[Oleg Pirogov]

In case of time-remapping it appears to be quite straightforward as the Time Remap property of the nested comp is exactly the playback time of that nested comp.

In case of stretching it is not as straightforward since Stretch property is not accessible through expressions, otherwise the desired playback time would be:
(time-thatLayer.startTime)/(thatLayer.stretch/100)
A dummy workaround would be to just type in the layer’s Stretch value as a constant.

[Oleg Pirogov]

How about applying Fill effect to the solid and adding
yourComp.yourVideoLayer.sampleImage(desiredPointOnTheVideo, radius = [.5, .5], postEffect=true, t=time)
as its color property expression?

[Oleg Pirogov]

Got the same issue in AE 14.2 with a QuickTime module. After 13 years clearing render queue still works, but I also had to restart AE. Though probably clearing cash would have also sufficed.

[Oleg Pirogov]

Not sure if it is the most convenient way, but Interpret Footage -> Main… window will have the original file name in its title.

[Oleg Pirogov]

[Since AE 2018 and later] you can do this:

1) Duplicate your mask
2) Add this expression to path property:

createPath(points().reverse(), outTangents().reverse(), inTangents().reverse(), false);

This reverses the path.
More precisely, it overwrites a path for the duplicated mash with a newly generated reversed path. Why it matters is that you can’t modify it manually, cause it’s expression-generated. To do so, RMB path property Keyframe Assistant -> Convert Expression to Keyframes (it will create a key for every frame and this may take some time, so you may wanna temporarily shorten your layer duration), then just delete all the generated keys and you’ll have a reversed path you can modify manually.

[Oleg Pirogov]

Depending on how much control you want over the colors you may or may not settle on this:

1) Add a text animator for Fill Color -> Hue
2) Set Fill Hue to =1x 0.0
3) Delete Range Selector
4) Add Expression Selector
5) Add this code to the Amount expression:
colors = [0,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90];
N=Number(text.sourceText[textIndex-1])
if (!isNaN(N)) {colors[N]}
else {30}
And get this:

This allows you to define 10 colors for 10 digits plus 1 additional color for non-digit characters (dot “.” is evaluated as “0” digit). A color is specified with a number from 0 to 100 corresponding to hue scale: 0 for 0, 100 for 360 degrees. Not a full RGB range but still. Digit colors are specified in array [0,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90] : 1st element is for digit “0”, 2nd for “1” etc. Value in else {…} is for non-digits.

[Oleg Pirogov]

You’re telling layer 1 to move where layer 2 is ([…].transform.position). So, since layer 2 goes to layer 3, layer 1 also goes there.
Instead, you’d wanna layer 1 to go to former position of layer 2, so […].transform.position.valueAtTime(0) may be the solution:

ease(time, 0, 2, value, thisComp.layer(index + 1).transform.position.valueAtTime(0))

P.S. […](0) – zero here is “the time when layer 2 was at the position you want layer 2 to go to”. If it’s some other time in your case, you should change it accordingly.

[Oleg Pirogov]

>if there’s anything that can replace time-inPoint, so we can get the “initial starting point”
Threre’s startTime.
Just put it in place of inPoint, that should get you what you’re looking for.

[Oleg Pirogov]

>What’s the difference between HSLA and HSBA
HSB[rightness] (also known as HSV[alue]) used in AE colorpicking differs form HSL[ightness] from hslToRgb() function.
Here’s a reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV
Notice, that Hue formulae are the same, but Saturation formulae (as well as formulae for Brightness and Lightness) differ.

Side note: Luminosity from blending modes is again a different thing (specified in Adobe documentation, for ex., in PDF standard reference) as well as its corresponding Saturation. Thus, in AE coexist three different color representation systems with three different Saturations. There are colorpicking Saturation, hslToRgb() Saturation and blending modes Saturation.

[Oleg Pirogov]

My shot:
1) Create a null
2) Add this code to position expression:
X=linear(time, 0, 60,-(6+0.5)*Math.PI, (6+0.5)*Math.PI);
Y=linear(time, 0, 60,0,Math.PI);
f=100*Math.cos(X)*Math.sin(-Y);
[value[0]+10*X, value[1]+f];
– this creates something close to the wavy thing from your post and applies it to the motion path
3) Convert expression to keyframes
4) Add one key at the start and one at the end of the sequence and manually reposition null at those keys to make flat tails
5) Create a shape layer with some path and copypaste null’s motion path keyframes to the path property

Gets you this: