Resizing Composition question...

Hello,
Forgive the noob question.
I've resized the composition, and the footage I have within it doesn't resize. No problem, but then I select my footage and/or corresponding elements and then have to scale down.
Is there a way to select footage/image/etc. and manually input a point size based on the comp settings size? Right now I select the object, and then go to scale under the tranform properties and find a percentage number the best fits. I'd like to be more precise, maybe use pixels dimensions instead of using percentage-based numbers.
Thanks!

What are you doing: making the original comp smaller, or making it bigger?
To make it small, simply make a smaller comp, nest the larger original comp in the new comp, and scale the nested comp to fit the new comp.
To make it large, there's a script that comes with AE that can do the trick.
And I have absolutely NO notion why you can't get the necessary precision using the scale property as it is. I don't think I've ever heard that come up before. Your eyes must be a whole lot better than mine to see the difference between 23.42% and 23.43%.

Similar Messages

Workflow and Compositional Question

I have footage from 22 GoPro cameras, mp4, which I have imported natively into AE (11.02, OS 10.8.3 Mac 2.66mhz Quad Tower 16g of RAM) into 1 composition. I plan to achieve the effect desired and then output a production codec, 422 prores for inclusion in my Premier project timeline. Is this a valid workflow?
Next the compositional question:
Most of the 22 cameras (in an array) recorded two or more files of the 16 mintes of run-time, (there are 6 separate takes in that time period). I pre-composed those footage files (after aligning a slate and for the seamless play of each layer) to neaten up and make more compact my AE timeline.
The effect I'm trying to achieve is a Time-Slice/Bullet Time where I can "cut" from one camera to the next all along the array, thereby freezing the action, but having the "camera" move around the subject - and then have the last layer/camera keep playing. At the precise frame I want to freeze I put the opacity of each layer to 0 successively at the desired "freeze point" however in my ram preview only the first footage layer plays. Without the opacity transformation on each layer I can achieve a rough version of what I'm trying to do by Solo'ing each individual layer and I cannot figure out why making each layer 0 opacity successively isn't working.
Also once I completed all the Opacity transformations, the bottom layer should be visible 1 frame after the layer above it goes to O opacity, but it is in fact BLACK! What the heck?
Do I need to slip each layer 1 frame forward in time so only 1 frame of each layer plays? Again "turning on and off" each layer with Opacity? I've found the answer to this question, at least for now. Each successive clip gets trimmed to the desired frame, then slipped one frame in front of the layer above (save the top layer, which is trimmed to the frame). This way the same frame is played over and over from each camera along the array.
Have I made a mistake by using the Pre-comps mixed with the 1-take footage? In other words, my main comp now includes Pre-comps of the 2 files produced by most of the cameras, along with the original mp4 footage of those cameras which only recorded one file for the action.
And further; once I have the frames visible in the correct order would I Pre-compose again and apply a sfx like pixel motion to interpolate between the difference in angle/frame due to the difference in each camera's position? Please suggest an alternative workflow or compositional layout!
I hope I've been clear, I'm here and willing to clarify if I've omitted any details.
I still would appreciate answers to the remaining issues if anyone has input for me. The question now is: to time remap, or timewarp (which one?) before Pixel Motion - and is Pixel Motion best for frame interpolation to smooth it all out?
http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd402/jessedavidharris/ScreenShot2013-03-30at31603PM.p ng
Thank you very much,
Jesse

