Pre-Comp Solid Mode Question

I have a pre-comp that contains a white solid at the bottom of the pre-comp's layers.
I want to set the mode of the white solid to multiply so that it's hidden.
Since there is nothing below the white solid in the pre-comp, this doesn't work.
When I bring my pre-comp into my main comp, I can set the mode of the pre-comp to multiply, however there are text layers in my pre-comp who's colors get messed up.
I can not set the opacity of the white solid to 0 or turn off the layer since I'm using the solid to capture shadows from the text layers above it.
Is there any way to accomplish setting the white solid's mode to multiply within the pre-comp so that the white area is hidden?

Thanks David that worked.
However this solution has caused another problem.
Inside of my pre-comp I have a camera, a light, a 3d text layer and the white solid is also a 3d layer.
When I turned on the collapse transformation switch in my main comp, it seemed to shift the position of the 3d text layer off from where it was in my pre-comp (which is the same exact size as my main comp).
Anything I can do to help keep it from setting things off?

Similar Messages

Pre-Comp Question

How do I prevent an object that is partly outside the composition window in a pre-comp layer not be cropped off? I am animating a pre-comp layer but part of the object starts outside the window. When I move it into the frame the areas that were outside the composition window is cut off.

> When I move it into the frame the areas that were outside the composition window is cut off.<
As Myl says, make it larger.
This is a fundamental aspect of precomposing but it's not immediately apparent until you've banged your head against it a couple of times. Understanding the apparent limits of precomposing is crucial to being able to make them all go away; they're not limitations at all.
bogiesan

Masked pre comp of clip not showing clip motion within the mask please help

Hi there,
I'm trying to create a phenakistoscope Phenakistoscope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia out of a motion picture of a dancer.
I've transformed the clip of the dancer and precomposed it and then masked and animated the rotation of the pre comp in a new composition. I then duplicated the now animated pre comp 20 times offsetting each one, a frame later than the last to create the wheel effect with trailing frames.
The animation of the mask and offset is working fine, however the footage in the clip is not playing in the masked composition.
please help, here is the project file. Dropbox - caropheankistope.aep
RAW FOOTAGE SAMPLE Dropbox - carolina base_raw sample.mov
NON WORKING COMP SAMPLE OUTPUT Dropbox - carolina base_sample.mov
Thanks
adam

I'm replying to your question on my phone so I can't look at your project but I did look at your video.
Here is what I would do to troubleshoot the project. First run a RAM preview of the pre-composed and masked wedge comp. If that plays back correctly then everything else should work unless you have applied some kind of time effect to the duplicated layers. If that doesn't work then show us a screenshot of that pre-comp with all of the properties of the movie layer revealed (Press that u key twice).
If you have not sorted this out by the time I get back the office I will try and take a look at your project.

What exactly is a 'pre comp' please?

hey guys!!
i am just getting to grips with the basics of AE CS4 and i am loving it!! what a fantastic piece of software!
now i am new to this so apologies for the silly questions but just trying to get my head around how AE works!
re pre comps, i had a comp with lots of layers and i wanted to animate it as a whole so i made these into a pre comp, animated and had my wicked way with them and then just rendered this 'pre comp' is this how they work please?
so a comp is like a mini project right?
but can someone explain what a pre comp is please as i have watched many tutorials on this and they assume you already know what one is??
a clear down to earth explanation would be great! thanks!

'precomp' is short for 'precomposition'.
To "precompose" a set of layers is to compose/composite/render them together as a unit.
It is often very useful to precompose a set of layers together so that you can then use the result (the precomposition) as one item.
That precomposition can be used as the source for a layer in a composition. When this happens, the precomposition is "nested" in the containing composition. So, 'precomposition' and 'nested composition' are terms that often get used interchangeably.
For more information, see the
"Nesting, precomposing, and pre-rendering" section of After Effects Help.
I highly recommend working your way through the "Getting started" materials linked to from the
After Effects Help and Support page. We put a lot of free stuff for beginners up there.

Pre-Comp with Collapse Transformation / Masking / Expression Controls / Etc

Is there an issue with Pre-Comps and with the Collapse Transformation enabled?
I have a Pre-comp that has various layer modes in it and in the main comp, the Pre-Comp has collapse transformation enabled to see the layer modes so the text can blend into the background (otherwise the text is just a flat color).
The pre-comp works completely fine until I add a mask to it or say a expression control and then all of a sudden the collapse transformation stops working and the text loses it's properties.
This cannot be working as intended...otherwise I can't do any sort of reveal with a mask with anything that is pre-composed and has any sort of blend modes within the pre-comp.
The pre-comp also loses it's collapse transformation if you even put a expression control on it.

