[Ridley Walker]

What version of After Effects are you using?

Here is a screen grab from CS6.

[Ridley Walker]

Can’t see from the screen shot but my suspicion is that the Precomp layer is square and what your’e seeing is the layer boundary.

[Ridley Walker]

This can be a thorny issue, its really no wonder that you’ve had no response. There are still strong opinions on all sides of the OS / hardware debate.

I think the real questions are what software you intend to use, how big your budget is, – what other consequences arise from switching platforms that may affect peripherals, transfer of software licenses etc, – and how comfortable you might be switching.

Performance on a high-end PC currently outstrips the top MacPro, at a cost. Its easy to spend 10-12k building a super machine. Apple is releasing a new Mac Pro soon but its cost and specifics aren’t yet known.

Its clear that there are more configuration options on the PC side, more video cards, larger cases to accommodate drives, upgradeable processors. If you’d prefer to buy off-the-shelf HP makes some terrific workstations, the Z820 and Z600.

As far as the software goes, you’ll barely notice a difference between the Windows and OSX versions.

And if you are brave, you could always try a dual boot PC, Windows and Hackintosh.

I’m still working on a 2 1/2 year old 12 core Mac Pro that I’ve upgraded with a stock nVidia card and 64GB of RAM which still serves my current needs.

My next machine may not be a Mac. I built a low end Hackintosh this summer to see how difficult it was, it proved to be trivial. The machine is stable and hasn’t crashed once, though I’m just using it as a media server, not for real work.

[Ridley Walker]

[Jakob Wagner] “I’m simplye trying to do something like this in a script:

thisLayer.position.x += 5;
“

If you just want to increase the value by 5 use this:

value + 5

[Ridley Walker]

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/boomerang_2.php

[Ridley Walker]

Would this work?

Text value is expressed as a slider value. Layers are parented so they move together.

6631_numanim.aep.zip

[Ridley Walker]

[Reuben Fink] “Is there a way to change the spacing without changing the speed of the animation.”

What if you just reduce the size of the particles and then adjust the Z offset W under World Transform?

[Ridley Walker]

Would a simple “Follow the leader” animation suffice?

6603_followtheleader.aep.zip

The Layer labeled “Leader” has a slider control that adjusts the offset.

[Ridley Walker]

Not sure I agree, here’s the math.

iPad resolution = 1024×768 @ 132ppi.

Make the graphic and After Effects Comp 1840 x 1382 @ 72ppi (Roughly 1.8 times the size)

Output PNG sequence.

Batch change the resolution in Photoshop.

Try a test with a single frame to see whether it works.

[Ridley Walker]

Could you output the files in After Effects at the correct pixel dimensions as a PNG sequence then use Photoshop to batch convert the sequence to the appropriate resolution?