[Mark Boszko]

How are you trying to format it? Something different from what you can do in the text tool?

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https://opticalpodcast.com

[Mark Boszko]

Oops — sorry if I steered you wrong!

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https://opticalpodcast.com

[Mark Boszko]

I just did a bunch of similar animations, and if you’re doing the movement with the expression, you’ll likely also need to do the tweening in the expression with a linear() or ease() calculation vs. time.

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[Mark Boszko]

That’s exciting, Todd! Any other enhancements coming to expressions? 😉

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[Mark Boszko]

So… no one’s touched a C500, eh?

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[Mark Boszko]

I didn’t think it was the same exact issue, as I don’t have any problem with the clip in the timeline — only in the exported Quicktime. Perhaps they are related, though.

[Mark Boszko]

What is the original video’s frame size? 1080?

Well… perhaps. Everything is 720 now, but I think some clips may have originally been 1080, and I drag-n-drop replaced the clips with new versions that are 720. However, it may in fact be these clips that are now flaking out. Trying to determine that.

Does the issue only occur to clips that are in a secondary storyline with transitions on it?

Yep. Is this a known issue?

[Mark Boszko]

Not quite. No 4K footage, and the footage appears fine in the timeline. It’s only in the exported movie that this weird resizing occurs.

[Mark Boszko]

Thanks! The layers aren’t the same size (the “bar” only covers a small portion of the image below), but that’s definitely an interesting idea to think about. Maybe for v.2 of this project.

Almost makes me wish that After Effects had a way to create an “instance” copy of a layer without the overhead of pre-comping.

[Mark Boszko]

Ohhh! I thought those were valid for Expressions as well, but I see now. Thanks to both of you, Dan and Jason, for clearing that up!

I had it as part of a larger expression (listed below), hoping to switch the blending mode when the luminance of a particular sampleImage() dropped below a certain point.

Is there any way to do that as part of an expression, do you think? It doesn’t seem that I can attach an expression to the Blending Mode directly. Can I maybe use an expression to trigger a script to act on the sending layer? (A quick google search doesn’t reveal much in the way of helpful hints on that idea. Are scripts able to run during a render? Perhaps not. Sorry, I haven’t tried to script AE in ages, so I’m a little rusty.)

The only other suggestion I found (other than to purchase BCC Composite) is to have duplicate layers with the two blending modes and switch opacity on those via expressions. Which seems do-able, if a little clumsy. Just thought I’d ask if anyone else had a better idea before I implement that.

Thanks!
Mark

targetLayer = thisComp.layer(thisLayer.index+1);
samplePoint = targetLayer.effect("Point Control")("Point");
sampleRadius = [5,5];
barColor = targetLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint, sampleRadius);
barLuminance = rgbToHsl(barColor)[2] * 255;

if (barLuminance > 100) {
// Obviously, this doesn't work:
thisComp.layer(index).blendingMode = BlendingMode.NORMAL;
} else {
// This either:
thisComp.layer(index).blendingMode = BlendingMode.DARKEN;
}

barColor