Contrary to what you think it works as intended. Effects require rasterization as do masks. This is inherent how AE's render pipeline works. You need to restructure your project.
Mylenium

Pre-comp 3D Ray-Traced text quality

I've made some text in AE. It looks smooth and great until I pre-comp. Then it gets some aliasing around the edges and is nowhere near as smooth.
Text looks aliased in the pre-comps. If I click the 3D icon on my master comp, it becomes smooth in master comp. Unfortunately, I can't leave 3D checked on because I want to apply effects to the 3D text - hence, the pre-comps. Changing the ray-trace quality and anti-alias filter type does not appear to change anything for me.
Any suggestions?
AE CS6
Win 7 64
2GB GTX 560 Ti
16GB RAM
i7-2600k
Thanks,
JB

I'm not exactly sure what your comp looks like but here are some guidelines. If you want to use Ray Traced rendering then you cannot apply certain effects, blend modes and other things to the 3D layer. If you pre-compose and collapse transformations you should be able to then apply effects to the pre-comp and still see the 3D and move around the object with the camera. If you turn on the 3D switch for the pre-comp the effects will then go away and the edges will show aliasing.
The Collapse Transformations switch looks like a * and is just right of the shy icon.
If that doesn't solve your problem then we need to see a screenshot and maybe a flow chart of your project.

CC Tiling Pre Comp?

Hello everybody.
I'm making a music video in which the audience is taken through a "vortex" like tunnel in space. Similar to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwjfrAn0hnA
However, in my video the tunnel is made up of 10 audio waveforms that respond to the music. This is how I've approached the project so far...
I made a wave form with the built in "Audio Waveform" feature. I precomposed the waveform and the song. I made a new comp and duplicated the waveform ten times across the comp and disabled the audio on all but one of these pre comps. I pre composed all ten layers and made another new comp.
So, it looks like this New Comp With Pre Composed Wavesforms > Ten Waveforms > Original Waveform
In the new comp I applied the CC Cylinder effect and using this created the "vortex".
This is the way I made the vortex http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuOOyZxsTLo
Here comes my problem. The built in waveform generater can only make wave forms about 150 pixels long. I thought I'd apply the CC Tile feature to the original wave form and set the output height to as high as it needed to be to last the whole song. However, the CC Tile feature only goes up to 2000 pixels, which, after I apply a 3D camera and make it travel through the vortex at the speed I want it to go, only equates to about 20 seconds. The song is 3 minutes.
I originally tried adding the CC Tile feature to the Precomposed Waveforms but the effect doesn't seem to work on precomps. I then tried it with the original waveform and that's when I discovered what I've just explained.
Can anybody help me out? Any ideas are welcome because I'm really stuck here.
Thank you!

What do you mean by "The built in waveform generater can only make wave forms about 150 pixels long"?
This isn't correct. The Waveform Generator is only limited by the size of the layer it's applied to. If it's limited to 150 pixels, you must have applied it to a solid/layer that is 150 pixels.
Create a much larger solid and redifine your waveform length.

Use camera from pre-comp without collapsing comps

Hello,
I'm facing a problem that I can't solve.
Hope you can help.
I have a huge composition with some precomps, imported from photoshop, with blending modes etc.
Everything is working fine, but in one of the precomps I turned the layers 3d, and added a camera.
On the precomp it works fine, but when I go to the main comp, nothing happens. I solved the problem
collapsing pre-comps, but the thing is that I lose all the blending modes of my elements.
Any idea of how to keep my blending modes and also use the camera from the pre-comp?
(The pre-comp is a graphic with a much bigger resolution, that I need the camera to zoom-out)
Thank you.
Best,
João

My pre-comp works fine, when I say nothing happens, I mean there is no camera movement on the main comp as in the precomp.
If I move the camera to the main comp, and lights, The pre-comp gets the movement I want, but doesn't get rid of the resolution size of the pre-comp.
But I think that shoul do the trick if I increase the size of the precomp.
Thank you guys for all the help

Light in pre-comp

Hi all!
Cs6/CC, Mac.
I have Main Comp and Inner Comp in it.
In second there are some solids and lights.
When i look at preview in Inner Comp, i see effect that lights provide, but when i go to Main Comp, i see Inner Comp's content like i have set no lights up.
In Main Comp 3d and transformation collapse triggers are enabled for InnerComp.
Is there a way to get the effect of my lights to Inner Comp content in Main Comp without putting them right into Main Comp?
i dont neet lights to work on Main Comp. just to Inner one.
Thanks!:)