Ok believe it or not I'm still having problems with this process. And please excuse my ignorance about Alpha Channels. Your instructions should be easy to follow, but I think I'm getting confused with some language. Please allow me to let you follow my workflow - point out where I'm in error.
This is the Bullet Time Comp - referring to your 1. Comp. I render this comp to a 422PR .mov and call it Bullet_Time_v3_DI_422
I then take the above DI and import it to the Project and place it in a separate comp called BulletTime v3 DI 422, and then add an Adjustment Layer with Timewarp to Speed Up the bullet time. This refers to your 2.
Next, from this comp I render out another 422PR DI, WITHOUT precomping the Adjustment Layer and Footage, is that ok? Giving me a "Speed Up" DI. And this is where I get shaky... This is the part I don't understand:
You draw your masks not on the lower layer in the master comp. When you duplicated the 'Speeding Up' composition layer inside of the master comp, you precompose the lower layer, open up the newly created precomp ('Matte') and draw your masks there.
It looks to me like BOTH items are precomped here in your Master Comp - The Movie. I know you've spelled out the steps very clearly, but I'm missing something here...
Below what I've done is to drag that last 422 DI referred to above and is the "Speed Up" footage resulting from the 400 Speed Timewarp Adj. Layer and Bullet Time DIn rendered out to "Speed_Up_DI_422. Into my Master comp, duplicate it and draw masks on the lower one.... but evidently this is incorrect. And I haven't added the overall Adj. Layer with 50 Speed Timewarp yet. But as per your comp I should be drawing masks completely separately.
Where is this "Matte" comp coming from?! From your instructions it is a duplicate of the Bullet Time + 400 Speed DI's How did it get in a separate comp by itself? Then I must import it to the Main comp so it's paired with the Bullet Time precomp (footage)?
I'm so befuddled I'm not even sure how to forumulate my questions properly. My apologies. What am I missing here? It seems like you're spelling it out so clearly.

Can't resize composition elements

I'm creating a version of my site for mobile phones. So, I copied and pasted a lightbox composition. I resized all of the elements in the lightbox to what they should be. However, the container element of the lightbox will not resize. I've tried dragging the borders, but it snaps back to the original size. I've also tried changing the size by typing in the new dimensions in the Width and Height boxes, but the element still snaps back to the original size. How do I fix this?

Hello Bruce,
In order to change the size of the Target container, you first need to change the size of the Image frames (for all the Target images in your Lighbox Widget) and if you have text captions then you also need to make sure that the size of text boxes for those text captions is also reduced. Only then you would be able to reduce the target container's size.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sachin

"News" screen composite question...

Hi!
Just got FCE. I want to make a NEWS screen (Little box with video composited on colored background) with a person standing in front of a colored background. I have a greenscreen, and I am slowly learning how to do that.
As for the 2 other components....
1. How do I get a colored background (can I use Live type's textures?)How do I put it in the project?
2. How do I get a small video box layered on the screen (with video or pic) to display the "news feature" part?
I would appreciate any help--the tutorial for this does not explain these kind of things. I am VERY new at this---and don't go to school for this--so I have no one to ask.
Ellen

You have a lot of learning to to.
Try this to start with the image sizing question
http://fcpbook.com/Motion%20Control%20in%20FCE.html
As for the textured background, you can create that in LT, and then put it inside FCE on the layer underneath the green screen shot.

Book | paragraph composition question

I'm an amateur, so forgive this question if it's very basic. I'm putting together a long book in InDesign and am having a hard time with paragraph composition. In typical book layouts, text always appears aligned (each column of text starts and ends at the same point on the page as the next column). This seems to be achieved without irregular leading or visibly noticeable gaps in tracking or kerning. I'm trying to figure out how this happens. How do I adjust the composition of my text so it fits flush against the top and bottom of a text frame and looks neatly aligned from column to column and overall visually clean? I hope I'm explaining this well.
This is the kind of clean layout I'd like to achieve:
vs what I've currently got (notice irregular gaps between paragraphs and how third column is not aligned at the bottom with the other colums...etc):

