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.

Similar Messages

Toggle Visio layers visibility in SharePoint 2013 services

Hi,
We have a Visio diagram representing system topology. Systems are mapped to different processes that can be visualized with Active X control buttons and some VB to toggle layers visibility. Works great in Visio.
Doesn't work in SharePoint.
I am posting that to Sharepoint 2013 but I am loosing the functionality.
Is it possible to achieve that with this approach?
If this is not supported is there another approach?

Hi Mike,
According to your description, my understanding is that you want the hyperlink of visio service to open in the same windows tab.
I create a rectangle with hyperlink in a Visio document and set the NewWindow property of the hyperlink to false using VB coding as below:
Public Sub NewWindow_Example()
  Dim vsoHyperlink As Visio.Hyperlink
  Set vsoHyperlink = ActivePage.DrawRectangle(0,0,5,5).AddHyperlink
  vsoHyperlink.Address = "http://www.microsoft.com/"
vsoHyperlink.NewWindow = False
End Sub
However, this hyperlink opens in new tab in my SharePoint 2013 as your scenario. It is by default that SharePoint 2013 Visio Service deals with the hyperlink of Visio document. There seams to be no approach that Microsoft Visio keep the same location
when it follows a hyperlink to open a Web page.
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff767738(v=office.15).aspx
Best Regards,
Wendy
Wendy Li
TechNet Community Support

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

Pre-Comp Braking My Animation

Hello All,
I have been animating in after effects for about a month now, and I am doing a fold effect on a logo using masks. The problem is that when ever I pre-comp or even render the fold animation, it moves the elements, thus breaking my animation. Has anyone else had this problem?

My apologies this is my first time on a help forum. Here is the information on the files, also I'm running After Effects CS6 on a late 2013 Mac Pro;
Processor 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5
Memory 12 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC
Graphics AMD FirePro D300 2048 MB
Software OS X 10.9.4

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 / pre-render workflow?

I've just submitted a feature request at : http://www.apple.com/feedback/motion.html
I wanted to find out if anyone has a workflow that works well for this. I have one but it can be tedious when working with complex animations.
In AE we have the concept of a pre-comp, or a pre-render. Basically you can take a bunch of layers and group them, and pre-render them. You can do the same thing in motion a couple different ways. Motion doesn't have pre-comps, but rather just groups. But you can't render the group within the .motn file. You have to take this group to another motn file, export it, then re-import the ProRes4444 .mov into the larger project. THEN, if you need to make any adjustments, you have to open the smaller motn file, make adjustments independent of the main project, re-export... reNAME export (since the larger project is -using- the media), then relink the media in the overall project.
I'm not an advanced user of AE, but I do understand the workflow and I think motion would benefit from a way to break down the layers into pre-renders, but in a much more straightforward way.
I do know that you can export a selection, and then choose to re-import to media after export, but then you end up with extra layers that you have to hide, and you still have to reimport that .mov and replace the layer you exported. Not very clean.
Additionally, when creating a sub-project, it makes sense to make it the best quality, so if you have something small as part of your project, and you export selection, it will be that same small size in a larger file format. For example, you have a tiny circle spinning in your HD project and you want to "pre-render" it. You export that layer and you have a .mov that's HD size, but your circle is a tiny portion of that .mov. So if you wanted to zoom in on it it would be super pixelated. So the right thing to do is export selection and have the layer autofill into the HD boundaries.
Do the advanced users work their complex projects like this too?...

David/Andy:
Really good points guys. I certainly am not saying Motion should be like AE. I am not starting a thread that is a comparison of the two. Each has it's own workflow, and Andy I think you bring up a really good point. I rarely use clones but they are a powerful tool in the right circumstance. I am curious about more complex design workflows and how some of us push the limits.
David, I agree with your point about keeping Motion simple. Apple is proficient at keeping their software/hardware simple. Software that serves one purpose, or devices that have only a few buttons. The elegance is what we all like.
Additionally, to your point Andy, we can do things withOUT precoming in Motion. Just keeping things in layers is good enough really. Like I said, I'm not really an AE user, but I do understand the concepts. I like the idea of a pre-rendered portion of the animation. Just seems to take the processor intensive portions out of creating complex animations. Moreover I think I am just wondering if I could create more complex animations WITH some of the design workflows that AE offers (like pre-rendering).
At the end of the day I feel like I can do SO much with Motion, and have wiggle room to play around more. I'm definitely excited about a new version of Motion, and to see what sort of new features make it in. Perhaps nodal workflows, perhaps more 3D design tools... we'll see.

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.

Using hyperlink to toggle layer visibility?

