[Walter Soyka]

If you want to move both the mask and the content together, you should move the entire layer. Do not double-click to gain access to the mask; single-click (or select in the timeline), and drag in the preview panel wherever you want it to go.

You can also select the layer in the timeline, press P to open the position property, then click and drag (scrub) the position values in the timeline to move the layer.

[Walter Soyka]

Yes. I’d suggest enabling time-remapping for each layer within your precomp, then exposing those parameters with Essential Graphics. Then you’ll be able to animate them as Essential Properties in the main comp, and it will all only take one layer.

[Walter Soyka]

You should speak with the production team responsible for running the display system. They will almost certainly have very specific requirements for how you deliver media to this system.

FYI, the largest raster size Ae can deal with is 30,000 x 30,000. It’s possible to run this many monitors off a single system, but it’s also likely that you may be asked to pre-split your outputs across several systems that will play in sync.

[Walter Soyka]

It depends on how the template was built, but it’s possible that some of the properties are linked to expression controls in a specific comp. TrueCompDuplicator would not address this automatically.

This is easy enough to build around from scratch, but if you’re using a template that is not build with this in mind, making the changes could be a lot of work.

Perhaps the path of least resistance is using completely separate AEPs for the different looks, and editing the outputs together in Premiere?

[Walter Soyka]

You can use Fractal Noise as the foundation of this effect. You’ll want to adjust the effect’s built-in Transform/Scale properties to get the vertical feel, and you can animate either the effect’s Evolution or Transform/Position properties.

Then you can stack on a blur and a Tritone to complete the look.

[Walter Soyka]

We could definitely write an expression to handle this, but I’ll need a lot more insight into your setup to be helpful. How are the values you have generated? What is keyframed, and how should the alignment values change between keyframes?

Posting even a stripped-down AEP will help a lot.

[Walter Soyka]

The effect name is just a string, so you can use Javascript’s string manipulation tools to build whatever you like.

For example, if your layer name were “4”, this line should get you what you’re looking for:

thisComp.layer(“Timing”).effect(“Start in (Frame) Picture " + thisLayer.name)(“Slider”); 

Note that it’s a good practice to do some error-checking in your expression so an unexpected layer name doesn’t break everything.

[Walter Soyka]

Yes. Following cat logic, if I fits on it, I sits on it.

If your source and your matte don’t fit, then it won’t sit.

For Set Matte to work the way you want it to, both the layer it’s applied to and the layer it’s referencing have to be the same size and the same position. This always works with text and shape layers, because they are continuously rasterized to the size of the comp. When you precomp your footage and animate inside the precomp, it also stays at the size/center of the comp.

[Walter Soyka]

This is not a bug — this is expected behavior for 3D layers with the CINEMA 4D renderer.

If you change your comp back to the Classic 3D renderer, you’ll get blend modes and motion blur back (but of course you’ll lose extrusion).

You can find this in the Comp Settings window (under 3D renderer), or there’s a dropdown menu on the lower right corner of the viewer panel.

[Walter Soyka]

I think you could do this with Trapcode Tao, which creates 3D geometry along paths. You’d apply your halftone as a texture to the geometry and it should deform with the wave.