createPaths() to draw a line between two nulls has a periodic random render glitch

[kyle.venberg.code42]

Hello,

I'm using After Effects 22.0.0 (Build 111) and experiencing a very strange render glitch. I built a heavy expressions title template and have two nulls where their location is changed based on a number of controls. A line is drawn using createPaths() and the two line points locations are determined by the null points. Seen in the screengrabs attached, you will see a blue line (representing the createPaths() line) but for some reason the line draws to a different location on random singular frames. If I zoom in, zoom out, change an unrelated property in my project, the animation periodically plays correctly but then randomly has the createPaths() render glitch again. Any suggestions or need any additional information to help debug, let me know!

Thanks,

Kyle

[Mylenium]

Impossible to say without seeing all your code bits. Most likely this really boils down to evaluation order issues on some of your other controls and they would need to be re-rigged and hardened by changing the code. That aside, even using createpaths() for a simple line seems like trying a simple thing the hard way. Waht about the beam effect? An elongated solid with a linear wipe? So many other ways to do it that might be more robust than relying on the flimsy mess that those mask expressions are...

Mylenium

[kyle.venberg.code42]

Hey Mylenium,

Thanks for the tips... I went ahead and tried to use the beam effect to achieve the same result, but unfortunately, the glitch is still happending to the line. Even through the nulls are always in the correct place, the line moves to random points. Is this something to do with the render engine? It's odd because the nulls are in their correct place and their position keyframes are correct, yet the line jumps around occasionly. Let me know if you want me to send the project file to you directly to help troubleshoot.

Thanks,

Kyle

[kyle.venberg.code42]

After doing some tests, I found out that exporting the project fixes the issue and the issue is only present during realtime playback in After Effects. It muust be a bug with playback in terms how the expressions and line is rendered. I don't know why After Effects is having an issue with this... unfortunately, this means I can't use Dynamic Link for this title and need to export before throwing into Premiere. Any additional thoughts would be fantastic!

[kyle.venberg.code42]

This isn't the solution actually... it looks like it's an issue with v22 of After Effects... hmm!