[Mack Williams]

Thanks, but it’s a little more complicated than that. I realized later that my first post didn’t do a very good job explaining what I needed to do.

Anyway, I finally figured it out, but you’re right. It was very cumbersome. I am animating a character’s head. The expression I wrote was over 300 lines. It basically told the comp which frame of a mouth comp to show based on which direction the characters head was facing and how wide open their mouth was (which was determined by sliders on null objects). I had to create a frame that corresponded to every possible combination of face direction and mouth shape. 8 mouth shapes and 18 face directions. Then I precomped and time remapped that layer and applied my expression.

M = timeToFrames(thisComp.layer(“mouth MSTR”).timeRemap)
H = timeToFrames(thisComp.layer(“Head FULL”).timeRemap)

if (M == 0 && H==0){
framesToTime(0);}
else if (M == 1 && H==0){
framesToTime(20);}
else if (M == 2 && H==0){
framesToTime(40);}
else if (M == 3 && H==0){
framesToTime(60);}
else if (M == 4 && H==0){
framesToTime(80);}
else if (M == 5 && H==0){
framesToTime(100);}
else if (M == 6 && H==0){
framesToTime(120);}
else if (M == 7 && H==0){
framesToTime(140);}

if (M == 0 && H==1){
framesToTime(0+1);}
else if (M == 1 && H==1){
framesToTime(20+1);}
else if (M == 2 && H==1){
framesToTime(40+1);}
else if (M == 3 && H==1){
framesToTime(60+1);}
else if (M == 4 && H==1){
framesToTime(80+1);}
else if (M == 5 && H==1){
framesToTime(100+1);}
else if (M == 6 && H==1){
framesToTime(120+1);}
else if (M == 7 && H==1){
framesToTime(140+1);}

…and so on, all the way through 18 face positions. I was very excited to get it to work, because even though it took me a long time to set up, it will save me hours of time going forward with this project!

[Mack Williams]

Well, yes, that would work, but I wouldn’t be able to adjust the masks and animate the layer shapes, which is the primary reason I want to do this. I specifically want each layer to be made of an adjustable mask so that the shading/lighting on the character’s face can change and their features can move a bit as they “turn” their head.

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http://www.mackwilliams.com

[Mack Williams]

Thanks a lot. I have changed my comps to 23.976 and things seem to have worked themselves out! Thanks for your help. All this NTSC fps stuff makes my brain hurt.

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http://www.mackwilliams.com

[Mack Williams]

Sorry, I should have been more specific. I’m not using video. I am doing animation, using just photoshop backgrounds and illustrator characters. But, this new show has to be in HD, and I was told that I should just do everything at 23.98 fps. I don’t know what the specific reason is. Should I really be doing it at 23.976 fps? Is that where my problem is?

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http://www.mackwilliams.com

[Mack Williams]

Thanks! I am a final cut newbie. After Effects is more my game.

—————————-
http://www.mackwilliams.com

[Mack Williams]

You’re our hero. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that. Our test render went from taking 22 minutes to taking 2 minutes just from trashing the preferences. THANKS!

[Mack Williams]

There is no gear. It is animation, so everything is created in either Photoshop or Illustrator, then animated in After Effects. I think I am starting to understand a little better. I think it’s just going to suck, because we’re going to have to do almost all of our backgrounds over again.

[Mack Williams]

So, a standard def picture is 72dpi. What is the dpi for an HD picture? Or is that even applicable? Is HD at 300dpi? I guess I am asking, if we are making a background in Photoshop, should it be 72 dpi? The Photoshop preset for HDTV is 1920 x 1080 at 72 dpi.

[Mack Williams]

So, a standard def picture is 72dpi. What is the dpi for an HD picture? Or is that even applicable? Is HD at 300dpi? I guess I am asking, if we are making a background in Photoshop, should it be 72 dpi? The Photoshop preset for HDTV is 1920 x 1080 at 72 dpi.

[Mack Williams]

In my experience (I use AI files in AE every day) I have found that importing AI files into a comp with 0.9 Pixel Aspect Ratio can be problematic as well. I generally do all my work in square pixels (I am not using any video, I don’t know if you are) and then I render from one main 0.9 comp containing my master comp shrunk to 90% horizontal. I hope that makes sense. Whatever you do, don’t have AE interpret your AI files as DV footage. That causes all kinds of wackiness if you try rotating things! Also, the blurring tip is very good advice as well.