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DustyShinigami
Inspiring
April 26, 2020
Question

Problem changing duration of layers/Is there a quicker way of organising their positions?

  • April 26, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 964 views

I seem to having a problem with sorting out the duration of my layers/images. I'm trying to put an animation I've rendered out from 3ds Max into a video animation. I need each frame/layer to be a millisecond. When I selected all the layers I needed, right clicked, and went to Time > Time Stretch, I specified the time I wanted. Now, however, it's not letting me do that. The Stretch Factor is always 0.11111%, but the duration is always 0:00:00:09 and won't change. Not unless I scrub the bar manually, but even then, it sets it to 00:00:00:02 instead. Then if I change it to 00:00:00:01 via the Time Stretch, it sets it correctly. o_O

 

Also, if I do manage to get all the layers the same length of time, is there a quick way of setting them up? Is there any way I can specify when and where a frame/layer starts? Otherwise, I've got to manually scrub over 100+ frames into their positions.

 

Thanks

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1 reply

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 26, 2020

You want each frame to be a millisecond???  You have a general misunderstanding of how video works. Frames are frames, you can't make last any longer than a frame.

 

If you want the length of all your layers to match you set an out point or you adjust the duration of the layers using the in/out/stretch/duration panel. 

 

If you have imported an image sequence and it plays at the wrong speed then you need to go to the File>Interpret Footage>Main menu and change the interpreted frame rate. 

 

If you want each frame of an image sequence to match the frames in a composition then the Comp frame rate and the footage frame rate must match.

 

It sounds like your workflow is wonky. I think you have imported a bunch of layers and are trying to sequence them using the Keyframe Assistant instead of importing the rendered sequence from 3DS Max as an image sequence. 

D
DustyShinigamiAuthor
Inspiring
April 27, 2020

Ah. Because of how zoomed in/out the timeline was, I thought a millisecond was the equivalent of a frame for some reason. :-S Either way, I'm very confused with this. I can't even select Interpret Footage; it's greyed out. Where's the in/out/stretch/duration panel? Are they the ones in Keyframe Assistant? Because if they are, they're greyed out as well.

 

But I have imported the rendered sequence from 3ds Max as an image sequence. They're PNG and there's 199 of them.

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 27, 2020

If you cannot select Interpret Footage then the Footage is not selected in the Project Panel. If you cannot set a frame rate then the footage is not a movie. I am assuming that your comp has a bunch of individual layers, one for each frame that was rendered, and that you used the keyframe assistant to sequence them and create a movie. 

 

If you import the image sequence and have Important as a Sequence selected you will only get one file in the Project Panel and you will have access to the proper controls. 

 

You must be very new to After Effects. If so, please refer to the User Guide. 

 

If you cannot figure things out we need to see a screenshot of your project with the source files selected in the Project panel, the layers visible in the timeline and we need an accurate workflow description. It should look something like this. I have labeled the things you should look for:

When the footage is selected you can see the File Name and how many times it is used. The next line is the frame size and pixel aspect ratio, The third line is the duration and the frame rate, and the last line is the color depth. 

 

If you are not seeing something like this delete all of the imported images and try again. Make sure your impout panel looks like this:

 

If this does not helps. If it does not, we need a screenshot. Use the Tool Bar to embed your images.

 

 

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