Tom Hawcroft
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Kalle,
Many thanks for your response, apologies for not replying sooner I was away this weekend and I needed to experiment more with my document… I’m afraid I just cannot get it to print correctly and I’ve testing on a few printers – detail which should be hidden is showing through. Example below, the PDF on the left and the printed version on the right.
You may understand my confusion as the PDF looks fine! I’ve tried flattening transparency, rasterizing the gradient… Maybe it’s something to do with overprinting? I really don’t know. The gradient layer actually degrades the details underneath: they should be smooth vector lines getting more faint but they appear pixellated .
Should I perhaps be applying some sort of transparency mask on top of the map, or is a white gradient the ‘right’ way to achieve this kind of result?
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Hi Steve,
That’s great advice, thanks very much for your insight.
All the best,
Tom
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YES! Thank you!
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Hi Dave, Ted,
I think I’ve figured it out, feel a little embarrassed to take up your time but it may be useful to others so here goes:
The problem is not DUIK, it seems to have been caused by scaling the pieces and then parenting them together. Once in AE I realised some segments were not quite right, so for instance I scaled a thigh segment to 115% x 80% which looked fine, but when rotated these proportions seem to affect the child layers so that they become warped.
This free Lynda.com video explains it pretty well:
https://www.lynda.com/After-Effects-tutorials/Dealing-non-uniform-scale-issues/79652/116891-4.html
You can use a null object in the middle of a hierarchy to soak up the non-uniform scale properties of a parent. Not sure that would be the best solution for a puppet however.
I guess the lesson here is to make sure your proportions are spot on BEFORE you import into After Effects. I think I’ll have to create an image sequence and then import it back in, then rename it all, redo the anchor points, etc etc…
Many thanks for your help, as always much appreciated.
Tom
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Hi Rob,
I’ve actually just realised that the puppet tool might not be to blame here, but rather the aspect ratio. Never happened before so I don’t know why, but my PSD layers are being distorted when I move them… either by the comp settings, or their own pixel settings. One step forward, two steps back!
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Hi guys,
I had a weird issue when rigging. It’s on a segmented puppet, and whether I IK the limbs separately or do the whole thing via auto-rig the leg pieces distort whenever I move them with the controller. Visibly squashed/skewed around 90 dgs, and back to normal at the original position. I made sure NOT to enable stretch…
So there’s Thigh > Calf > Ankle < Toe
And the controller on the ankle. Any idea what might be happening here?
Cheers!
Tom
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Hi Walter,
I suspect my system specs are embarrassingly weak, 5 year old Dell laptop with 4gb RAM… but I haven’t had any problems previously with the preview stopping short, so I will suspect it’s either the file being stored externally, or that other applications were draining the memory.
It’s very useful to know that the pre-render format doesn’t really matter in terms of the preview, but would you say that full blown AVI (for a PC) is the best lossless format for this? I saw one tutorial recommending an image sequence.
Many thanks for the response, all knowledge and advice gratefully received…
Tom
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Great advice, many thanks to you both!
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I have just experience this error… The program crashed and now the file is corrupt and I cannot open it even though it seemed to save before the crash was complete.
I have not got any auto saves and have potentially just lost weeks of work… Is there anyone out there who can tell me if there is any solution to this?
Please please please help I do not know where to turn!! I think I may be on the cusp of a complete mental breakdown and I don’t know what I will do if the entire project is lost…