Note that the Baseline grid feature only works on a line by line basis -- it rounds your leading up to the next baseline.
How do I adjust the composition of my text so it fits flush against the top and bottom of a text frame [?]
Align to Baseline will not automatically do that for you -- if you have blank lines between your paragraphs, or you are keeping the first and last 2 lines per paragraph together using Keep options, the bottom of your pages may still look "ragged".
You can't always avoid this, because you might have a heading with two blank lines above and one below, which ought to be kept together with at least the first 2 lines of its following paragraph. That needs 6 lines of text -- if you only have 5 lines left at the bottom of a frame, the entire block will jump to the next page.
However, using a few tricks you might be able to avoid some of the 'missing lines' at the bottom of your pages.
If you look at your original spread, you see that the left page, left column ends with a single first line of the next paragraph. Technically, you ought to avoid that (it's called a 'widow'), using the Keep options in your paragraph style. However, for a two-column book you might want to relax this rule. On the other hand, you don't want at any time the last line of a paragraph at the top of a new column. That's plain ugly, because it might be a single word plus a period.
You can adjust the text per page to prevent these, as well as the blank line at the bottom of the right page, left column, by minimally tweaking the text spacing. For example, to get rid of that 3rd column blank line at the bottom, you can adjust the tracking for a paragraph that either has a very short last line (the middle paragraph of the 2nd column), to gain one line, or for a paragraph with a very long last line (the middle paragraph of the 3rd column) to lose one line.
I always choose the longest paragraph with either a long or a short last line, so the necessary change will be as small as possible. I also look back a few pages before trying, because if you cannot win something on this page, you might be able to do so on a previous page. After I change it, I always look forward a few pages, because sometimes it may make things worse for several consecutive pages. In that case it's better not trying to fix it.
As for what to change: you are 100% spot on when observing
[t]his seems to be achieved without irregular leading or visibly noticeable gaps in tracking or kerning ..
because if it is visible, you won't have achieved your goal. Your taste might differ, but I am partial to changing the tracking only, and never (well... hardly ever) beyond -10 (to gain) or +10 (to loosen up). And these are extreme values; if I only can gain one single line in a not too bad spot by applying -10 to a paragraph in the middle of otherwise perfectly spaced paragraphs, I don't do it.
(The hard part comes when you have to edit the text after all your hard labour. Click into paragraphs that look 'suspicious' and check if you have tinkered with them. It might not be necessary anymore! So remove the tinkering.)

Template Composition Question

I'm working off of a Template that uses multiple composition layers. I want to copy on of these layers and change it slightly to then be used farther down the timeline, but any change I make to the copy also changes the original composition. I tried several different ways of copying the information over but always ran into this same issue. Is there a way around this?

Find the nested comp in question. Duplicate it. Rename it if you want. Make the changes to the duplicate. Add it to main comp where desired.

Difference Compositing Question - Please help me and my daughter

Hey guys, I am trying to do something that is probably very simple but I can not figure it out.
I have 3 clips:
1. 1 minute clip of empty room.
2. 1 minute clip of my daughter running in and hiding.
3. 1 minute clip of my daughter running in and looking for herself.
The goal obviously is to layer the clips so that she appears twice in the same video at the same time. I have tried switching the level that the clips are in and switching which ones I turn the "Composite Mode" "Difference" on but I always end up with a really funky psychedelic result.
What level do I put which clips in?
Do I use clip 1 at all or do I just layer the other two?
Which one(s) do I turn on the "Composite Mode" "Difference" on?
What else I am missing?
I know it is a lot to ask for, but could someone please give me a step by step list of exactly what to do?
Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!!!
Thanks in advance,
Dan

You might want to try a different approach to achieve this effect.
NOTE: was the camera locked-off on a tripod for every shot? Each clip has to be filmed from exactly the same position for this to work.
Firstly... you should be using the Difference Matte (effects>video filters>Key>difference matte) to do what you want to do.
Secondly, it's very difficult to get a good result using the difference matte in DV, there just isn't enough data in the image to get clean crisp results, and you can spend ages trying to get it looking remotely satisfactory... very frustrating... (That's a major assumption... that you are using DV...?)
Have you tried using a 4-point (or 8-point) garbage matte? Does the image of your daughter 'looking', ever cross over the back-ground of your daughter 'hiding'?

