[Paul Roper]

Right – I’ve discovered it only under fairly specific circumstances – looks like a bug to me; I’d be interested to have other people try it out:

1. Create a new comp.

2. Using any of the shape tools (polystar is a good one – plenty of points to move around) hold down option/alt BEFORE and while dragging to create an editable path shape, not a parametric one.

3. Drag a guide onto the comp and ensure ‘snap to guides’ is on.

4. Drag one of the points around, all over the guides, with no snapping. You might have to open up the shape layer and click on the word ‘Path 1’ to get to the points without moving the whole thing.

5. Just to make sure that some snapping is on, drag the whole layer, and see it snap to the guide.

If anyone else can recreate this, I’ll send a bug report to Adobe. In fact we should all let them know about this.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Thanks for that!

It’s not so much that I find it vexing, I was just mystified why it still exists in this era of HD. But you’ve answered my questions, so thanks!

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

I can’t really remember but I think I may have fixed it by increasing the ‘Samples per frame’ and ‘Adaptive Sample Limit’ settings in the comp settings (select your comp and hit command-K / ctrl-K and click no the ‘Advanced’ tab). Maybe try increasing it to 32-bit in the project settings – that can improve the transition between on-blurred and blurred areas when using depth of field.

I’ve just tried to replicate it in CS6 (11.0.2.11) but can’t get it to create the weirdness. I don’t have the old project to hand, but I created something similar (boxes in a box with depth of field on). And I used the ‘classic’ renderer, not the flashy new Raytrace one.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

This is just a guess, but it’s possible that the Mac Pro is spending a long time chopping up the job into segments before it gets to work on compressing it.

Could just be because Apple have absolutely no idea how to write software for those Apple computers.

[Paul Roper]

Plonk this into your rotation of the gain amount needle:

(I’ll send you the project too!)

– Paul

VU=thisComp.layer("VU needle").transform.rotation;
linear(VU,-90,0,-90,-45)

[Paul Roper]

Bah….this bug still hasn’t been fixed in CS6, despite me reporting it to Adobe.

[Paul Roper]

Yeah – that comes up if you option-click on “About After Effects”.

Sadly, one of the first things I always do whenever I get some new software, is hold down shift-option-command-control and do an “About…” to see if anything exciting happens.

[Paul Roper]

Thanks Dan! You surely are the AE Expressions genius!

[Paul Roper]

I’ve found a few such questions on various forums, and no answers – I’m also trying to export using Adobe Media Encoder, with timecode, having grown sick of waiting for Apple’s pathetic, antique Compressor to do its thing.

So…burnt in timecode in Adobe Media Encoder – is it possible? Anyone? Please?!

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Fantastic as ever, Dan! Thank you – it worked perfectly!

– Paul