[Max Jackson]

Hi Joey,

I posted another video of me selecting the layer with the pan behind tool and the anchor doesn’t show.

https://www.axiom-media.com/_video/AnchorPointTrouble.mov

Am I missing something here? I feel like either my copy of AE doesn’t work or I’m just plain retarded. lol

It’s supposed to show up right?

Thanks for your time Joey,
-maX

[Max Jackson]

Here’s a posted video example of what I mean:

https://www.axiom-media.com/_video/AnchorPointTrouble.mov

I’m at a loss as to what I’m not doing right.

As always, thanks to everybody for reading.

[Max Jackson]

It’s not moving the anchor point of the masked comp, it’s resizing and moving it.

I’m just trying to change anchor point. Via the tutorial I’ve been following involving this issue, the teacher clicks on the layer a few times or something and gets the square box (not with X lines, but with the up, down, left, and right scale points) to appear along with the main anchor point.

For me it does nothing or wants to go into the PNG layer even after selecting the object. Like the tool behaves like useless for my understanding of it’s purpose which makes absolutely no sense. My situation is screaming user error, but I don’t know how much more basic it could be. That’s why it’s so frustrating.

I can even hold down the pan behind (left mouse button) on the masked portion of the image and see the anchor point appear in t he middle of the stage. But it disappears once I lift up and if I drag, it moves the image. If I do the same thing hitting Alt, it totally skews the positioning with that X box thing I posted.

[Max Jackson]

Nevermind, false post, thought I had something figured out.

[Max Jackson]

Hey Todd,

Yeah, I really search those sites. I know this stuff should typically be out there before asking the same redundant question. It’s just that I could be doing one small thing and that’s why it doesn’t work.

Like I figured this one out. The reason it was only working sometimes, was because I think before I wasn’t selecting a point first. I could’ve sworn that’s what I did before trying to drag across more points.

Anyway, hopefully that stupid mistake on my part was the key. I love it when I’m wrong that way. I can get back to asking real questions.

Thanks, 🙂
-soupking

[Max Jackson]

Like here’s another image of me selecting the masked image:

Shouldn’t the anchor appear? I know it’s in the center per my other post.

I also tried alt-click. If I click it too much, it just goes into the layer.

(sigh) trying to figure out why this super easy thing should just work.

[Max Jackson]

Hi Dave,

If you mean the whol alt-drag thing, I tried that. I also found a tutorial saying the same thing at Motionworks.com.

But it won’t go. It shows up fine IN the actual masked object, but that defeats the purpose of the tool.

The problem I have is that when I turn on the Pan Behind Tool the anchor won’t appear for the object in the layer and I know the anchor is on the stage. Only when I drag the object in the mask (pic attached).

Does this only work for pre-comps or something? I can’t seem to get the dang anchor point to show up and then it will only alter what’s in the masked object.

How do you selected a masked object to make the anchor appear for moving?

[Max Jackson]

Cool, thanks Todd! 🙂

[Max Jackson]

Oh right, Presets. Not Plugins.

I’m not sure what the difference is, but I understand.

I’m familiar with code to a degree but I guess it’s a real challenge to get that stuff to work. But just like anything, I follow the directions. If it doesn’t work…Beats me. 🙂

I just hope this doesn’t persist. I would think extensions of any kind would be uniform from one AE version to the next etc. But I guess the importing technology has changed. ?

[Max Jackson]

My thing is that I have a feeling this won’t be the last failed attempt that I try to install that doesn’t cost $$$.

Part of it might be that I’m still on CS3, but…I don’t know. Maltaannon’s Custom Effects should work on CS3 for mac but don’t install either.

Just kind of odd. Wish I knew the guts of what’s going on so I could troubleshoot the issue. Right now it’s like read the directions, inserting a key, pushing a button and expecting a result. Beyond that there’s not much I understand in order to troubleshoot.