Compositing Question Involving Color Matching

My workflow is as follows: I created a spinning 3D logo in Maya which I then imported into Shake. I'm using Shake to composite the logo over a dark gray background. I use Shake to render a simple QT movie (using the animation codec) which I then use in Sorenson Squeeze to produce a .F4V movie for use in Dreamweaver CS4. The target media is HTML.
Everything works great save for the fact that I'm having trouble matching the gray background between Shake and Dreamweaver.
I've set up a color node in Shake using 8-bit RGB. The RGB value range is set 0-255 HEX and I've selected a value of #262626. In the "Parameters 1" tab in Shake, the color is displayed using 0.0 - 1.0 format (0.15, 0.15, 0.15).
The compositing scheme is very simple. After rendering in Shake, I don't perform any color changes in Squeeze. I'm simply transcoding the video to the .F4V format.
In Dreamweaver, I'm attempting to place the SWF (with the .F4V source) into a table with the background set to #262626. However, no matter what I do, I cannot get the background in the video to match the background in the website. Am I overlooking something?
Thanks!

Thanks Jon.
I did some further experimenting. I used Apple's DigitalColor Meter to troubleshoot my workflow. The QT movie rendered in Shake is perfect (RGB = 383838, HEX = #262626). The problem arises in Sorenson Squeeze. I was using one of the newer presets included in Squeeze 5 (F9FastStart512K) which utilizes the MainConcept h.264 video compressor. The resultant .F4V shifts the color. I also tried the F9_HQ preset and ended up with the same problem.
I changed the preset in Squeeze to F8_HQ (which utilizes the VP6 Pro codec). The resultant .FLV is very close. In fact, I can't discern any blemishes on my MBP's display.
I also thought about web-safe colors (as you suggested). I tested web-safe variations but ended up with the same results after encoding in Squeeze.
The root cause of this problem appears to be the MainConcept H.264 codec included with Sorenson Squeeze 5. I suggest using a VP6 Pro codec. My animation is now clean and ready for posting.
Thanks again Jon.
Message was edited by: Rob Frei

Resize Composition to Layers Scale

Hi AEScripters,
could someone tell me why my script doesen't center all my layers?
(I'm trying to build a tiny crop tool)
thnx a lot
:F
Here is my code:
// written by fabiantheblind
// http://www.the-moron.net
function fitCompToLayer()
app.beginUndoGroup("fit Comp To Layer");
var activeComp = app.project.activeItem;
var selection = app.project.activeItem.selectedLayers[0];
var myScale = selection.scale.valueAtTime(0.0,false);
var myScaleW = myScale[0];
var myScaleH = myScale[1];
activeComp.width = Math.floor((activeComp.width/100)*myScaleW);
activeComp.height = Math.floor((activeComp.height/100)*myScaleH);
// this doesn't work. but why?
var newWidth = app.project.activeItem.width;
var newHeight = app.project.activeItem.height;
var myLayers = activeComp.layers;
for(var i = 1; i< myLayers.length;i++){
myLayers[i].position[0] = newWidth / 2;
myLayers[i].position[1] = newHeight / 2;
app.endUndoGroup();
fitCompToLayer();

haha. Or you make this the easy way like this:
To crop the composition to the region of interest, choose Composition > Crop Comp To Region Of Interest.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f05 a.html

Resizing JTabs question

I have a JTabbedPane containing tabs with custom tab components set using setTabComponentAt. The tab components are JPanels with a JLabel for the tab title, and a JButton to close the tab. The problem I have is that when the text in the JLabel is changed it can become larger than the actual tab. This causes the close button to disappear off the end of the tab.
I havn't been able to find any way of resizing the tabs to fit the updated content. Does anyone know any way to do this?

What are you doing: making the original comp smaller, or making it bigger?
To make it small, simply make a smaller comp, nest the larger original comp in the new comp, and scale the nested comp to fit the new comp.
To make it large, there's a script that comes with AE that can do the trick.
And I have absolutely NO notion why you can't get the necessary precision using the scale property as it is. I don't think I've ever heard that come up before. Your eyes must be a whole lot better than mine to see the difference between 23.42% and 23.43%.

