interesting prob - increasing layer stacking

[zold]

[update: i figured no one would want to touch this with a ten foot pole. well, i think i have a solution; i'll post when i finish it.]

I had my butt kicked by trying this with opacity expression and think it might be better (i.e. less butt-kicking) as a script.
The problem (simplified) is this:

say you have 300 layers.
Each layer is the same duration, let's say 80 frames (it could be a rendered qt movie, or a layer with a few keyframed transforms on it).

At the beginning of the comp, each layer has slight overlap, like using 'sequence layers', but as you progress along, the overlap needs to increase, so that, at an arbritrary point in the comp (let's say at 20 seconds -- just sequencing layers would make the thing last several minutes), layers are considerably more stacked on top of each other, and the last layer ends at the 20 second mark (or thereabouts).
What is the best way to calculate this increase in overlap? Keep in mind that each layer has to have its individual timing stay the same (like if it has keyframes for opacity, etc., they stay the same); it's just the layers' 'startTime's that need to get more compressed, as it were, until you get to the 'end' (which can be anywhere in the timeline).

Ok. Anyone? Help?

thanks in advance

-Chris G

[Mylenium]

TimeRemapping using in and out points as reference? Unless I'm completely misunderstanding you, this doesn't sound too terrible to do (though anything related to "time" usually gives me a headache since it's so difficult to envision it in your mind).

Mylenium

[zold]

Hi Mylenium.

TimeRemapping using in and out points as reference? Unless I'm completely misunderstanding you, this doesn't sound too terrible to do (though anything related to "time" usually gives me a headache since it's so difficult to envision it in your mind).

It's not a bad solution. I might whip up a version which uses startTimes and another with t-remap.
The way I have it working now (well, sort of kind of almost working now), it would be a lot more coding to do time remapping.

thanks for the attention!

cg

did i mention i'm a little lazy?