Time-remapping and pre-comps with animation

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suztv
Posts: 7
Joined: October 16th, 2007, 8:41 am

I have a problem that has been continuously growing and the only solution at present is to buy 3D software from all the major labels (Max, Maya, C4d) which is just not feesable ATM with budgetary constraints.

Anyway - We do digital signage with phones, lots and lots of phones. Usually we are given a 3D render of a phone with a spin at 30, 60 and 180 or greater frames. This works fine and we can usually just pop the screen in where ever we want and time-remap the phone to spin and twirl when and where we want. However the client has added a new chink - they want the screens animated AND for the phone to do slow turns. This wouldn't be a problem if the screen didn't need to be animated. Is there a way to write an expression or script that would control the null object frames to match a time-remapped layer without pre-composing? If I pre-compose, I throw away all hope of animating the screen WHILE it's turning at the speed I want it to.

I've posted a similar question in CGTalk to no avail, but maybe an expression would help here?
The screen data has key frames that were brought in from Cinema 4D, the Screen Pre-comp is parented to the Screen Data layer. The phone layer is the pre-rendered video that we use in our time lines. Usually we just pre-render the screen with the phone and that's it. With the added problem of an animated screen we need to time-remap the phone and have the screen data follow this without breaking the animation in the Pre-comp.

See below:
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Paul Tuersley
Posts: 704
Joined: June 5th, 2004, 7:59 am
Location: London, UK

It's hard to wrap my head around an exact solution, but I'd say you need expressions like this on the keyframed properties that match the screen to the phone's original motion:

Code: Select all

rotationY.valueAtTime(thisComp.layer("Screen-Pre-comp").timeRemap);
Replace "rotationY" with the name of whatever property you apply the expression to. But for this to work you'll have to composite the screen onto the phone after it's been time remapped.
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