Watching layers of Precomp in Parent layer

Hi all,
It is a very small problem I landed into. I precompsed 3 layers and now whenever I have to adjust/tweak those layers I have to enter into the precom layer. But at that time I cannot see the layers of the main comp which have references to making those changes in the precom layers.
Is there a work around to have to Precom layers open up in the main comp some how..
Sorry to ask this strange querry.
Cheers.

Look in AE's Online help. Search for a feature called "Edit This Look At That", aka ETLAT. Your search should reveal both the online help section describing it, plus a video tutorial demonstraing how to use it.

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My photos are not showing up as layers in the layers panel, only as one layer, so I can't make any changes to the layers. Does anyone know why this is happening? Am I downloading them from my camera wrong?

My photos are not showing up as layers in the layers panel, only as one layer, so I am not able to make changes to the layers. Does anyone know why this is happening? Am I downloading them from my camera wrong? I have watched the video and the photos don't open that way on my layers panel. Any help would be appreciated, I would like to edit out the background and turn it a different color.

barba87623950 a écrit:
My photos are not showing up as layers in the layers panel, only as one layer, so I am not able to make changes to the layers. Does anyone know why this is happening? Am I downloading them from my camera wrong? I have watched the video and the photos don't open that way on my layers panel. Any help would be appreciated, I would like to edit out the background and turn it a different color.
Photos from cameras or scans have only one layer (the 'background' layer).
You can start with that 'background' layer and duplicate it or add other layers in the editing process. For instance you can make a selection of a subject and put it on another layer; a common use is to desaturate the 'background' and to keep the color in the selected subject in your newly created layer.

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Just curious if anyone else has seen this issue. I've talked to one person about it, but he can't seem to figure out why he has the issue as well.
Sometimes when I put keyframes on the parent layer from such things as scale, position, etc....then if I shift or trim something on one of the child layers...the parent's keyframes will move either back or forward to an arbitrarily place. (BTW: If I hit undo, they won't good back to their original position either)
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Could this have to do with the fact that by trimming child layers, you are sometimes altering the length of the parent, thus compressing the keyframes?
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Computer Platform: Mac OS 10.5
Photoshop/Lightroom version: Photoshop CS3
Question:
When I merge several layers, is there a way to control the name it selects to call the new merged layer? For example I have a layer stack consisting from top to bottom: logo, retouching, outlined, shadows, white background. I want to merge the logo, retouching, and outlined layers and keep the shadows, white background layers separate. When I merge the logo, retouching, outlined; it calls the merged layer logo. I need it to be called "outlined" because that is what it is. (the outlined product with retouching, logos completed). So I have to rename the layer each time. As this is a very common task for me, I want to save the step of renaming the layer which would not have to do if it would keep the "outlined" layer name instead of the "logo" name.
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Thoughts?
thanks...

I definitely don't follow you -- the layer of the outlined product and the composite with the logo are the same name?
- You could create an action that did it for you (merge selected layers and rename the resulting layer).
- You could create a blank layer called outline at the top of your master doc, or in the file prep action and select that layer along with the others below it.
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Way to trim precomp to current layer time?

I've got an animation pretty much done as far as timing goes and everything. Now I'm going back and editing some things that require adding a few layers to add some things to the current layer that already is trimmed appropriately to the correct time.
Anyone know of a script or something that will create a composition from a layer using the length of the layer's in and out point instead of the whole comp time?
Right now I'm opening the precomp, hitting "i" "b" "o" "n", then right clicking on the comp range bar, choosing trim to comp time. Then I go back to the main comp, move the time back to where the layer previously started and hitting "["
So it all goes by pretty quick, but I consistently have to do that like 20 times. And no, it isn't completely necessary, but if I have to give the file to someone else it makes it Much easier to see what's going on if they can see the actual length of a layer. If you leave it at default it appears the layer is needed for the entire composition.
So, is there a way to script that or something? I usually just need to do something like add some text, simulate a graphic display, or create some fake animated depth of field or something like that. I don't like to add more than one layer per action in the main comp, so if more is needed then i usually precompose it as to not have more than a hundred layers or so for the bulk of the comp.

Thanks, Andy.
Your comment that "just like most of adobe's links, it doesn't work" made me think that you were seeing more than one problem. If you are, please leave comments on the problematic pages. (Go ahead and mention them on this forum, too, if you like.)
I'll go ahead and remove the one that you just mentioned.
The usual way that we cull dead items from the Exchange is to read the comments that people leave on the items in the Exchange. We don't know what to fix if you don't tell us what's broken. Keep in mind that the Exchange is a place for user-submitted content. If a user doesn't maintain their entry, there's not a lot that we can do other than take the entry down.

