pt_SSA Karaoke Animator

Moderator: Paul Tuersley

afx_fan
Posts: 10
Joined: August 4th, 2007, 7:31 pm

ok, i find what i want to do, but i have a problem, how can make work the check box expresion with a effect, in this case cc particle systems II, i want the effect is off for a time, and then on and in the end again off..... excuse my english xD.
balgus
Posts: 10
Joined: June 10th, 2007, 11:25 pm

Hm I would email you the results paul but for some really weird reason I can't save an animation preset anymore...I saved a project before the preset, and saved the preset for it, but not the resulting project. Those involved plugins though, so I was going to make another test using just built-in stuff and now I can't even save an animation preset. I highlight the keyframes, hit save preset, and there's no .ffx made ><
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

balgus,
Perhaps you're confusing the two different animation systems. When "Built-in Presets" is selected, any presets are saved in a text file beside the script, these aren't the same as Animation Presets. When "Animation Presets" is selected, you have access to a different set of .ffx presets. The script doesn't provide a method of creating these presets, that has to be done using the menu Animation > Save Animation Preset. The benefit is that you can create much more complex presets that can include effects.

afx_fan,
If you're using the "Animation Presets" system, you should be able to add keyframes to the particle effect to turn it on and off and save the result as an Animation Preset, no Checkbox Controls required. If the effect doesn't have something like an opacity control, you may be able to use something like the Calculations effect to mix back to the original text without effects.
afx_fan
Posts: 10
Joined: August 4th, 2007, 7:31 pm

Paul Tuersley wrote:balgus,
Perhaps you're confusing the two different animation systems. When "Built-in Presets" is selected, any presets are saved in a text file beside the script, these aren't the same as Animation Presets. When "Animation Presets" is selected, you have access to a different set of .ffx presets. The script doesn't provide a method of creating these presets, that has to be done using the menu Animation > Save Animation Preset. The benefit is that you can create much more complex presets that can include effects.

afx_fan,
If you're using the "Animation Presets" system, you should be able to add keyframes to the particle effect to turn it on and off and save the result as an Animation Preset, no Checkbox Controls required. If the effect doesn't have something like an opacity control, you may be able to use something like the Calculations effect to mix back to the original text without effects.
Funny thing i have now the same problem that balgus, i can save my animate preset, i make my text put the efects that i need, and when i select Animation > Save animation Preset nothing happend, i refresh the ui, and i only have the same animations..... what is happening? >_<
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

Are you saving them in the right place, a folder next to the script in the Scripts folder?
balgus
Posts: 10
Joined: June 10th, 2007, 11:25 pm

No it doesn't have to do with that I'm afraid, I just made a completely new comp, didn't use the script at all, just added a glow with some keyframes, tried saving the keyframes as a preset, and once again I get no .ffx file. I didn't want to have to reinstall the whole thing but I guess I have to, cuz I have no idea why it just stopped working all of a sudden. And it doesn't matter where I try to save the preset, it doesn't generate a file.
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

Very odd. I'd try deleting the AE prefs. Which version of AE are you using?
balgus
Posts: 10
Joined: June 10th, 2007, 11:25 pm

By prefs do you mean preferences? I'm using CS3 on windows xp
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

Yeah. Quit AE, locate and delete the preferences, then restart AE.
balgus
Posts: 10
Joined: June 10th, 2007, 11:25 pm

Ok that worked, thanks. I'll test out the script again, and if it's still doing the same thing I'll send you the files.

BTW afx_fan, the files I deleted are located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\(yourusername)\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\8.0

Adobe After Effects 8.0 Prefs.txt
Adobe After Effects 8.0 MC Prefs

Saving worked again after that, I guess some random preference got changed to mess things up =/
afx_fan
Posts: 10
Joined: August 4th, 2007, 7:31 pm

working now, thanks ^^ ... wow its gonna take a time to load the ssa xD, 6 min song :wink:
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

If you find it really slows to a crawl as it gets further into the import, you could try force quitting AE (or keep pressing Escape to stop the script), then do it again, but without the comp open/visible...just select the comp in the project window but don't open it. I've been told that this may speed things up a bit.
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

balgus wrote:Ok that worked, thanks. I'll test out the script again, and if it's still doing the same thing I'll send you the files.
Hopefully this will solve at least some of your problems:
1. You need to have at least one keyframe on one of the layers main transform properties. It looks like this is what is used to decide the "start frame" of an Animation Preset. Either that or make sure your keyframes are at the beginning of the comp when you save the preset.

2. If the first effect in your saved preset is a Point Control effect, the script will automatically fill that value with the estimated position for each word/syllable. By using expressions to link to this effect, you can make sure any position controls used by your effects are positioned correctly. The instructions were in an earlier post.

3. Looking at your preset, I'd say you probably don't need so many Slider Control effects. I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but I'd imagine you just need one Point Control effect, maybe an animated Slider Control and then some expressions on your Split effect to do the rest.
afx_fan
Posts: 10
Joined: August 4th, 2007, 7:31 pm

Paul Tuersley wrote:If you find it really slows to a crawl as it gets further into the import, you could try force quitting AE (or keep pressing Escape to stop the script), then do it again, but without the comp open/visible...just select the comp in the project window but don't open it. I've been told that this may speed things up a bit.
Thanks, that work, i was using all this time, the shinjipierre script, but is not friendly at all, i have a final question, is normal to take a lot of time to make the movie??? about 3 and half hour, for only a 6min video..... i dont know, if is because of the effect or the number of layers (44 lines ass script) 741 :shock:


P.D. i wonder if there a way to make the keyframes into a xpresion, maybe in that way i can make the "encode" faster...
Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

I don't actually use the script myself (I wrote it for you guys) so I couldn't say how long a "normal" render is likely to take.

There are certainly some things, such as motion blur and effects, that will add to render time. The layer bounds for a text layer is the comp size, so each effect that is applied is being calculated for the whole comp size. Also, the script creates a new text layer for each word/syllable, so it can all really add up.
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