[Walter Soyka]

Can you post some screenshots or even an AEP so we can see what you are seeing?

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

[Walter Soyka]

I’m not entirely sure I understand. You want the slider to be the amount of increase per frame, relative to the last frame?

So if I start the slider at 1, my values go 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

And then I change slider to -1, the values continue 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, -1?

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

[Walter Soyka]

Should the leaves come on-screen randomly, or do you intend for them to show some kind of pattern?

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

[Walter Soyka]

Totally depends on how the rig is built. Can you post some screenshots of your complete UI, with any of the rig’s expressions exposed?

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

[Walter Soyka]

[Mark Paterson] “Surely there’s a way to simply pick one of the ‘Render Settings’ templates with a script?”

There is! You use the the applyTemplate method of the render queue item, like this:

var comp = app.project.activeItem;
var item = app.project.renderQueue.items.add(comp);
var outputModule = item.outputModule(1);
item.applyTemplate("Multi-Machine Settings");
outputModule.applyTemplate("Multi-Machine Sequence TIFF RGB");

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 post a reference image that shows what you’re trying to create?

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

[Walter Soyka]

Alpha channel and small file size don’t really go together.

ProRes 4444 will probably be smaller than Animation codec for most footage, but it’s still pretty big.

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

[Walter Soyka]

Use a negative value for depth instead of a positive value.

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

[Walter Soyka]

After Effects has blend modes, just like Photoshop:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using//blending-modes-layer-styles.html#blending_modes_and_layer_styles

If you can’t see the blend modes in the timeline panel, click the “Toggle Switches / Modes” button near the bottom left of the timeline panel.

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

[Walter Soyka]

You need to either run the command from the After Effects program directory, or you need to provide the complete path to aerender.exe on the command line:

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2019\Support Files\aerender.exe" -project "D:\My Great After Effects Projects\projectfile.aep"

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