[Walter Soyka]

Does it help if you tweak the Shadow Map Resolution?

Comp Settings > 3D Renderer > Classic 3D > “Options”

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Walter Soyka]

You’d need to implement a couple of buttons — one to get values from the current time and stuff them into the script’s controls, and another to use the values from the script’s controls to set values for the actual properties at the current time.

When you read the values, you can just modify the controls, like this:
row_1_boxHigh.value=1;
textBox_1.text = "New text string";


You’d use setValueAtTime() to write those values into properties.

But that said, I do think that Essential Graphics is a nice way to go. You can add Groups to manage longer lists, if that helps.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Walter Soyka]

This is doable with expressions. I’ve put together a quick example:
13728_shapes.aep.zip

Basically, we need to get the positions of the two layers, then figure out a point on a straight line between them. All of this is illustrated on the solid layer at the top of the comp.

For bonus points, I’ve also addressed rotation here (in 2D), but you could remove that expression if you didn’t want the shape to follow the angle.

I’m sure you will have questions. Please feel free to ask!

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

[Walter Soyka]

Yes, time-remapping will do the trick. Consider using hold keyframes on each frame (to prevent a “rewind” effect if the footage timebase is different than the comp timebase).

You should probably do the time remapping on a comp, so it’s clear to the user how long the footage needs to be to work in the template.

Here’s a quick example:
13727_timeremap.aep.zip

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

[Walter Soyka]

[Will Poillion] “What are your thoughts on using it to hold common variables you regularly use in new comps?”

I wouldn’t recommend using the global object this way. If you want to stuff a value in there, the expression that creates the value has to be evaluated BEFORE any other frames that rely on it are, and there is no way to ensure that will be the case automatically.

I’d suggest instead creating a comp, null layer, and some expression control effects to hold your “global variables.” You can ensure they evaluate simply by referring to them from elsewhere.

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

[Walter Soyka]

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen these documented and don’t know if these are even available as command IDs.

(Also, it’s worth noting that even if you find them — and I’d sure love to know if you do — Command IDs are internal and subject to change with each new release so this technique may require some maintenance.)

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 cheat? Duplicate the shape layer, animate Trim Paths use a slightly thicker, non-dashed stroke, and use it as a track matte for the dashed layer underneath?

Otherwise, the best I can figure is approximate the length of the path and use that to drive the dash’s Offset value as the Trim Paths “Start” property is animated with an expression like this:

var approxPathLength = length(content("Path 1").path.pointOnPath(0, time), content("Path 1").path.pointOnPath(0.01, time)) * 100;
linear(content("Trim Paths 1").start, 0, 100, 0, approxPathLength)+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]

Sorry, but I would actually do this in C4D. It’s pretty easy: make the sphere by using the Wrap deformer on a plane. You can then animate its properties to fold/unfold.

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 might be worth reaching out to Video Copilot support. Maybe they’ve seen this issue before.

Otherwise, I’d try clearing the cache (Edit > Purge > All memory and disk cache…) or maybe trying a different release of your GPU driver.

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 can’t actually render the Front perspective; although you can see it in the viewer, you can only render the Active Camera view.

You might try building a camera that emulates the Front camera as closely as possible. Put the camera in the center of the viewport, push it very far away, and then zoom in to compensate. The further away the camera is and the longer the zoom is, the closer the camera will approach a no-perspective orthographic view like Front.

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