Reversing video after precomposing disregards stabilization

[QuintinHS]

I'll upload a .jpg image sequence of a hyperlapse, stabilize it using motion trackers, and precompose once done. If I decide it needs more stabilization (using warp stabilizer) or reversed, I'll do so AFTER precomposing the stabilized footage. I've been doing this for several years without fail until the latest update. Now, once I attempt to reverse the video, the time reverse will completely disregard the stabilization I applied. This obviously shouldn't be happening. Likewise with warp stabilizer, it won't start to analyze. It'll be stuck at frame 1 of x at 0%.

Suggestions? My workflow has been completely interrupted because of this and Adobe Support hasn't been able to solve this.

[Warren Heaton]

Render a Comp Proxy at Best Settings Lossless or Render at Best Settings Lossless and replace usage.

[QuintinHS]

Do proxies help with render speed? If that's the case that's not quite the problem I have. PC is pretty beefy.

[Rick Gerard]

Do not collapse transformations on the Nested Comp (Pre-comp). If you apply any effects to the nested comp, you have to pre-compose again so that your stabilization is applied to a layer with no effects. You also should not have "Preserve Frame Rate When Nested" turned on in the nested comp's advanced composition settings. 

If none of that fixes the problem, follow Warren Heaton's advice. Use the Composition/Pre-render to create a video intermediate that you can process again.

[QuintinHS]

I think I understand what you're saying... but that setting you mentioned isn't turned on. Take a look at my screenshots for what I'm talking about.

Basically, In the IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1 composition, there is hyperlapse footage that has been stabilized. I precomposed it (into the IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1 name) and have it sitting on my main timeline under the composition "CU Hyperlapses". there it sits, perfectly stabilized. the problem, though, comes when I attempt to reverse the video. this disregards the stabilization from the previous composition. Is this a setting? AE never used to give me this problem. this workflow has worked for years...

[Mylenium]

Without any system info, screenshots and other details we can't really tell you much. You need to be more specific.

Mylenium 

[QuintinHS]

Theres not much more you need to know... my computer runs great with 32 gb ram, windows 11, AMD radeon 6700. I'm mostly wondering if anyone else is experiencing this.

here's a link to the crash logs

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11N4Xb6zgaVTgkeb6BGOjOApUG7iuQ2gk/view?usp=sharing

[QuintinHS]

Heres some screenshots to help explain this a little better.

Basically, in the "IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1" composition, there is hyperlapse footage that has been stabilized. I precomposed it (into the "IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1" name) and have it sitting on my main timeline under the composition "CU Hyperlapses". there it sits, perfectly stabilized. the problem, though, comes when I attempt to reverse the video. this disregards the stabilization from the previous composition. Is this a setting? AE never used to give me this problem. this workflow has worked for years...

[QuintinHS]

Here's the rundown. In the IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1 composition, there is hyperlapse footage that has been stabilized. I precomposed it (into the IMG_{xx}.jpg Comp 1 name) and have it sitting on my main timeline under the composition "CU Hyperlapses". there it sits, perfectly stabilized. the problem, though, comes when I attempt to reverse the video. this disregards the stabilization from the previous composition. Is this a setting? AE never used to give me this problem. this workflow has worked for years...

[Mylenium]

I would disable multiframe rendering and flush the caches. Could be one of those things where the cached pre-comp doesn't get updated correctly in the parent comp. Other than that there's indeed nothing else to see. This is as simple as it gets and should work.

Mylenium 

[QuintinHS]

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately, this hasn't solved it. I cleared the Disk Cache and cleaned the Database & Cache under the Media & Disk Cache section in Preferences. I also disabled multiframe rendering and this simple precomp reverse thing is still disregarding my stabilization... sadly

[Warren Heaton]

Render the pre-Comp at Best Settings Lossless or Best Settings High Quality.  If you happen to need the Comp Alpha, render the pre-Comp at Best Settings Lossless with Alpha.

Render it to a folder named "Pre-Renders" that's where ever you are storing source footage for this project.

Import that and use it as the Layer that is being reversed.

In other words, bake-in whatever is happening in that pre-Comp when it plays forwards.

[QuintinHS]

Thanks, I'll give this a shot. Is it best to use Media Encoder or the built-in rendering in AE?

Also, when you say "with Alpha", does that deal with the transparency settings?

[Warren Heaton]

You're getting a QuickTime movie file one way or the other via the AE Render Queue or the AME Queue.  The main advantage of AME,  as you probably already know, is that you can continue to work in After Effects while it's rendering.

If using Media Encoder, you'll have more default presets to choose from.  In the AME Queue tab, go with Format set to "QuickTime" and the Preset set to "Apple ProRes 422" if you want to match After Effects' "Best Settings" Render Settings template and "High Quality" Output Module template.

Yes, "with alpha" includes the Composition transparency.  If you see the Transparency Grid when it's enabled in the Comp tab, then you'd want to use a "with alpha" template or preset.  In Media Encoder, set Format to "QuickTime" and the Preset to "Apple ProRes 4444 with alpha".

[QuintinHS]

Well, I gave it a shot... reverse works fine but the Warp Stabilizer is getting stuck on the "Initializing" stage. I'm really not sure where to go from here... I thought for sure this would work. Any other suggestions?

[Warren Heaton]

Sorry to hear you are still having trouble.

To be clear: Stabilize the video in a Comp and render that.

Then import the video that has the stabilization rendered into it and time reverse that.

I tried time reversing a nested Comp that contains a stabilized clip and it works fine on my end.  You may need to better troubleshoot After Effects on your workstation. 

[QuintinHS]

That's exactly what I did. I have a .jpg sequence that has manual tracker stabilization, I rendered that composition, then brought it back into AE to apply a warp stabilizer. Warp stabilizer gets stuck, however the reverse thing works. I use Warp on top of manual stabilization to really smooth things out, unfortunately it won't cooperate. This was something I used to be able to apply to a precomposition with the manual stabilization within the precomp and the warp applied to the precomp. How do you suggest I better troubleshoot? I've opened tickets and the help team is quite unfamiliar with specifics in AE

[Warren Heaton]

Try this instead:

Restart your computer.

Create a new project (do not open up the existing project).

Import the rendered movie of the manual tracker stabilization jpg sequence.

Add that to a Comp.

Run Warp Stabilizer. (If Warp Stabilizer will not initialize, reinstall After Effects.)

Assuming that works, render the results and import that into your existing project.

[QuintinHS]

I did all of the above in order, ran warp, and it didn't initialize. So, I did a complete uninstall of AE (I changed the name of the folder containing preferences so it would create a new one on its own), reinstalled AE, and it still didn't initialize. Any other suggestions? I'm running out of hope with this haha.

I do appreciate your continued help with this!

[QuintinHS]

Just tried it on another system and it also doesn't work. I tested it on a raw, unedited .jpeg sequence and it also will not initialize. This has always worked in older versions so for now I'll be using an older AE. is there a way to get ahold of a developer? customer support is not trained for program specifics.

[QuintinHS · Accepted solution]

Ok... so AE versions previous to 22.5 would begin analyzing footage just by applying Warp Stabilizer with default settings (in almost all cases). Versions after 22.5 require the "Detailed Analysis" button to be checked when applying a Warp Stabilizer effect to a precomposition that has some form of stabilization done within the precomp. Otherwise, if the Detailed Analysis button isn't checked, it won't stabilize. See attached image for Warp Stabilizer settings I use.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to help with this!