After Effects Expression deactivate layer if in comp

Hi guys,
I am currently working on a huge animation with lots of comps. I have certain animations, that are used several times, but I don't want to duplicate all the comps and I am trying to figure out a more elegant way to use those comps.
Is there an expression, something like (" if layer in pre-comp1 is nested in comp2, then opacity=0", or something like that), to deactivate certain layers if they are nested in a certain comp?
Thanks in advance!

An expression can only access another comp by name. Tthere's no way for it to figure out which precomps its parent comp is nested within.
Dan

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After Effects Expression language measures time in seconds. So:
if (time <= 1) {
x = 100}
else x = 200;
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After Effects not rendering layer transitions

Dear Gurus,
This is my first day with After Effects but i've done plenty of research and hopefully my main query here isn't a silly one.
I have a composition (made from JPEG sequence) with a number of layers and finally managed to add a 'block dissolve' effect between them.
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(2) In iMovie (sorry for the comparison), it was really easy to just drop a transition between two sets of footage. In After effects, I added the effect to the clip then had to click the timeclock icon and specify the duration etc etc.. Not a big deal but is there a easier way?
That's how AE works. It's simply a different paradigm.
(3) Also in iMovie there appeared to be a lot more normal/bland transitions effects like cross fades. I'm sure they are possible in After Effects - could someone give me a quick pointer?
Of course there is - you stack and combine effects to produce new effects and unique looks which for all intents and purposes can be consecutive applications of transitions as well - one linear wipe from the right, one from the left, one from top, one from bottom and all with different timing - animated organic crop. Once animated, you can save this as an animation preset and re-apply it to otehr layers. Check the help for the gory details. Of course you can also get tons of extra plug-ins to add more and more such stuff, but if I may be so bold: If your sole intention is to produce slideshows with canned transitions, then you are using the wrong tool and on some level mis-using AE. As I already said above - you need to get into it if you realyl want to exploit its creative potential. AE is not an editing tool or any such thing, it is a versatile compositing tool and that power comes with a price. Even if you ever only use 0.5% of it, you need to adapt your workflow.
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Hey all,
first of all, i'm new here and i'm not a pro adobe user so please bear with me!
I have been working on this project for over a year in after effects. It contains more than 1300 layers and has always worked perfectly, untill now.
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Help!
I have seen one other question about this problem without a resolution. If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
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Hi,
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Hi, I'm actually working on simulations of movements and I'd like to make an expression to set position and rotation in function of time . my functions are :
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I'm sorry for my bad english ://

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I'm using the CS4 production premium, XP Pro, HP dc7600 Convertible, Intel(R) Pent. D CPU 3.4GHz, 3.39 GHz, 3GB RAM.
(yes, I know I need a better machine)
I've done my show without a problem for 6 weeks.
This week I had serious issues.
I'm producing a 10 minute show, shot on a green wall, with 3 separate cameras (3shot and 2 closeups).
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Jim,
Thanks for the suggestion. What I ended up doing was using the AE render que to render each clip, then I replaced the linked comps on the Pr. timeline with the fully rendered clips prior to exporting the finished movie.
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Something odd that I noticed, when I use dynamic link from Pr. to AE, the library in AE shows the clips but they have the "unknown file type" icons. In order to make AE do anything properly, I have to select each clip I import into AE and hit Ctrl + H (to relink the file).
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Watching for the "missing or unknown file type" icon is a real time waster, but at least I can re-establish the link and then proceed.
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Anthony

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Create a project and a comp. Copy the timeline from Premiere Pro and paste it into the timeline of After Effects.

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anita-s wrote:
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OH! That makes much more sense.
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FR: Complete integration of Premiere and After Effects

No more Dynamic Link, all functions of both applications
available within a single interface.
Thoughts?
I might subscribe for this one.

I agree 100%.
With proper memory management techniques, I should be able to open the cloud applications the way I open Chrome. When I open Chrome on my desktop, I get a home page with the news I want, a tab for these forums, a tab for Google Maps (which I use a LOT), a tab for YouTube and a couple of others.
When I start up the "Creative Cloud" why can't I have tabs for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Speedgrade, Photoshop & Audition? And I should be able to add or delete any other application from the suite that I want. Like InDesign (now that I finally have a reason to use it to make Premiere Pro titles) or Illustrator. Or Flash. Or whatever.
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The tabs across the top should probably disappear unless the cursor goes up into that area, to avoid waste of screen real estate.
Each application should run standalone, or it could run as a piece of the puzzle. Either way.
Why in the world should I have to even save a PSD and then import it into Premiere Pro. If I change from Photoshop to Premiere Pro, a message should come up asking me if I want to import it into Premiere Pro, and give me the option of making this the default action so that it only ever asks me that question once.
Think big, Adobe.
Exactly!
Treat a suite of products as an integrated suite!

After Effects Expression deactivate layer if in comp

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