Inspiring

Answered

Dynamic effects for updates on several compositions?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
December 8, 2016
4 replies
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Hello,

I hope the question has not ever been sent several times…

I'm working on an animation on After, with several compositions, with the same effect (hand drawn animation).

If I'm not really satisfied with my effect, do I have a way to modify its parameters only once and it's automatically updated on all the compositions ?

I don't want to use an effect layer on the main composition, because I have a paper texture on the background that I don't want to be affected by the hand drawn effect.

Thank you for your answers!

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Correct answer David Tessier

Thank you again Roei Tzoref for your suggestion. Yes I though about this idea, but what you don't see is that the background could change along the animation… so I'de have 2 montage to do! One for the swf and one for the changing backgrounds!

But at least, I've just find the function I was searching for (wich is not hidden at all, how did I miss it?) :

"Copy with relative property links" !

With that function, I just have to make an adjustment layer on the main comp (or anywhere else), apply my effect on it, and then "copy with relative property links", and paste on every comp that need it. And there it is! If I want to make changes on the effect, I do it on the adjustment layer (hidden), and all the comps will change!

D

David TessierAuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Thank you again Roei Tzoref for your suggestion. Yes I though about this idea, but what you don't see is that the background could change along the animation… so I'de have 2 montage to do! One for the swf and one for the changing backgrounds!

But at least, I've just find the function I was searching for (wich is not hidden at all, how did I miss it?) :

"Copy with relative property links" !

With that function, I just have to make an adjustment layer on the main comp (or anywhere else), apply my effect on it, and then "copy with relative property links", and paste on every comp that need it. And there it is! If I want to make changes on the effect, I do it on the adjustment layer (hidden), and all the comps will change!

Roei Tzoref

Legend

Yes I though about this idea, but what you don't see is that the background could change along the animation… so I'de have 2 montage to do! One for the swf and one for the changing backgrounds!

I see. yes, this would make it uncomfortable to work in 2 seperate comps. so copy with property links gives you the ability to adjust an effect that's nested in multiple different precomps and suits the job.

But at least, I've just find the function I was searching for (wich is not hidden at all, how did I miss it?) :
"Copy with relative property links" ! With that function, I just have to make an adjustment layer on the main comp (or anywhere else), apply my effect on it, and then "copy with relative property links", and paste on every comp that need it.

you don't need an adjustment layer but only a controller layer that is commonly a Null layer. this is because it's only function is to have the effects on it but not render and this is suited for a null layer which is a special kind of layer that does not render. you can even turn the video switch off.

so create a null layer and apply your turbulent displace effect on it. then select the effect or you can copy just the values you want in the timeline. I usually avoid copying the whole effect because I found it reduces performance since it's more expression heavy and this is unnecessary (I don't use all the parameters...) but you can copy the whole effect since it does not have too many parameters and you would probably want to mess with most of them.

you should choose "copy with property links". the differences between this one and "relative" is that "relative" is if your intention is to duplicate your rigged comp (controller + affected layer) so that if you change parameters in the controller in a duplicated comp , it would affect the layers in the duplicated comp and not reference them to the original controller... (confusing probably I know.). copy with property link uses absolute link so that even if you precomp your linked layers/comps - the link would work. copy with relative is all about the ability to duplicate rigs and you don't really need that. both could work for you in some cases but it's important to know what you are doing...

so this is how your setup should look like:

more about copy with property links:

favorite features in CC versions of After Effects: property links | Creative Cloud blog by Adobe

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David TessierAuthor

Inspiring

OK, thanks for the precisions! The adjustment layer was convenient so see in real time the effect.

I'll make a null object and try with absolute link !

D

David TessierAuthor

Inspiring

OK so here's a screen capture of my project (simplified). The hand-drawn effect is inside each precomp and not on an adjustment layer so the background is safe. I want to make adjustments on the hand drawn effect in all the precomps. How can I do it once, so all the precomps are affected?

Roei Tzoref

Legend

I want to make adjustments on the hand drawn effect in all the precomps. How can I do it once, so all the precomps are affected?

it seems to me the effect can and should work on all the composite of these animations as one layer. I see no effects here so you probably applied it on every swf layer inside these precomps? copy just one instance of the effect and remove all others from every layer and in this screenshot comp you should pre-comp all your compstogether. set the pasted effect on the composite preocmp, leaving the background.

1. composite pre-comp with effect applied

2. background

Roei Tzoref

Legend

I'm working on an animation on After, with several compositions, with the same effect (hand drawn animation).
If I'm not really satisfied with my effect, do I have a way to modify its parameters only once and it's automatically updated on all the compositions ?

create the effect on the animation layer/composite and precomp it ->move all attributes. now use this precomp in all the compositions you want and once you update that pre-comp - it will update all the duplicates.

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David TessierAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you for you answers!

Mylenium I don't really know about pick-whip expressions but I'll have a look at it

Roei Tzoref Actually, I've never paid attention to those two options when precomposing! But I wonder if I explained well my problem. I want the effect to be applied on several different compositions, not one composition duplicated…

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David TessierAuthor

Inspiring

I can not modify in one place the parameters so all the swf animations will update their effect!

are we talking about the posterize time to turbulent displace effect to create that orgainic drawing feel? before we move on - are you sure you can't just apply it as an adjustment layer to the composite? one effect on all the layers instead on each layer separately? please share a few screenshots because this is important. there is probably an effective solution for each scenario but we need to examine this to see you are not making things too complicated.

OK I will send some screen shots. But yes, the solution so make an adjustment layer over all the swf files would have been cool, but then the main problem is the background layer. Is there a way for the adjustement layer to ignore some layers? If yes, this would solve the problem. And yes I'm definitly talking about that posterize time to turbulent effect