[Walter Soyka]

Try dragging and dropping the file from Explorer or Finder into the project instead of using the Import command.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Check out this sample project:
12475_scalepath.aep.zip

You need Ae CC 2018 v15.0 or higher to have expression access to paths. This project is set up to work on masks on solids, but it could be adapted to shape layers.

Here are the setup instructions if you want to build it from scratch:

1. Create a solid named PATH_SOURCE, and add a mask to it named Mask 1.

2. Create a solid named PATH_SCALE, and add as mask to it. Also, add two Slider Control effects to PATH_SCALE, and rename them xScale and yScale in the Effects Control Panel or on the Timeline. Alt+click the Mask Path property stopwatch on the PATH_SCALE layer’s mask and paste the following code:

originalPath = thisComp.layer("PATH_SOURCE").mask("Mask 1").maskPath;
var newPoints= [];
var newInTangents = [];
var newOutTangents = [];
var totalX = 0;
var totalY = 0;
xScale = thisComp.layer("PATH_SCALE").effect("xScale")("Slider")/100;
yScale = thisComp.layer("PATH_SCALE").effect("yScale")("Slider")/100;

for (i = 0; i < originalPath.points(time).length; i++) {
totalX += originalPath.points(time)[i][0];
totalY += originalPath.points(time)[i][1];
}
var centroid = [totalX, totalY] / originalPath.points(time).length;

for (var i = 0; i < originalPath.points(time).length; i++) {
var point = originalPath.points(time)[i];
var delta = point - centroid;
var scaledPoint = [delta[0] * xScale, delta[1] * yScale];
var scaledCentroid = [centroid[0] * xScale, centroid[1] * yScale];
newPoints.push(scaledPoint + centroid);
}

for (var i = 0; i < originalPath.inTangents(time).length; i++) {
var point = originalPath.inTangents(time)[i];
var scaledInTangent = [point[0] * xScale, point[1] * yScale];
newInTangents.push(scaledInTangent);
}

for (var i = 0; i < originalPath.outTangents(time).length; i++) {
var point = originalPath.outTangents(time)[i];
var scaledOutTangent = [point[0] * xScale, point[1] * yScale];
newOutTangents.push(scaledOutTangent);
}

createPath(newPoints, newInTangents, newOutTangents, thisComp.layer("PATH_SOURCE").mask("Mask 1").maskPath.isClosed());


I’d be happy to try to answer any questions you might have about what exactly the code is doing.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Can you show a screen shot of your entire After Effects UI, with the clip selected in the project panel and in the timeline, and with its transform properties and effects exposed? Or maybe upload a small clip that we can see?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Lisa Adess] “i looked into the network rendering option in AE but all over i see that it has to be exported as an image sequence. My question is, is that the only output format? does that mean i cant use it if my video has audio? “

See point number 3 in my notes:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1119178#1119205

You can export audio, but only from a single machine. By setting up a post-render action, you should be able to handle the audio and stitching.

Maybe look at Render Garden? It’s new this year and should solve a number of your problems pretty easily.
https://www.mekajiki.com/rendergarden/

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Steve Bentley] “When displayed or used in a comp there is zero difference between an Animation-Best codec and an Uncompressed codec”

There can be subtle differences between Animation and Uncompressed.

Animation is RGB and cannot be chroma subsampled, while Uncompressed is Y’CbCr, and usually with 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. That means that they can represent different colors (some 8-bit RGB colors cannot be represented in 8-bit Y’CbCr and vice versa), and of course the chroma subsampling introduces artifacts (especially in edges which can have a noticeable effect on compositing).

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Does it work if you download and install Maxon’s After Effects plugins?

https://www.maxon.net/en/support/downloads/

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Scale is expression-able, but font size, typeface, etc. are not.

You might consider using the Master Properties feature of the latest release of Ae; then you could build one comp to control the style, animation, etc., and edit the individual text values in your other comps. If you’re working with Premiere, you can use Motion Graphics Templates.

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/creating-motion-graphics-templates.html#main-pars_header_1586269523

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

It’s vanishingly rare to use H.264 for projects like the one you describe. Like Tero said, you need to speak to the technicians running the playback system.

Traditional video standards and workflows do not apply to custom displays, and because there are so many variables, no one but the playback operator can give you the details on how to deliver your work.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

Here’s a quick sample:

function myScript(thisObj) {
// function to build the UI
function myScript_buildUI(thisObj) {
var myPanel = (thisObj instanceof Panel) ? thisObj : new Window("palette", "UI Test", [0, 0, 300, 300]);
var res =
"group { \
orientation:'column', alignment:['left', 'top'], alignChildren:['left', 'top'] \
userValue: EditText {text:'10'} \
doItButton: Button{text: 'Go'} \
}";

//Add resource string to panel
myPanel.grp = myPanel.add(res);

//Setup panel sizing and make panel resizable
myPanel.layout.layout(true);
myPanel.grp.minimumSize = myPanel.grp.size;
myPanel.layout.resize();
myPanel.onResizing = myPanel.onResize = function () {this.layout.resize();}

// UI handlers here
myPanel.grp.doItButton.onClick = function() { doItFunction(myPanel.grp.userValue.text) };

return myPanel;
}

// invoke the UI here
var myScriptPal = myScript_buildUI(thisObj);
if ((myScriptPal != null) && (myScriptPal instanceof Window)) {
myScriptPal.center();
myScriptPal.show();
}

// what shall we actually do when the user presses the Go button?
function doItFunction(x) {
alert(x);
}

}

myScript(this);

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Walter Soyka]

[Chris Smith] “Yeah I get way smaller size when I put “Animation” codec settings, but I wanted smaller size in “Uncompressed 8-bit” because my coworker get size like 10x smaller in this settings. Can it be some Mac or PC differences for Adobe? Because I don’t know how he get that small sizes in “Uncompressed 8-bit”.”

There are three things that affect the size of uncompressed video: the raster size, the frame rate, and the pixel format. There is no way to affect the size of uncompressed video, other than changing the characteristics of the video itself. If you’re getting a 10x difference, you must be comparing similar files.

You also mentioned H.264 in your original post. H.264 is usually highly compressed. If Uncompressed is one end of the spectrum, H.264 is the other… so it sounds like there’s some confusion here. Let’s back up. What is it that you’re trying to accomplish?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]