First, you don't need the layers to be so big. Set pieces, your walls, should only be big enough to fill the frame when the camera is farthest away. If you need to do really big moves you can build your set in sections eliminating the parts (layers) that move off screen as the camera moves. Plan your work so that you don't have huge images in the scenes that have to be scaled way down to fit in the frame.
Second, I would work the other way around. I'd put my characters in Pre-comps and make them bigger than they need to be in the scene. Work on the individual performances in the pre-comp, then put them in the scene in the main comp as a 3D layer with collapsed transformations. I spent about 15 minutes setting this up tonight while the AME is kicking out a render. Hopefully it will give you some ideas.
Try playing with the project a bit. The walk cycle and smile are animated in the pre-comp. The blocking of the character - movement within the scene is animated inside the Main comp with the character in the room. There are a couple of other tricks here. Check out the expression that keeps the actor looking at the camera and the expression that ties focus distance to the point of interest to allow easy adjustment of the depth of field.
Run your motion tests with the lights turned off for faster previews. When the motion is good, Turn on the lights. The project was saved as CS6.

After effects CC 2014 transparency properties of pre comps, collapse transformation on, no longer keyframeable???!!!

Hey there,
lately I'm using After effects CC 2014. Now I had to make the experience, after optimizing (collapse transformation) the pre comp, the global property transparency is no longer working.
I can make keyframes but the pre comp acts like my easy ease keyframes are hold keyframes. Btw if the collapse transformation button is unchecked it works fine but than i don't have the optimization features. It's a catch 22. Sure, I can go into my pre comp and set the keyframes there, but this is pretty annoying and seriously not the way to work.
So is that a bug in CC 2014?
Help is needed.
Computer specs:
Mac osX 10.9.4
2 x 2,4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
32 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB
Thanks for any advice
Gwen

Layer styles render in a different order so lots of things can get fouled up with you use them. They are still usable in complex situations, you just have to apply them in the right place in your composite. I've never found a situation where I needed a Layer Style and another effect that I have not been able to work around the limitation.
There are other things that change the render order. After Effects only does one thing at a time. The basic render order is listed right in the timeline view. Here's a sample.
Basic effect with Layer Style turned off:
First Mask 1 is applied to the layer, then Mask 2 is subtracted creating the hole
Then Fast Blur is applied, then Bevil Edges to create the button with the soft edges
Then the Transform controls take over and the anchor point is evaluated, the position reported, then the scale, then the rotation, and finally the opacity
Then the Layer Style is applied.
In my button design I want to apply a stroke to the button so that I looks like this but with the soft base and a stroke on the inside hole:
But, as you can see I had to turn off the Fast Blur to get the stroke to work because the Layer Style Stroke is calculated from the alpha channel, which fast blur has made 76 pixels wide so with Fast Blur on I get this:
The solution to my problem is to pre-compose and add the layer style to the pre-comp, then use an adjustment layer with masks for the fast blur to get what I wanted in the first place:
So here's what AE is doing with the final project.
The background layer is rendered
The pre comp is added to the mix
Inside the pre-comp the layer is rendered
Mask 1 is added to give rounded corners
Mask 2 is subtracted to punch the hole
Layer styles are applied to add the stroke
Back in the main comp the pre-comp is rendered
Bevel Edges is applied to the pre-comp using the alpha chanel
Now the adjustment layer is added to the mix
Mask 1 is added and this limits the area in the underlying layers where effects applied to the adjustment layer will work
Mask 2 is subtracted from the adjustment layer poking a hole in the effects
The fast Blur is added blurring only the bottom edge of the button
There you have it. An in depth tutorial on the rendering order in AE and how to use nesting and pre-comps to reorder effects to get what you want.

AE CC Pre-Comp Issue

Please review the screen shots. As you can see the Comp preview in After Effects looks quite a bit different than what Media Encoder and Premiere Pro is displaying.
This seems to be related to pre-comping because if I pre-comp the layers in AE I get the same mis-alignment... Clealy I want to the alignment to stay intact.
Here is what it looks like in After Effects:
Side by side of After Effects and the preview of Media Encoder. Notice how the You are watching right edge does not align with the bottom box right edge in Media Encoder?
And finally how it appears when importing the After Effects project into Premiere Pro. Same issue as Media Encoder.
While the most obvious issue is the alignment of the boxes, there is also an issue with the over all size. The AE project was aligned striktly to Safe Margins, but that alignment is lost in Premiere.
The issue seems to be a pre-comp issue in AE becuase I can produce the same result if I pre-comp all the layers in the AE project.
I'd like to attach the AE project, but cannot seem to find a way to do this. If this is possible, please let me know how.
Thanks for any help.