Can't change parent/layer in CS3

I've been running into this problem alot in the last 6 months and I'm finally fed up. Basically, at some point while working on my CS3 projects, something unknown to me happens and I can no longer change a layers parent with the drop down box, same thing goes for layer control drop down boxes in the effects panel. Now, I can still change a layers parent with the pick whip, which is why I've just lived with the issue. But I've now run into a problem where I'm using a Layer Control expression effect and I cannot change the layer at all there. I click it and nothing happens, no response at all. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Please be more specific. Provide info about the number of layers per comp, comp settings, what items are referenced/ used using the layer controls etc.. Also provide screenshots (use the camera icon to attach)/ info about the structure of the project or the project itself. I've never encountered such issues myself, but it is imaginable that too many references/ too many layers create some sort of overflow that prevents the list from being drawn or populated correctly.
Mylenium

Is there a way to combine layers into precomp AND trim them

Hi. I have a bunch of image sequences that I bring in from a 3D program. Each sequence may have a separate set of images for Shadow, Specular color, Ambient Color, Glow etc - so clip A could have several layers, each with identical length. The same would hold for each other clip.
Ideally, I would like to put all the Shadow, specular, ambient, and glow images of clip A into a precomp, and the same for clips B,C, D, and so on.
When I do this, however, the precomp suddenly occupies the whole timeline, and if I manually trim comp back to correct size, the precomp goes to beginning of the timeline and I have to mannually reposition it. This can quickly get tedious.
Is there a way to automate this process? Or something to use other than precomps that would essentially group the layers/lock them together so all the A clips function as one unit, and all the B clips as another?
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I'm not where I can look but there is a script that takes the in and out point of a bunch of layers in your Pre-comp, trims the pre-comp, then trims the pre-comp and keeps it in the right place.
I usually don't take the time to do this. Instead I set timeline markers for the in and out points of the pre-comp, then, if the comp starts getting really confusing, I'll just set an in and out point for the pre-comp rather than change the length of the pre-comp. This makes my ELAT (edit this look at that) workflow easier if I have to dive into the pre-comp to make changes.
Let me make another observation. From your description it sounds like you are trying to make too long a movie in AE. AE shines at making shots, and occasionally, making sequences. Even Pixar renders out shots and then moves those shots into a NLE to turn them into a sequence, then a scene, then a movie. When I do the kind of compositing you're doing I treat each rendered 3D shot with all of the render passes as a single composition. I render the result, and then edit the sequence in a NLE. Only on rare occasions will I do the editing of the sequence using a bunch of pre-comps as layers in AE.
Hope this helps.

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Hi,
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Start by learning HTML and CSS basics. DW will punish you if you don't know how to work with Code.
HTML & CSS Tutorials - http://w3schools.com/
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960 Grid System - http://960.gs/
Boiler Plate CSS System - http://code.google.com/p/css-boilerplate/
BluePrint: A CSS Framework - http://www.blueprintcss.org/
When you are satisfied with the layout, it displays well in all major browsers AND your code passes validation:
HTML Code Validator - http://validator.w3.org
CSS Code Validator - http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
SaveAs as a DW Template (.dwt). Then add some editable regions for content that will change from page to page.
More on DW Templates -
http://www.smartwebby.com/web_site_design/dreamweaver_template.asp
http://www.smartwebby.com/web_site_design/server_side_includes.asp
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www.alt-web.com/
www.twitter.com/altweb
www.alt-web.blogspot.com

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Flash CS4
AS2
I've been trying to use the object.watch() method. I've never used this before, so I'm assuming I'm pretty far off base here.
What I have is a parent movie (_root.) that has a bunch of variables. As the user progresses through the movie/project the variables change based on the user's actions. Within this parent movie there is another movie embedded. In this movie, things change based on the variable changes of the parent movie. So, for instance, say the user gets through frame #20 and hits the "next" button in the parent movie, this triggers a variable change in the parent movie, which then causes the embedded movie to change its color from blue to red (or whatever, action doesn't matter)
var btn1:Object = new Object();
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function watcher( prop, oldValue, newValue, userData )
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Anyone have any ideas on how I go about doing this from here??
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-R.J.

Any chance anyone can offer some insight for me on which way I need to go with this?

Scripts / Export Layers to Files / Include Background Layer

Running the script Export Layers to files.
Need to keep one layer on that is applied to all the layers (I have a stroke on the top layer I would like applied to all the images that are saved out.)
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Ken

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You might try this, but I havent tested it extensively:
#target photoshop;
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var allArtLayers = collectLayers(myDocument);
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You wrote:
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1. Choose all the layers from which you want to include a selection
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Hi,
I have two layers. Upper most with text is locked.
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thanks!

In the Transparancy Panel, select the left icon.
You have select the right icon (to edit the Transparancy mask)
regards,
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Several years out now, and still no folders in Illustrator.

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If you view images at other views than 100% (actual pixels),
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MTSTUNER

Watching layers of Precomp in Parent layer

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