[Max Haller]

Keep in mind when you turn a layer 3d it might go off frame. zoom out far and see if you can find any of the bounding boxes that have moved off comp. If that’s the case you just need to adjust the 3d position so that it’s back in frame.

[Max Haller]

Thats a good question. I think you might find this script useful https://aescripts.com/obsessive-layers/

This gives you the ability to trim layers based on their keyframes. I believe that would mean you can drag and select all the keyframes and move them all together. Then trim the layers to keyframes and it should effectively snap the layers to where you moves the keyframes. Havent tested this myself though.

[Max Haller]

I think these issues usually get fixed by either making the animation slower so it has more frames to interpolate the movement or by increasing the frame rate of the comp. Try doing either of those and see if the jiggle goes away. you might have to tweak the timing afterwards but it would either be an easy fix or a quick thing to rule out.

[Max Haller]

I think you could turn each layer on as a track matte if they’re just all stacked on top of each other. How long do you mean it’s taking? I wouldn’t think it would take all that long.

[Max Haller]

First you have to duplicate the scenes in the project panel. Click on scenes 3 and 4 and go to edit>duplicate or cmd+d. Then, double click on the the comp named “Color Control” right from the layer panel from within the “final comp”

I can’t say for sure, as I don’t know how that template is set up. But I’d bet you’ll see the scene comps laid out within the Color Control Comp.

If that’s the case you can drag your new scene 3 and 4 comps into there and move them into the correct position on the timeline. You’ll most likely have to make that comp longer, along with the “final comp” to fit these two new scenes. go to composition> Comp settings or cmd+K and you can change the duration in there.

if the scene comps aren’t in the color control comp, just click on one of the scene comps in the project window and click on the arrow next to the name at the top by the thumbnail. That’ll tell you where the comp is being used in the project.

[Max Haller]

Thanks for sharing those other ones!

For the move anchor point question – I believe it just moves the anchor like you would do normally so it probably messes up the key frames still. It can be avoided however by parenting the layer to a null and animating the null position, then you can still update the anchor point on the layer in regards to rotation and scale.

[Max Haller]

The key is to apply the basic techniques to complicated projects. The people that make vfx on hollywood blockbusters work in large teams of highly experienced artists with massive hardware available. There’s not a single tutorial that’s going to explain how to do that. I don’t think i linked anything that’s a still image. Tutorials show you the basic idea that’s why they’re simplified versions. Instead of trying to find the perfect tutorial to show exactly what you want, you need to learn the basics and apply them yourself.

What’s your skill level with compositing in general? Because million dollar blockbusters are really the pinnacle of the industry. The traffic light tutorial is essentially what you need. You said it looks completely fake but he’s showing the PROCESS of how to do it. By learning the process you’ll be able to try it in maya and when you hit a roadblock you’ll be able to search for a specific answer which should yield better results.

If you’re more interested in taking a structured course that might show you the more advanced stuff check out https://www.gnomon.edu/

[Max Haller]

I second that and it also has a really useful screenshot and image browser feature that i use all the time to quickly compare multiple versions.

Also Move Anchor Point and True Comp Duplicator are lifesavers for me. Move anchor point lets you snap the anchor to different places on a layer in one click. True Comp duplicator gives you a lot more control on duplicating comps. Great for duping comps with many nested comps, or lower thirds that have nested comps for the name and title that need to be unique in each main comp. it updates expressions too.

Bq ProjectPanelNavigator also adds a lot of useful buttons like Putting the selected items into a folder and batch search and renaming comps in the project panel.

[Max Haller]

Im not sure exactly why, but I can tell you you’re not continuously rasterizing. Is the HotRed/Beets layer the layer with the puppet effect? if so try precomping it and applying the puppet on that. Not sure if that’ll make any difference tho. Also try changing the layer order so that layer is above camera. Again not sure if it’ll do anything but sometimes those help on weird problems.

Your approach at the end of your post sounds like a good option to me. Duplicate it in the project panel before you do that so that you’re original layer won’t change in the original comp. This way you can just alt drag the rendered character into that comp and replace your original layer. Might save you the trouble of repositioning it and all that.

[Max Haller]

I think you should be able to make that as an animation preset. Would that work for you?