Can you freeze transformations in After Effects the same way you can in Maya?

[cgresham]

I am looking for a way to freeze transformations in After Effects. I believe this is something you can do in Maya, for example. I need to make a copy of a path that has undergone several transformations at various levels (layer, group, shape) and paste it so that it looks the same, but with those values all reset to zero. Yes, I could re-draw the path, but precision is important so copy/paste would be preferred.

I found one claimed solution, but it does not work at all for me:

https://creativecow.net/forums/thread/equivalent-to-freeze-transforms-or-reset-transform/

When I do the shift-parent to a null as they suggest, it changes the appearance of the shape, basically just doing a Reset, not a freeze. Perhaps After Effects has changed since this post was made in 2012.

Does anyone know of any other trick, or maybe a script or plug-in? I am having no luck searching.

Adobe, it would be incredibly useful if you could add this feature!

[nishu_kush]

Hi cgresham,

This workaround may not work as Maya's freeze transformation. This could be a great feature request. Please post it on the After Effects UserVoice so that others can vote: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects

Feel free to reach out if there are any other questions.

Thanks,

Nishu

[cgresham]

Done, thanks!

[Rick Gerard]

If you are talking about keyframed properties, as long as you select the property, which will select and highlight all keyframes, you can paste to the same property on a new layer. If the CTI (current time indicator) is in the same spot as the first keyframe, all of the keyframes for all positions will be correctly lined up with the original layer.  If the CTI is in a different position, the first keyframe in the series will be at the current time.

If you are getting a reset and no keyframes, you are not selecting the modified property of the layer correctly.

If you are driving animation with expressions or using parenting, we will need to see a screenshot of your comp with the modified properties of the problem layers revealed (uu will do it). We also need a complete workflow description.

The other option would be to select all modified properties on a layer and create an animation preset. Now you can apply all transformations and effects to any layer with a single click.

[cgresham]

The yellow circle ("chick body" in the "chick" layer) from frame 1 goes through various transformations and then at the end needs to morph into the initial body shape of the chicken, to make a loop. The shell is parented to the chicken, the egg contents are parented to the shell, and the circle/chick body goes through transformations at layer, group and shape level.

At the point where I stopped at the end, I want to start a new layer that just has the chick body, because I need to add the extra points to the path for the chicken's comb. I was hoping to paste to chicken shape path into the next path keyframe. But it comes in with rotation and scaling. Or, If I try to go backwards from the chicken shape and paste the chick path into a previous keyframe, then it comes it rotated and scaled. When I try to match the shapes back up weird stuff happens.

I've tried all variations on un-parenting, ungrouping, pasting into Illustratior and back, etc. But nothing removes the scaling and rotation data.

I don't know if I can be precise enough to just recreate the shape and make it loop perfeactly. THe ability to freeze the tansformations and paste fresh would save so much time.

[cgresham]

Oops, realised the screenshot doesn't show layer names, here's another.

[cgresham]

And here are screenshots of pasting the chicken shape into a path keyframe after the chick shape.

[cgresham]

I have removed all parenting and gouping from the layers I was copying from and pasting into in these alst two screenshots.

[cgresham]

Another long shot I tried as placing a copy of the chicken path in the same layer as the circle/chick, so that it was "riding along" with all the group and layer transformations, and then copying from that path. No dice, it still didn't work.

[Rick Gerard]

Path coordinates are calculated from layer size. If you modify any transform properties except opacity, copy a path, and copy the path, the new path will be out of position. The only way to line up the copied path with the original path is to apply the same transformations to the new layer. This applies to both shape layers and Mask Paths. Here's a sample*:

If you want to copy a mask or shape path and then paste it to any Motion path, the original layer must have the Anchor Point, Position, Scale, and Rotation at the default values for the motion path to match the vector path.

I would guess that if you select the problem layer and press the U key twice to reveal all modified properties, you will see changes to the transform properties. The CTI is also in a different place. Your screenshots are cropped, and I don't know which path was copied.  

I have uploaded a video.

* The "Drag & Drop here..." area works, but it is a pain for the forum users to access the photos. Please do not use it to share images. You can use the toolbar, drag your images to the reply field, or even copy and paste the file directly in the reply field, then size them up so we can easily see them.

[cgresham]

I see what you mean, but since I need to morph between two paths on the same layer this is one case where that wouldn't help. But is does explain why the problem is happening. Thanks!

[cgresham]

Just updating to say that I have found a workaround. There is an AE extension called PenPal that offers 2 solutions.

First, I used PenPal to copy the exact coordinates for all points and tangent handles in my original (chicken) path. Then I could fix the second chicken (that was inconveniently transformed when pasted into the chick layer for morphing) by pasting in all the point and tangent coordinates one at a time, so it was back where it needed to be to loop properly with frame 1.

Alternatively, the creator of PenPal very awesomely sent me instructions on how to just exactract all that point and tangent data at once and—with a little modification and use of expressions— generate a new pristine path that essentially has transformations frozen. Maybe if they discover that other users need that function too they might consider adding it as an automated function.

Thanks to all who read my weird problem and tried to help!

[cgresham]

"extract" 🙂