Okay, I've got a few threads going in other forums on this, and I'm getting a little frustrated with retyping it all, so I'm going to try to be brief... if you have any questions on what I'm trying to do, sorry for being vague, just ask and I'll try to clarify (I know, I hate posts that don't give enough info to work from).
OKay... I work with surveillance systems, and for one customer, I'm taking existing PDFs they have of site floorplans, loading them into Ilustrator CS5, adding icons and text showing camera locations and fields-of-view, then exporting to PDF, loading that into Acrobat Pro X, and adding a hyperlink to each camera icon that when clicked, will open a window with a still capture from that camera, so they can see what the view is "supposed" to look like.
This works fairly well, and the client is happy with it... there's just one annoyance: every click produces a dialog box warning about opening an external program, and in newer versions of Reader, there's no "Don't display this again" checkbox. A way around this would be great, but I had a better idea:
I'm already creating layers in Illustrator: one for the floor plan, a second for the camera icons, a third for the text, and a fourth blank one so I can "swap out" the underlying floor/camera info without losing the hyperlinks (anywhere from 16 to 30, depending on the site).
I had the idea that what I could do, is add a separate layer for each camera's sample image, which would allow me to add the image directly to the document, and have it just appear over the floor plan, rather than loading in a separate app. Then I could have the image layers start out invisible, and toggle the visibility by clicking the camera icon.
So I found this article that describes changing layer visibility from a hyperlink: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/Professional/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7 c5b.w.html
It... sort of works. I can create a link that will show a hidden layer... but not re-hide it. I created a separate link that would hide it... but not show it. Not really suitable - I'd like to have the same link toggle the layer on/off (heck, it would pretty much have to, or you KNOW the end users will get confused).
And the whole process seems a little clunky, at least from the above instructions. Is there a better way to do this in Acrobat X? Maybe a way to do it all within Illustrator? Hope I'm clear enough about what I'm trying to achieve.
If all else fails, is there a way to get rid of the $&^@*#!!! external program warning popup??
Thanks, all!

Forget that help page example, it's only practicable if you're setting a very simple pattern of layers.
Instead, you should look at the JavaScript commands to control the visibility of individual layers, referencing them by their stacking order or name.
For example this snippet will turn on the layer called "camera1":
var ocgArray = this.getOCGs();
for (var i=0; i < ocgArray.length; i++) {
if (ocgArray[i].name=="camera1") ocgArray[i].state = true;
You can easily extend this idea by creating a document-level function in the PDF, and calling that function from your links. For example if all your camera layers are named "camera1","camera2", etc. and you have a doc-level function like this:
function showCamLayer(theName) {
var ocgArray = this.getOCGs();
for (var i=0; i < ocgArray.length; i++) {
if (ocgArray[i].name.substr(0,6) == "camera") ocgArray[i].state = false;
if (ocgArray[i].name == theName) ocgArray[i].state = true;
then you can set your links to "run a JavaScript" and enter a single-line command such as showCamLayer("camera4")

Toggle layer visibility

Hello,
I need one keyboard shortcut that toggles visibility of one of layers.
I paint and need to toggle on and off one layer below (layer with a reference picture, not one i paint on). with a shortcut painting process will be not break as with case click at icon.
tried to make toggle layer visibility with actions unfortunately with no success.
it is possibility to toggle active layer visibility by add shortcut in keyboard shortcuts preferences but here it going not about active layer.
I have no experience with scripting.
thank you!

For this to work as written there can only be one layer in the document named 'Ref' otherwise it will toggle the top most layer with that name.
var targetID = getLayerIDByName('Ref');
if(undefined != targetID){
    if(getLayerVisibilityByID( targetID ) ){
        hideByName('Ref');
    }else{
        showByName('Ref');
function getLayerIDByName(name) {
    try{
    var ref = new ActionReference();
    ref.putProperty( charIDToTypeID("Prpr") , charIDToTypeID( "LyrI" ));
    ref.putName( charIDToTypeID( "Lyr " ), name );
    return executeActionGet(ref).getInteger(charIDToTypeID( "LyrI" ));
    }catch(e){}
function getLayerVisibilityByID( id ) {
    var ref = new ActionReference();
    ref.putProperty( charIDToTypeID("Prpr") , charIDToTypeID( "Vsbl" ));
    ref.putIdentifier( charIDToTypeID( "Lyr " ), id );
    return executeActionGet(ref).getBoolean(charIDToTypeID( "Vsbl" ));
function hideByName(name) {
    var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
        var list = new ActionList();
            var ref = new ActionReference();
            ref.putName( charIDToTypeID('Lyr '), name );
        list.putReference( ref );
    desc.putList( charIDToTypeID('null'), list );
    executeAction( charIDToTypeID('Hd '), desc, DialogModes.NO );
function showByName(name) {
    var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
        var list = new ActionList();
            var ref = new ActionReference();
            ref.putName( charIDToTypeID('Lyr '), name );
        list.putReference( ref );
    desc.putList( charIDToTypeID('null'), list );
    executeAction( charIDToTypeID('Shw '), desc, DialogModes.NO );

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.

Pre-comp issue via Dynamic Link (CS6) (Corrupted layer cache)

Hi,
I had this issue with a sequence that I sent out to After Effects from Premiere Pro. The AE comp, when viewed in Premiere, was garbled for several pre-comps which exists 4-5 levels down from the originally imported comp. And it was only these deeply nested pre-comps that were getting all garbled (like bad TV static)
There is a specific reason I pre-comped as many levels as I did and I'd didn't want to unpack/re-do it all. So, after a lot of run around of purging AE RAM and Premiere's render files…finally I purged the AE Global Cache and that fixed it.
That might have fixed my issue, but it seems like a bit a brute force solution for an issue with a couple of layers. Is there any way to purge the cache for a single layer?
The Global Cache is there to increase preformance and if you have to purge it completely when one layer messes up, it almost defeats the purpose/gains of that increase. Any insights you might have would be greatly appreciated. If you need more details please don't hesitate to ask. Thanks.

Unfortunately this issue actually occured after I'd upgraded to the most recent build. I'm sure that it's an issue that Adobe is working on and trying to get out the door. I'm just more curious if the functionality to purge the cache for a single layer (or comp/project) is available or even exists.
Since it's not happening often, I don't mind a fix like purging the disk cache...but if there is a better way to do it, I'd rather do that.

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

Toggle Layers Visibility Animation in Pre-Comp

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for