Green screen composite question

Hello all,
I need to be able to put my own video on the "green screen" that this couple is watching on TV:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=11473468
I'm a complete novice at this but I'm assuming the TV, my video, and the people watching have to be on separate layers?
(so that my video does not appear "in front' of the people's heads)
Can I do this with Final Cut Express or is there some other software app I can use?
Thanks in advance!
Mike

You video should be scaled and place on the bottom (V1).
The stockfootage clip should be above it on V2,
with the chromakey filter applied to it.
When your adjusting the key, check at the very beginning
of the clip when the woman's shadow is on the green screen.
Make sure you the green color selection includes those darker shades of green.
If you shoot the video to use in the TV by playing the footage through
a real monitor, it will probably look a bit more realistic,
since you can play with a little reflection off the glass,
and you could even block the reflection when the woman walks by.
Details make composites work.

Resize slide question

I am trying to convert a slide show that is in a 4x3 aspect ratio to a custom 8x3 aspect ratio. I have changed the slide size from 1024x768 to 2048x768, and that works fine.
However, I need to old 4x3 slide content to be on the left side; currently is seems to default to centering it on the new, larger format.
Is there any way to accomplish this?

More information (was on my phone before) in this document:
Top issues | Adobe Captivate 8.0.1

Compositing question

Hi,
I have a background photo of a coffee table (the biomorphic Noguchi table) as my bottom video layer. I want to show video playing within the weird shape of the table top. I know to put these video shots on an upper layer of video, but beyond that, I'm not sure what to do.
Do I need to make an alpha matte from the coffee table top in Photoshop (which I'm not sure how to do)? Or create the effect totally in FCP.
Also, one other twist: I might want to rotate the coffee table photo so that the top surface directly faces the audience (as if it were shot from above, but it wasn't)
Thanks so much for assisting me on this!
--Eve
PS - I'm working in FCP-7.

To add to Mr. Grenadier's excellent advice, yes, both the distortion of the background photo and the cutting the matte should be done in Photoshop. One note: the last couple of versions of Photoshop no longer support the creation of .pct (pict) files - use .png or .tif instead.
There are ways in FCP to do this process, but the toolset is much more limited you won't be able to achieve the finesse you can in Photoshop.
To see a tutorial for doing an effect something like you describe, staying within FCP, here is a tutorial I made a while ago to help someone else:
https://vimeo.com/34973575
MtD

Resizing image miss a lot?

I limited (width x height) to (500 x 500), and size to 500kb, but the extension miss` the work a lot, I can see many (38xx x 24xx 1.5mb) images pass the limitation and the page shows allocate memory message, does anyone got same problem?

This is similar to a year-old question, as several people say that disabling browser.enable_automatic_image_resizing has no effect.
[[How do I turn off "image auto-resizing"?|Question 693382]]
EDIT: I see that this option is "When viewing an image not in a web page", so it is not relevant to images being fitted into web page blocks.

HELP! How do i color correct an area of a video?

Hey
Im new to after effects cs4. I made a time lapse video of the sky. However, the sky is to bright and you can't really see the clouds very well. I would like to change the 'levels' of the sky, but not the buildings at the bottom of the video. So only half of the video will have colour correction on it. How do i do this???? Thanks!

The gist is simple:
Create an adjustment layer.
Draw a mask on the adjustment layer.
Apply the color-correction effect to the adjustment layer.
The devil is in the details. For example, if you need to animate the mask, you may have some rotoscoping to do.
Here's a video that shows how to do this in a case where the item to be color-corrected is moving:
http://www.peachpit.com/podcasts/episode.aspx?e=8822f9a1-93c5-4a00-8697-a54b653c7aaf
This is actually a very basic compositing question, so I'm going to strongly recommend that you begin at the beginning and work your way through the getting-started learning materials.

Resizing Composition question...

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