You are not viewing the scene from the active camera view in After Effects.

How can I export a comp or pre-comp to another AE project without having to rebuild or make a movie?

Can I export an AE comp or pre-comp to another AE project without having to rebuild or make a movie? In regard to tweaks or timing changes based on that projects' needs.

First, save the project in a different name. Delete out the comps & precomps you neither want nor need. Run AE's reduce project command to remove any unused footage, then save it again. Now you have a simplified project, which you can then import into any AE project you want.
If you like things nice & tidy, don't forget to use the replace layer (Alt-drag, Opt-drag) trick on any duplicated footage, using the footage from the project into which you import the simplified project. The alternative: just leave all the footage alone, and know you can't delete it.

AE CC2014 will not let me select individual/collective mask points, or boundaries on a pre comp and therefore moves the entire comp or scales (depending on where I've clicked obviously)

I'm working on a project that requires a similar style to the 'Criminal Minds Suspect Behaviour' titles. I'm precomping photos so that I can do edits in a separate comp but then placing those pre comps into a master composition where I will use the camera and masks to reveal the images in the required sequence. I am having an issue selecting mask points. It was working fine with no issues earlier today, but now I cannot select single or collective points of a mask nor a boundary of one either. What happens when I do try is that it just moves or scales the comp entirely and ultimately the mask is useless as I cannot animate it at all. Hope someone can help! I've reported it as a bug to Adobe but because I'm unaware of the process that causes it I'm worried they won't get back to me. Any help or troubleshooting tips would be amazing! Thank you in advance!

It sounds like you need to adjust the masks in the nested comps, but you're trying to do it in the main comp. Not good. Nothing happens. Do it in the nested comps.
And if you're doing that, it also sounds like spending some quality time here will be VERY helpful:
Getting started with After Effects (CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, & CC)
It's better to learn AE from the Pros instead of a high school kid with sketchy AE knowledge on YouTube, y'know?

In Logic X surround panner grayed in pre-fader freeze mode

In Logic X surround panner grayed - can't change anything - in pre-fader freeze mode. Logic 9 works fine. There is some new setup i loose? Thanks

the peak level display got an error -0.1db and in some cases -0.2db, when Apple will launch an update for such a serious problem? this can compromise a complete mastering

Toggle Layers Visibility Animation in Pre-Comp

Hi, I want to make a pre-comp with 2 mouse-pointer images, the one has the normal state, the other image has teh pressed pointer state. Now in a parent layer it'd be wonderful if I could use this pointer-pre-comp and when ever I want to show a pressed-pointer, I set a keyframe set (pree / unpress) to the pointer-pre-comp within the parent-pre-comp ... is such a thing doable ? Because rt now I'm animating out every single step.
Regards,
Frank

If you know anything about expressions you could do it with a Slider Controll. Because the pointer and the over state are different sizes you'll have to change opacity of both layers. I'm calling your pointer comp "pointerComp" (this name doesn't matter) and attaching adding the expression slider to a null named PointerController (not important) in the mainComp i'm naming "Main Comp" (and that name matters a bunch). I also named the slider Opacity Slider by selecting it in the ECW and pressing return the same way you rename layers in the timeline.
Here's the expression for the over layer's opacity:
comp("Main Comp").layer("PointerController").effect("OpacitySlider")("Slider");
for the second or normal layer we'll do something a little different. I'm going to subtract the value of the slide from 100 because opacity can only be in values from 0 to 100.
The expression looks like this:
100 - comp("Main Comp").layer("PointerController").effect("OpacitySlider")("Slider");
The only typing I did to create these expressions was to type in the 100 -
The rest was created entirely with the pickwhip by separating the two timelines and locking the null's Effect Controller window.
The last part of the solution is set keyframes and animate the Opacity Slider between 0 and 100. You can set pairs of keyframes a couple of frames apart if you want a little fade, or you can set the keyframes to Hold Keyframes using Animation>Toggle Hold Keyframe or using the keyboard shortcut Alt/Option + Cmnd/Ctrl + H.
Here's what the project looks like. It took longer to explain it than to do it.

Pre-Comp Solid Mode Question

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