the position of the target layer). Then select Layer/transform/auto-orientate. Then duplicate that layer and replace the new copy with the second car. Shift the layer downstream until it is where you want it.

That is a quick way of doing it. There might be better ways though.

good luck,
Kevin

[Kevin Reiner]

Hello Peter,

That article you posted pretty much touched on all the causes and possible solutions. Its less of an AE problem than it is a physics problem. You just have to understand the problem and know how to best apply the fixes.

Can you post the video or a stripped down version of your project, and we can take a look? Does your animation have to be at the exact length you have it now? Sometimes just stretching it out a handful of frames can help.

-Kevin

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
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AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
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SOFTWARE
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After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
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Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

3 ways to do this.

1. Precompose master comp into new comp at desired size.
2. File/scripts/scale composition
3. Change comp to desired size. Make a null and parent all layers to it. Resize down to new size.

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

I often find that after long periods of heavy use, especially rendering with multiprocessing, my computer eventually gets slower and slower. Therefore, I occasionally do a complete shut-down and restart. Definitely makes a difference IMO. Also, do regular cache purges and clean your database and cache.

And floss your hard drive.

-Reiner

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Thanks for sharing. Looks awesome. Of course I just finished a huge project that would have benefited greatly from this, but isn’t that how it goes.

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Just curious John – how is that script different from the pan behind tool?

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Hmmmm…

That might be pointing to something outside of AE. Maybe graphics card or something. Can you give your machine specs?

-Reiner

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Are you able to see other image files? Does it appear that its a problem with just this image, or is there a systemic problem within AE of not seeing any images?

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
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Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
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All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Try this.

As Walter suggested, change the file to another image format. Then reset AE prefs. To restore default preference settings, hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) while the application is starting.

Then start a brand new project, new comp, and see if you still have the problem.

Hope you get it figured out,
Reiner

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig

[Kevin Reiner]

Thanks Steve,

Thats what I suspected, but I’ve ran a new tape cleaner through multiple times. It appears to help a little, but it is still happening.

The weird thing is that it also happens when there is no tape or when the tape is paused.

-Kevin

Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon HD 5770
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.6.5
FCP 7
After Effects CS5
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig