How to repeatedly check out different layer times in SmartFX?

[Richard Rosenman]

Hi gang;

I've run into the same issue as in this thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/checkout-previous-frame-in-smart-render/m-p...

Basically, since it's a SmartFX and the layer checkout is done in PreRender, that's where the checkout time also needs to be specified. For some reason, it isn't respected in the PF_CHECKOUT_PARAM after that.

That isn't very helpful if you need to repeatedly seek different times based on your SmartRender function, such as from within a loop.

Also, I need to checkout the layer in PreRender so that I get the true layer size, not the entire output size like the other method of checking out a layer.

So in a case like this, is there any other way to repeatedly change the layer time for a checkout layer?

Thanks,

-Richard 

[shachar carmi]

you can still checkout the different times in a for loop during pre-render. just keep track of the identifiaction nuber you're handing over so you'll know what time you're getting when checking out the pixels during render.