[Roberto Mata]

Alright, I got it.

Seems that the tab Output > Source Scaling DOES matter. I had black borders selected.

Sorry for the bother.

[Roberto Mata]

Thanks, but the plot thickens.

As I said before, I have animated some scenes in Ae. Specs: 1920×1080 set to 24fps.
I tried and render each scene in Ae itself into lossless quicktime files. Later, I imported those .mov into Premiere and did a rough cut. I was quite happy with it but after the edition I noticed that some important moves of the characters didn’t make it into the cut, so I needed to go back to after effects and make some minor adjustments.

At that moment I realized the dynamic link property and opened a new project with the comps themselves instead of the lossless .mov files.

My average laptop couldn’t handle it. I guess I need more ram. Every time I opened the project, either it crashed or give me the missing media warning.

Armed with patience, I finally got new .mov files from Ae with the improvements applied. Imported them into Pr, finished some nice cut and proceeded to export.
I wanted a version for Vimeo, so I followed these steps:

Format: H.264
Preset: HD 1080p 23,976 (I don’t know why it doesn’t give me the 24 fps option, so I select this one and then, in the Video > Basic video settings tab I choose a frame rate of 24)
checked ‘Use maximum render quality’.
Bitrate settings: VBR 2 pass

To my surprise, the resulting video is tiny. Half of the screen played in VLC or when uploaded to Vimeo. No way that’s 1080p.
Please, what am I doing wrong?

[Roberto Mata]

Just one, Dave.
Anyway my project is back to how it was supposed to, but if I can add anything for people to figure this issue out, I will be glad to help.

Thanks

[Roberto Mata]

I opened the document directly in illustrator, Dave.
Turned the visibility off to work better on the layer and forgot to turn it on again before I saved.
(which had no relation with the missing parts of the layer on after effects, as every layer except for one were blinded in AI but just two or three were relocated or missing in AE).

Yes, a lot of AE weirdness, even for this Windows user.

Thanks for the help.

[Roberto Mata]

Well, seems I solved it.

Thing is I had turned off the visibility of some layers in the illustrator file before I saved.
I’ve opened and turned the visibility on again and everything seems in place in AE.
Doesn’t make much sense, but it’s solved.

[Roberto Mata]

No, that wasn’t the case.

I polished one single mouth shape of a character, without changing anything else.
Now the background elements of the scene are a total mess. Oh, but the mouth is is place… that’s something.

Oops, forgot: and just to make things a little spicier, one of the elements within a layer imported into after effects as a single AI layer has disappeared. Just great.

I can’t do anything to revert, once the AI changes were saved, can I?

[Roberto Mata]

Finally got it!

Let me share what I was doing wrong:

Dan gave me this expression

cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 1){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}

Which I read in the following way: If the checkbox (HORIZONTAL) is ON, it enables the slider for horizontal mouths opacities (MOUTHS_HOR). Else, with the checkbox OFF, it enables the slider for vertical mouths slider (MOUTHS_VER).

The problem was I pasted the variation in every opacity paramater affected.

So for the S shape of the mouth i.e. I had:

H_MOUTHS_S

Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 1){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}

V_MOUTHS_S

Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 0){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}

So I was, somehow, replicating the inverse order. So for checkbox ON I had one expression that enabled HORIZONTAL mouths AND, because of the expression variation for V_MOUTHS_S, I was enabling ANOTHER set of HORIZONTAL mouths in the position of the vertical ones(!), since it enables its ELSE and there will always be one set of mouths with opacity 100%

Finally I figured out the solution, of course based on Dan’s premise, idea and code.

H_MOUTHS_S

Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 1){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else 0

V_MOUTHS_S

Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 0){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else 0

Thank you, Dan. You were very helpful and force me to expand (just a little) my understanding of expressions.

[Roberto Mata]

Nah, it doesn’t work for the LIDS and MOUTHS.

It does work for the comps which opacities hadn’t been expressed yet (pupils, eyebrows and head turns), though.
That’s why I thought it would work for every other layer.

I’m pasting the basic layers and expressions of my project, so that hopefully someone can point out what i’m doing wrong:

1. HEAD_CTRL (null):

– HOR/VER (checkbox)
– HEAD_TURN_HOR (slider)
– BLINK_HOR (slider)
– MOUTHS_HOR (slider)
– HEAD_TURN_VER (slider)
– BLINK_VER (slider)
– MOUTHS_VER (slider)

2. V_MOUTHS_U (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("V_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 0){a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}

(same for 10 more vertical mouths variations)
…

13. V_EYEBROWS (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("V_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Y position
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=30)&&(a<40)) value else value+4
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==0) 100 else 0

14. V_LIDS_CLOSED (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("V_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 0){a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}

(same for 3 other vertical LIDS variations)

18. V_R_PUPIL (comp): parent: PUPIL_R_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("V_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==0) 100 else 0

19. V_L_PUPIL (comp): parent: PUPIL_L_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("V_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==0) 100 else 0

20. PUPIL_R_CTRL (shape) parent: EYE_R_CTRL
21. PUPIL_L_CTRL (shape) parent: EYE_L_CTRL
22. EYE_R_CTRL (shape) parent: H_HEADTURN
23. EYE_L_CTRL (shape) parent: H_HEADTURN

24. H_MOUTH_U (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("H_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 1){a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}

(same for 10 more horizontal mouth variations)

35. H_EYEBROWS (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("H_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Y position
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=30)&&(a<40)) value else value+4
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==0) 100 else 0

36. H_LIDS_CLOSED (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("H_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 1){a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("BLINK_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=0)&&(a<10)) 100 else 0
}

(same for 3 more horizontal LIDS variations)

40- H_R_PUPIL (comp): parent: PUPIL_R_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("H_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==1) 100 else 0

41. H_L_PUPIL (comp): parent: PUPIL_L_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
thisComp.layer("H_HEADTURN").timeRemap
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==1) 100 else 0

42. V_HEADTURN (comp): parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HEAD_TURN_VER")("Slider");
framesToTime(a)
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==0) 100 else 0

43. H_HEADTURN (comp) parent: HEAD_CTRL

– Expression: Time Remap
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HEAD_TURN_HOR")("Slider");
framesToTime(a)
– Expression: Opacity
cb=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HOR/VER")("Checkbox");
if(cb==1) 100 else 0

Thanks for the help!

[Roberto Mata]

Hello,

My doubt was solved in this thread:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/28901

Thanks.

[Roberto Mata]

It worked smoothly, Dan.
I’m so thankful!

However, I’ve noticed that I have to express horizontal AS WELL AS vertical opacities (cb==0), which I find weird, because the if/else expression for horizontal opacities (or its negation, in a certain way) should automatically enable the vertical ones.

cb = thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("HORIZONTAL")("Checkbox");
if (cb == 0){
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_VER")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}else{
a=thisComp.layer("HEAD_CTRL").effect("MOUTHS_HOR")("Slider");
if((a>=90)&&(a<100)) 100 else 0
}

Anyway, you saved my day.
Thanks again.