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Marlon@centricity
Known Participant
March 8, 2024
Question

Lock layer's position on timeline

  • March 8, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 1343 views

I want to know if it is possible to lock only a layer's position on the timeline (so it is still editable for all it's other attributes)
I am working and keep accidentally selecting objects on the timeline and dragging them when I don't mean to. I am doing a lot of attribute animating and need to regularly switch between selections. It would be helpful to simply lock all layer's locations on the timeline so I can't accidentally move them.

I am often selecting via the timeline rather than the left of the timeline cuz I can visually see the elements I am looking for better by where they start and end on the timeline.

 

All help appreciated! 🙂

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    1 reply

    Warren Heaton
    Community Expert
    Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 8, 2024

    It would be great if the Position property had a lock switch of it's own.

     

    You could use an expression to set the Layer's position.

     

    Select the Position property and the choose Animation > Add Expression.

    Replace "transform.position" with the following:

    // Set the X and Y position

    xPosition = 300; // Replace this value with your desired X position

    yPosition = 300; // Replace this value with your desired Y position

    // Apply the new position

    [xPosition, yPosition];

     

    If the Position needs to animate, you could link the xPosition and yPosition to Slider Controls (Effect > Expression Controls > Slider Control).  That may limit you to linear spatical keyframe interpolation, though.  Someone better at scripting may have a more flexible suggestion if the layer needs to animate with Bezier, Continuous Bezier, or Auto-Bezier spatail interpolation.

     

    M
    Marlon@centricityAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 8, 2024

    I think you misunderstood. I'm not talking about the layer's position in a composition, I'm talking about its position on the timeline.

    M
    Marlon@centricityAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 11, 2024

    It sounds like you would like to lock the Layer Time Span.  That would make a good feature request.

    Making use of Layer Color Labels and Markers may help a little bit in the meantime.  If I have Layers that need to remain at a specific time location in the Timeline, I set the Layer Label Color to Dark Green and I'll use a Layer Marker and a Timeline Marker as sync marks.  This makes it easy to spot-check Layers that need to remain in sync and quickly re-establish it if needed.

     

     


    Thanks, yes i've been doing that already, but it's less than ideal cuz it's still really easy to accidentally move a layer on the timeline when selecting it. Can this question be converted to a feature request?

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