[Tim Glaim]

What is the difference between the two forces? Why are there two? I only need one wrecking ball, don’t I?

I’ll try your recommendation if we can’t find out why this isn’t working. It just seems like there has to be a less complex way of doing this. I don’t understand why adjusting ONE setting doesn’t work.

[Tim Glaim]

I’m not trying to delay the effect. I just need it to start out unshattered and then be completely shattered – to the point where all the shards have flown off screen – a couple of seconds later, but the shatter effect only works on one frame.

[Tim Glaim]

Aha. Thank you for clearing that up. I think it’s silly that you can’t just reverse the effect by switching the placement of the keyframes, but at least now I understand it better.

Having said that, I still can’t get the effect to animate at all. I can make it shatter at 0:00:56:03, but no amount of adjustments made to the same settings will make it shatter at 0:00:57:00. It won’t even do anything at 0:00:56:04. 0:00:56:03 is literally the only frame where I can get it to work. If this effect only works FORWARD in time (for whatever silly reason) why does it work at the first frame of the layer, but not in the middle?

[Tim Glaim]

What is the second force for? I see it there to the right, but when I mess with the parameters, it doesn’t do anything.

“the “shatter happens at the layers in point”
Try that again? Layers in point?

So if Strength isn’t the one I need to adjust, what IS? I’ll try your precomp suggestion, if I can get this thing to animate one way or the other. Thank you. ^_^

[Tim Glaim]

I’ve tried the Curves but couldn’t get it to look right. I’ll give the others a try. Thank you.

[Tim Glaim]

Update:

I still have no idea why it wouldn’t work at all before, but I got it to work by deleting the Shatter effect from the layer and trying again. Now, I’m struggling with the incomprehensible parameters. I want the head to shatter and come back together. I’ve kind of figured out what the Depth, Radius, and Strength do, but they don’t behave in any way that makes sense. Case in point:

Notice the Strength setting. That’s the only one I’m going to adjust through this whole thing. In this shot, I’ve set the Strength to 0.1 and it’s starting to shatter. Good. Now, without touching the Strength setting again, I’m gonna move my play head down to a second later.

At this point in the timeline, I’ve set the Strength to 0.0, but notice that the head is still in mid-shatter. Why? The Strength setting is only thing that’s different. At 0.0, the head should be unshattered, as it is here.

See how I’m on the same frame as the last picture, with the same 0.0 Strength setting? But in THIS picture, the head is unshattered. Why? It only stays shattered if I go to the earlier point in the first picture, turn the Strength up to 0.1, and then go back to the 00:57:00 mark. Again, I just want to animate the head shattering and coming back together, but when I set keyframes where it’s shattered, then keyframes where it’s UNshattered, and then go back to the shattered keyframes, it doesn’t work. The settings just stay stuck where they are. Any ideas what’s going on?

Thank you VERY much.

[Tim Glaim]

I fixed it by adjusting the Anchor Point instead of the Position. I don’t know why that worked, but whatever.

Thanks, anyway. ^_^

[Tim Glaim]

Update:
If I manually move the last keyframe into place and then go back and highlight the rest, hold Alt, and drag THOSE, THEN it works. I have no idea why that is.

[Tim Glaim]

No, that doesn’t sound like what I’m doing. I’m not using any kind of cross fade. Thanks, anyway.

[Tim Glaim]

This doesn’t seem to be working in AE CC. I’m holding Alt and it just moves all the selected keyframes non-proportionally. Help!