[Markus Stone]

Thank you so much, Walter. That was the key point I was having trouble getting my head around.

I’ve nearly finished the project and it’s looking great, thanks to that one little piece of information.

Duplicating first so you can always go back seems to work well too.

Cheers

Markus

[Markus Stone]

Oh My God, it works!

Thank you Dan (legend!)

I’ve commented my understanding of the code below. What I don’t get is why;

a) Addressing the points must be done by first breaking everything up into variables. I mean, you could make a variable for “Path 1” too if you really wanted. How does substituting variables help us here?

b) toComp? Is that because the shape layer dimensions are *not necessarily the same size as the composition size? Would this be unnecessary of it was a mask on a footage layer if it was the same size as the composition itself?

Cheers and thanks!
Markus

My Understanding of the code

L = thisComp.layer(“Test”);
//define variable L as this comp “Test”

p = L.content(“Shape 1”).content(“Path 1”).path.points();
//define variable p as the ‘points’ parameter of the L (Test) Layer

L.toComp(p[0])
// Take ‘Test’ layer (variable ‘L’), transform point from layer space to composition space, *then specify which point you want the X,Y of [0].

[Markus Stone]

…and if I try it like this, I get ‘[…] is not a function’ whether or not I define anything in points()

thisComp.layer("Test").content("Shape 1").content("Path 1").content("path").points();

Apologies for the newbie posts, but I can’t find a guide to expression errors and what they might mean in english.

So it’s not a function. Cool. So what does that mean I might have done wrong?

Thanks,
Markus

[Markus Stone]

Thanks!

It looks like the very thing I need, only I can’t get it to work because I’m still so new to the magic of expressions.

This is what I have. I’ve played with a bunch of permutations too;

thisComp.layer(“Shape Layer 1”).content(“Rectangle 1”).content(“Rectangle Path 1”).position.points(1);

I keep getting the error that (the above line) “is not a function”.

I assume that means my syntax sux, but I don’t know what to change here.

I would be very greatful for a little nudge in the right direction.

Cheers
Markus

[Markus Stone]

Here is a video of the desired effect.

I can achieve the desired effect – just hoping to standardise the interface so I don’t have to move the smaller circles by eye everytime there’s a new name

https://youtu.be/2ejGh2oX-WY

Cheers

Markus

[Markus Stone]

In the end, I rang the designer. He just said I should tweak the colours till they match the style guide.

-Markus

[Markus Stone]

Ah, legend, I’ll try that. Thank you!

Markus

[Markus Stone]

Thanks for the reply;

In answer to your question, ‘sort of’.

To give an example I had a video with a lot of talking heads where I increased the depth of field using blurred masks. I had also tracked masks on the subjects face so I could just lift her from the background a little. Then there was a general grade applied to the entire shot. The other main interviewee was very concerned about ‘looking fat’ so I tracked in an additional neck shadow.

Together, these bogged down the rendering times. You’re right, I *could render an H264 version for approvals before going to the full Master, but then it seems pointless to calculate those effects again. And what’s the point of a high quality master when it’s not being used as the source for the tweaks (and thus saving render time)? Besides, the finished program will never be seen on anything other than youtube, where you have to contend with youtube’s codec recompressing your already compressed content, so a low compression master seems useless – a bit like buying a 4K reference monitor to watch youtube, if you know what I mean.

At that point, I wonder if I shouldn’t just keep it in the H264 realm since that’s what it’s shot on and I doubt there will be enough of a difference for people to notice once it’s been churned through youtube.

Best,

Markus

[Markus Stone]

Sorry, I realise this is a few months later, but just wanted to add that I’ve had that issue with dimmable LED lights. Some dont sync well when dimmed. Did you change the lighting between setups?

Best

Markus

[Markus Stone]

Yup, it just did it again. Save, quit, reopen. The edits are the same, the media they refer to are not. What’s going on?

Markus