Looping anything in AE

[Stefan Cargoski]

Hi community.

Is there a plugin for AE, which creates loops for effects? My question is an ambiguous one today. AE has 100s of effects, and  each effect has different parameters making it difficult to figure out how to loop each individual effect. Even making layers into precomps and LoopingOut expression most times there will be a snapping frame when the animation effect jumps back to frame 1. So whats the best method to make effects which could loop seamless. 

Another thougt is, why Abode hasnt implemented a feature in each of their effects settings, which enables the effect to have a loop setting.

Thank you.

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Hi @Stefan Cargoski 

While creating a loop cycle is simply a matter of keyframing the animation so that it returns to how it started, it can be a little tricky.

Something that I find helpful: For effects that have an "Evolution" property, expand Evolution Options and enable "Cycle Evolution." This tells After Effects that the evolution needs to loop seamlessly. Then, make sure that the Evolution is keyframed such that it returns to a like value. For example, if the first value is 0x+0.0 degrees, then the value it returns to needs to be 1x+0.0 (or any whole number for the Revolutions).

Pictured: Fractal Noise with Cycle Evolution options enabled for creating a seamless loop.

[Stefan Cargoski]

Thank you for your explanation.

Kind regards.