How to make keyframes proportionally to the composition length in after effects

[S.Nejmi]

Hello everyone,

i made a beautiful text/Foto effect in AE using scale, position and other effects like wiggle and transform etc.
I am using it on my AE Projects, each time i need a motion, i copy all the settings and paste them to the new layer and modify the keyframes positions to the lenght of the new element, i do that almost 50 times (for texts and images) each time and it's really a pain in the neck.

I tried to create a graphic using Essential graphic tool and tried to use it on Premiere (i like more working on Premiere), but the problem is that when i try to increase the lengh of the new element it doesn't extend.

I just want to find a solution on how to create a graphic template (or any usable type that i don't know) for my text/images animation from AE to use it in Premiere pro, but with the ability to adjust its lenght, and it must be somehow proportional, i will give an example:
my animation contains a bouncing effect using scale keyframes at the beginning(appears) and at the end(disappears), the template needs to be able to adjust the lenght of the whole appearance but not the delayof the keyframes at the beginning and end, to do a correct bouncing effect without delay.

The solution may contain using expressions or something like that.

I hope my question is made clear at this point and thank you for reading it.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

You have to set protected regions in the timeline when you are using the Essential Graphics workspace to create MOGRTs. If you keep your animations at the start and end inside the protected region, you can maintain the start and end animation timing but make the middle portion as long as you want. 

If you have a bunch of keyframes in a timeline, you can drag a selection around all of them, then hold down the Alt/Option key and click and drag on the last one in the timeline to proportionally change the timing of all of them. 

Explanations of both of those workflows are in the After Effects online User Guide. 

If you want to automatically set up an animation based on the layer in and out point, you can use t=time-inPoint, OutPoint-inPoint, and some timing values in frames by using framesToTime(), then drive some ease or linear interpolations to create expressions that will automatically animate any property. I have a couple hundred of these. I built most of them myself and used them all the time to create animated graphics for training and explainer videos and slide shows by only adjusting the hero position of the layer, adding the preset, and then trimming the in and out points to match the audio or phrase in the narration. 

Here's a very simple example. This adds a 10-frame transparency fade-in to a layer and a 15-frame fade-out to a layer:

t = time - inPoint;
fadIn = framesToTime(10);
fadOut = framesToTime(15);
dur = outPoint-inPoint;
fIn = easeIn(t, 0, fadIn, 0, 100);
fOut = easeOut(t, dur - fadOut, dur, 0, -100 );
fIn + fOut

All I did was ease in the opacity by using the t (layer time) at zero and increase the value from zero to 100 over the fadIn frames (10), then use the duration (due) of the layer minus the fade out (fadOut) time to start the fade out (fOut) 15 frames before the end of the clip to subtract 100 from the opacity value. 

You can use this kind of approach on any property that can be animated and use if/else, or for/each, or simple addition and subtraction to set up animations. You can use sliders, dropdown menus, or angle controls to replace the timing values and options, then save animation presets, select layers, and apply them to create animations or MOGRTs to be used in Premiere Pro. 

I hope this helps get you started.

[S.Nejmi]

Thank you Mr. Gerard for this explanation, that's the thing that i was looking for.

From your experience how/where do i start learning after effects programming like that?
Is there a course somewhere?

By the way i tried to open the link that you provided (User guide) but it didn't open. Is there an other link please?

I really appreciate your answer and you time. Thank you a lot.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Try the link again: User Guide.

There is a section in the User Guide about Expressions and Automation. Probably the best place to start is Expression Basics. You'll find the table of contents on the right side of the webpage. There are also links there to other resources. 

A basic understanding of Javascript is a big advantage. 

[S.Nejmi]

Thank zou a lot.

Best regards