Convert Position KFs to Anchor Point KFs?

[lunelson]

I'm roughing in animations in the timeline in Final Cut Pro and using the old (free) Automatic Duck AAF Exporter to bring those timelines in to AE 7. (this only works with FCP 5 and earlier BTW, not 5.1+). Problem with these is that for animating still images (pans and zooms on photos) one has to animate Position and Scale. I would rather they be animated using Anchor Point in Scale (thus meaning that the image is always scaling around the centre of the comp.

Could someone write a script that would take all a layer's Position KFs and simply transpose them to be Anchor Point KFs (thus erasing the Position KFs in the process)?

Or perhaps give me a tip to modify an existing approach?

THX

[scribling]

If you were to move the anchor point the comp would scale around that point and probably look pretty odd. By leaving the anchor point in the center of the comp and manipulating the position you should get what you want.

If you really wanted to do this you could try this: Duplicate the layer; wipe out the keyframes on your original layer and use the pickwhip to transfer the animation from position to anchor or vice versa. You could also then turn that expression into keyframes with the keyframe assistant or just turn the layer with the keys on it off.

Generally, I don't think you'd get the result that you're hoping for by doing what you are talking about.

Hope this helps.

[hype]

just select all the keyframes and CTRL C (copy) them, then CTRL V (paste) them on the anchor point. then turn off the stopwatch on the position layer to delete all the keyframes.

[lunelson]

If you were to move the anchor point the comp would scale around that point and probably look pretty odd.

Actually, this is just it. It's the other way that looks odd. This is a technique that has been written about by a lot of people (e.g. check Trish and Chris Meyer's column at DV.com) when it comes to doing 'pan and scan' or 'ken burns' type animation in AE. You animate Scale to do the "zooming" and you animate Anchor Point to offset position or do the "panning". This way the scaling of the objects is always happening around the centre of the comp, mimicking the look of a camera -- since a camera's zoom is always centred in the camera's view. It looks more correct than animating position.

The thing is, if I'm bringing in a series of stills that are animated on position, to convert them requires zeroing the Position value and making the AP values the inverse of what the Position values were.