[Roland R. kahlenberg]

In PPro, its Frame Hold feature works well with AeMoGRTs. Pair that with edits on the AeMoGRTs at strategic points is far more productive and PPro Editors are accustomed to these tools – edit and Frame Hold tools.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’ve never found time-stretched AeMoGRTs to work reliably in PPro. Instead of time-stretching in PPro, use cuts/edits in PPro on the AeMoGRT. Then ALT+Drag to create a duplicate and adjust accordingly. This will of course not work if you have elements within the AeMoGRT that animate continually.

HTH

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Render Time is not accurate – agreed – too many dynamic variables at play but it is a quick way to for identifying bottlenecks.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

The issue with inconsistent results is with AE using its cached results. So, the best tests are those that start off fresh, with no cached data – purging cache data prior to starting a preview is a good starting point for conducting tests.

BTW, do your Expressions use the valueAtTime() method? And is there a reason not to bake the Expressions into keyframes or even perhaps to just use keyframes instead of Expressions? I’m asking because I’m working on a script that works well with lots of layers and keyframes.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You’re welcome.

On the Opacity setting, I use the Render Time column in the timeline to do my checks – it’s supposed to be accurate AFAIK to check if processing is being done to a layer. How are you doing your checks?

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Windows 11 Pro, I9 Intel 14th Gen, NVidia 4090 and 128GB RAM

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’ve got a blog on this – https://www.broadcastgems.com/post/how-to-write-performant-expressions-in-adobe-after-effects-developing-intelligent-bespoke-motion

broadcastgems.com

How to Write Performant Expressions in Adobe After Effects - developing intelligent, bespoke Motion-Brand Toolkit Systems

After Effects processes each Expression on every frame - understanding this and other important bits of information will help you write Expressions that are more performant; leading to better user-experiences for your users and this includes yourself.When developing bespoke Intelligent … Continue reading

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Thanks Dan. I just noticed the strange character insertions and yes, The “http://” insertion was WILD! LOL

Thanks for tidying it up. 👌

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I wrote an AE Script to provide a decent level of protection for Expressions – https://broadcastgems.gumroad.com/

It’s called AeXpressions Encrypter

It does name scrambling of your variables. And if you have a complex set up, it will work well. it will work better if you also scramble your Effect Control names.

You may also want to place the source text property in the Essential Graphics Panel and let the user know that is the only place to edit text input.

I write not only complex expressions but they’re also usually with Adaptive and Responsive Features. This means each set up can be quite easily used to create hundreds and even thousands (or more) variations with not too much effort for each variation. So, it’s critical to protect my IP.

broadcastgems.gumroad.com

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’m not familiar too BUT I would look at using System/Script Prompts to proceed to the next stage.