Walter Soyka
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Forum Replies Created
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I don’t remember noticing a significant difference in project file size between CS6 and CC. How big is your 1 layer file?
Some features store a lot of data in the project file — the Warp Stabilizer in particular. If you want to maintain small file sizes, you might consider doing Warp Stabilization in a separate project and rendering intermediates.
I’m not sure what the impact of using Creative Cloud Libraries is on project file size; I don’t use that feature, all though it was also introduced between CS6 and CC.
Other than those notes, there are no settings that you can change that will affect the size of the AEP.
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Or forget keying and use Rotobrush:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/roto-brush-refine-matte.html
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I think this can be done manually, pretty quickly, without breaking anything.
You’ll need to do three things:
1. Select all keyframes and use the “Time-Reverse Keyframes” keyframe assistant.
2. Reflect all layers in time. If a layer BEFORE reversal starts 10f into the comp from the beginning, it now needs to end 10f out from the end. If your layers are all trimmed to their first/last keyframes, you can just move the layers in the timeline. If not, you’ll need to move the keyframes instead, following the same logic.
3. Any footage layers need to be individually time-reversed.
To more easily accomplish step 2, throw a text layer in your comp and add this expression to its source text:
timeToFrames(thisComp.duration - thisComp.frameDuration - time);
Set your comp’s time display mode to frames. Now, when you put the current time indicator on a spot on the timeline, the text layer will tell you what its corresponding “reflected time” should be. So, for example, in a 900-frame comp, put the CTI at the beginning of a layer that STARTS on frame 100 (or has its first keyframe there), and the reference text will tell you that layer should END on frame 800 (or have its last keyframe there).
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Speed is most important for the cache; I’d definitely move that to your M.2 drive. Speed for footage is less important unless your comps are really heavy on I/O.
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Nice! Thanks, Filip!
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I don’t think you can do this with a repeater; I’d do it with multiple layers.
See attached project. It’s a bit of a weird idea, but we can use the graph editor to visually define a function that we can use to drive other values. The best part is, that function can be mathematically precise, or it can be art-directed as you need, just be tweaking the curve. In this project, I have applied exponential easing to the “Distribution Curve (0-1)”.
How does this work?
A function takes an input (x) and returns an output (y). By defining the graph of our functioni in the timeline, we can use time as X (input) and the value of the property as Y (output). We can then get that Y value with the valueAtTime() expression, and rescale it to whatever values we need in our comp.
Big picture: we’re using this curve/function to drive their X position as their layer index increases.
More details: The comp has a CONTROLS layer with selectors for the first and last layers in the set, and the minimum and maximum X values to assign. For each shape layer, as its index goes from the index of the first chosen layer (currently 2) to the last chosen layer (currently 21), we sample along the curve we made from our input time=0 to time=1. As that the output of the function goes from 0 to 1, we position the layer from the minimum to the maximum value.
Then, just to be really fancy, we have a Strength setting that allows you to animate the layers from the positions you define with the XPosition property for each to their correct location in the distribution (as strength goes from 0 to 100). Right now, they’re distributed horizontally, but if you selected all the Shape layers and used the Align Left button, they’d all start at 0 (the left edge of the frame) and go out to their positions as you animate Strength from 0 to 100.
Check it out and ask questions!
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I think only the current version and the previous version are available in the Creative Cloud app.
Adobe support might be able to help you; you could try contacting them.
But maybe we can help solve your issues with Ae 2022 or 2023? We’ve got half a dozen artists on the current release with no issues.
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If you right-click a standard text layer (called “point text” in Ae) with the Text tool active (not the ‘V’ move tool!), you can convert it to paragraph text. You can convert paragraph text back to point text this same way.
You’re right that you can’t animate the bounding box of paragraph text, but Filip Vandueren has a great technique that lets you rescale the paragraph box while keeping the text the same apparent size (forcing it to reflow):
https://creativecow.net/forums/thread/text-shall-move-to-another-place-and-with-another-wrapping/ -
We’ve had much better results using GifGun for GIFs straight out of After Effects:
https://aescripts.com/gifgun/But we try to do animation for the web from After Effects by targeting Lottie, via the Bodymovin plugin:
https://airbnb.design/lottie/
https://github.com/airbnb/lottie-web -
1. You need to be using at least After Effects v17. (I think this is when text style expressions were added.)
2. You need to have the modern Javascript expression engine selected. This should be on in new projects be default, but in case it’s not, open your Project Settings, then in the Expressions tab, choose “Javascript” instead of “Legacy ExtendScript.”