Parenting problem ?? what's going on ? weird results

Report · Dec 26, 2018

Hi everyone, Did something change in the last updates of After effects? I being using AE for decades... yes decades, since version 3.1 but today I just can't do a simple parenting...

maybe there is a hidden preference somewhere.... this never happened to me.

So layer B is parented to A.

Layer A is in a different position and it has some scale applied, no animation so far. Normal result would be as soon as you parent layer B to layer A any new modification over layer A will be apply also to layer B. Well when I parented the Layer B to layer A it automatically copy the distorsion and position of the layer A instead of remain untouch and move or deform with any new adjustmente over layer A.

??????? what's going on here? Can't believe I'm stucked on something like this

Thanks for your help

Report · Sep 05, 2022

Sometimes though, you pick whip to parent a layer and the layer moves. I would like to know what would cause this. Parenting to an object that has scaled to 0 goes wrong, but if the parent is scaled to 1% before parenting, it works. So maybe the clue is in the number values. It would be helpful to have a list of circumstances where pickwhipping to a parent (not holding anything else) will still move the child and make the twenty-five year After Effects Vet scream like a Banshee

Report · Jan 20, 2023

Hi. I know this is an old post but probably others like me will come across it because of this behaviour.

I don't know if it is the single cause for this but it happends when I have an expression on position, scale or rotation. That is why you need nulls matching those parameters and then parenting that null to a 'master' null.

Hope this helps future users.

Report · Mar 18, 2023

IT'S EXPRESSIONS.

And I think it started when they moved to JavaScript.

I find if there are no expressions, the child remains in the same position but if there are expressions it moves. Parent first, expressions second.

And this is because the values update on the child based on the parent, which changes the expression.

This might also have always worked this way but we are all using more expressions now processors are fast enough and the expression engine has joined the 21st century.