[Mark Whitney]

[Scotty Kunkel] “I’m having this weird issue only upon export. As a certain layer animates onto the screen these dots show up around the Top and Left edge of the video. I’m simply animating positions and not sure what it’s showing up. It does not show up in my ram preview no matter what quality setting. I’ve tried exporting h.264 and Prores 422 HQ and still the same outcome. Even as I watch it render in AE it doesn’t show. Any ideas? I’ve tried to upload a photo and a video but after it uploads a creative cow dialog box pops up saying “image not found””

Ya, the upload function for the forum has been goober for a few days now.

As to your problem, it’s odd that it’s only on the one panel although the last panel might have it too but just not showing due to the image itself.

I doubt it’s a codec issue but you might run a test to see if a sequence render makes any difference. Beyond that, I’d look to see if there’s something with that “made right here at home” section of your comp as it comes in when it slides in. It appears on the left edge the next frame after the bowl exits. Perhaps it’s the Drop Shadow effect?

All kinda just guess work w/o being able to dissect the comp but I’d start there.

[Mark Whitney]

[Toniu Mosat] “The Springy Fx toolset has one thats called Parent Constrain that I think might be just what I need! The example only uses two layers, but I guess it will work if I assigned the second the first, the third to the second, the fourth the third, etc… The other script and tools make for very cool effects but I think they are meant to be used in one single object.”

In essence yes. With SpringyFX, you can assign what object/layer you want to use as your motion & even change that after the fact. You can also simply copy & paste the effects controls to the other layers too. There are several ways to get the time delay/offset I suppose.

Rubberize it! works by applying it’s expressions to Puppet Pins but again with copy & paste (or applying to multiple pins simultaneously with the same settings) then staggering layers, or sliding keyframes, you should pretty easily get what you’re after.

Tried to upload a sample for you but the forum is being finicky today. Maybe later.

Rubberize It! was co-written by Dan Ebberts BTW. It does have the option to bake to keys.

[Mark Whitney]

Well, there’s:
https://aescripts.com/springy-fx/
or
https://aescripts.com/rubberize-it/

… if you’re not all that keen on figuring out your own expressions.

They’re similar but have differences. Take a look at the corresponding videos.

[Mark Whitney]

They’re not really cut but being masked. So many questions that I’d need to ask first as to how your prepping, importing, etc. that the best way would simply to have you watch this first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7uCJ7jrhs0

Short answer is that anytime you have artwork going outside of the artboard (which you do) or have any element that isn’t 100% opaque, the artboard will import as well & act as a mask.

You can do all of this manually or…

https://aescripts.com/explode-shape-layers/

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Mark Whitney]

Yes, please post your results when ready.

With expressions, you could then convert to keyframes then edit or delete those as needed. I understand expressions enough to work with them, but being mildly dyslexic isn’t a good thing with something that’s unforgiving where syntax is critical. Fortunately, learning how to use the quikwhip and the expression builder isn’t too daunting.

Use of the Starch tool or even Hold keys perhaps if you go the null route would certainly be a good “see if that does it” approach.

I’m planning to snag Motion2 as well soon. Didn’t know about it before as it’s not listed on aescripts.com.

[Mark Whitney]

I’m certainly not a Master but I think you’re on the right track. There’s probably a way with expressions, but then what happens when you want to start & stop doing that in order to move the pins separately?

I happened across this just last night though:

https://www.mtmograph.com/motion/

Drag down to about min. 38:20 where he describes the Pin & Closing tool. If nothing else, it’s a one-click solution to what you’re already doing, but maybe it’ll give you some ideas

[Mark Whitney]

Ah. Never used that feature so never notice the limitation.

Expanding on Dave’s comment, I suspect instead of adding a 2nd instance or Particular to your comp, you’ll instead have to first duplicate your comp with the first 9 lights & rename it so you can use it as a pre-comp. In this new comp, delete the original motion path lights (probably anything else not contributing to the Particular effect) & now add your new lights with the needed name (recycling your numbers) so you can then add them into the slots. Drag this new comp into the original.

[Mark Whitney]

Sort of like this:

[Mark Whitney]

Perhaps a bit more detail. What version are you using & where in Particular’s UI panel are you trying to add?

[Mark Whitney]

With something like this that’s problematic, the general consensus in 3D apps anyway has been to render to a sequence rather than an .avi, .mov. mp4, etc. That way you don’t lose everything and also gives you a specific point of failure for diagnosing what’s going wrong. And as others have suggested, simply try rendering to something other than your system drive. Storage is hyper cheap these days.