[Quentin Block]

Thank you Pawel. This is very useful and I think I can adapt the settings to do what I want. I’m curious to see if your question is answered too…
Best,
QB

[Quentin Block]

Thanks for the idea – anybody know of a way to achieve this with the plugins/effects that come bundled with AE?
I’m trying to do this on a University computer and it will not allow us to install anything on the HD (aside from the usual budgetary issues;)
Cheers,
QB

[Quentin Block]

Many thanks Dan!
That worked well. You made my day!

2 questions if you have time to answer…

Does ‘stretch’ always refer to the amount within expressions? (I thought it had something to do with scale…)

also, can you tell me what the [s,s] was for?

Cheers,
QB

[Quentin Block]

Took me hours to figure this out as I’m expression-illiterate, but I kept getting an error when I used the above expression.

I had to change the word ‘audio’ in the last (just inside the parentheses) line to ‘opacity’.
Then it worked great!!!

minAudio = 0;
maxAudio = 25;
minOpacity = 0;
maxOpacity = 100;

thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”)
linear(opacity,minAudio,maxAudio,minOpacity,maxOpacity)

Thanks for the start and hope this helps the next person that needs this expression!
QB

[Quentin Block]

Just a quick follow up – I changed all the files to wavs, re-installed + updated Aftereffects, and did a host of other things that were suggested on different forums. The comp still seemed to crash.
What worked definitively was that I stopped editing the sound waveforms in s separate related comp timeline that was undocked (and parked on a second monitor). I didn’t crash after doing that.
Hope this helps if someone else runs into this problem…
Cheers and thanks for all the advice.

[Quentin Block]

The audio I’m using is recorded system audio, exported from Audio Hijack Pro. There’s no .wav option – only mp3, AAC, Apple Lossless (.m4a), or AIFF.
I can convert all the audio files to .wav if necessary in an external program, or I can use one of these…
Any thoughts?

[Quentin Block]

Thank you for the reply.
I’m using aiff files.
I do need to be flexible with the audio – sliding it around and tweaking the animation accordingly. Need to be able to move all the pieces…
I guess I can try merging a bunch of the layers – outputting them into one track and then re-importing them? (to reduce the number of audio layers)
But I didn’t know that AE can’t handle many audio tracks. I’ve used lots of different footage pieces (with audio) and audio tracks before without these problems…
Any other suggestions why it might be crashing so much?

[Quentin Block]

Great, thanks.
Are there settings/specs that you (or anyone) recommend(s) for optimal playback on the COW?
I’d be using Compressor to format the clips…
Cheers,
QB

[Quentin Block]

Thank you for the reply.
Is there a preference (from the COW perspective) for categories where random motion gfx clips (like interstitials, show packages, etc.) should be posted – those that don’t fall into commercials, short films, etc.?

Also I’m wondering if there is a list of preferred specs from COW for videos that users will upload…
Thanks again!
QB

[Quentin Block]

Hi Ron,
Would it be OK to post a bunch of different short clips, rather than an edited reel? I’d like to post several individual pieces and also link to/embed the clips on my website that I’m working on. Don’t want to do anything that violates the COW.
Vimeo’s compression/recompression is NASTY for clean, fast moving motion gfx.
I didn’t see a place/category on COW’s videos/reels for general motion graphic clips – interstitials, show ID’s, promo’s etc.