ft-MarkerExporter: reuse layer markers

ft-MarkerExporter is a new After Effect script from Francois Tarlier that "exports layer markers to a XML file which can then be reimported and applied to an existing layer, a new layer or even a new comp."

LayerMarkers: split at markers or add markers

"Paul Tuersley week" continues with a new After Effects script, pt_LayerMarkers, which splits selected layers at their layer markers, or add markers at the cut points of any layers in a comp.

Frame Restorer script uses Timewarp

The week of Paul Tuersley at AE Scripts (one new script a day) begins now with the new After Effects script: pt_FrameRestorer:

This script can quickly restore damaged or missing frames. Use layer markers to specify which frames to restore, or get the script to search for color bars and restore any missing frames. The script uses the Timewarp effect to create new in between frames.

Gravity preset, Unpack Precomp script + more

@AdobeAE notes some free utilities by Jesse Toula, who has the new tutorial on Custom Shatter Maps. Among the templates and footage for sale are his Unpack Precomp script and a Gravity preset, Quick Gravity, and a separate tutorial.

[Update: didn't check to see if this was the same but Jesse Toula now has a Gravity in After Effects tutorial on Creative Cow.]

There's probably more resources in AE Help, but you can also check out a script palette that's been shipping with AE called Gravity.jsx for a bouncing ball effect. For something similar with expressions, see Dan Ebberts' Bouncing Ball example on MotionScript, and his gravity expression triggered by a marker at Creative Cow (see also Expression example: Animate scale at each layer marker):

g = 1000; // gravitational constant

if (marker.numKeys > 0 && time > marker.key(1).time){
t = time - marker.key(1).time;
y = g*t*t/2;
value + [0,y]
}else{
value
}

Update: see also Better Bouncing in After Effects on a similar preset by Ian Haigh.

Copy Paste Markers script + more

Sebastien Perier posted a new script at AE Scripts, Copy Paste Markers: "After Effects does not allow copy/pasting markers in their UI for now, so this script is here to help."

By the way, AE Scripts has a variety of scripts for markers, and AE Help has a list of scripts for manipulating markers and additional info too.

After Effects expressions: Time, Layer Numbers, Speed, and Velocity

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 6th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The 6th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 6: Managing Time, Layer Numbers, Speed, and Velocity:

"By default, expressions assume you are interested in values at the current time. If you need to know the current time, just use the keyword time in an expression, and After Effects will return the current time in seconds (not frames, as we discussed in the previous section).

However, expressions allow you to access values at different points in time. They also let you find out what time keyframes and markers are located at so you can have animations change as they approach or cross one of these keys, as well as reference what other layers are doing. In this installment, we’ll explore a couple of ways to exploit time. ...including having one layer echo the movements of another with delay."

How to shoot for planar tracking & place tracking markers

Via AETuts, Hollywood Camera Work has posted 4 sample tutorials and (maybe) free green screen and tracking plates from Visual Effects for Directors, which was just reviewed by Mark Christiansen on PVC. Tutorials include How to place tracking markers and How to shoot for planar tracking. Here's the preview via Filmaking Central:



Also, Eric Alba posted pictures of his vfx tracking markers, including a free PDF template.

Markers Leaks: trigger actions using AE layer markers

Eran Stern has a new Creative Cow AE podcast, Markers Leaks, an introduction to his new preset and Custom Effect which he uses to trigger actions using layer markers inside of Adobe After Effects.

Eran's methods and ones planned by Maltannon are similar to the more specific but limited examples in the Behaviors Presets in AE, which are discussed by Trish & Chris Meyer in Creating Motion Graphics (excerpt on Presets) and After Effects Apprentice.

Update: This video was added to Adobe TV,

Copy, remove, & everything else about markers

Composition markers and layer markers are used to to mark important times or to store comments and other metadata in a composition or layer. In Creative Suite they may go under different names and have different functions than the apps you know best, but markers and their metadata can be transferred between Adobe apps. For more on this, see Sharing markers with After Effects, Encore, and Flash in Adobe Premiere Help.

To learn more on markers in AE, see After Effects Help's Layer markers and composition markers, which explains in depth many aspects of using markers. Of special note is a subsection of that page that lists many scripts and utilities for working with markers.

Basic and useful among them are scripts by Jeff Almasol: Copy Markers and Remove Markers.

Also useful is a new feature in CS4, speech metadata, which imports with layer markers with the transcription as labels. The preference for this feature is off by default (via); the toggle is under Preferences > Media & Disk Cache > Create Layer Markers from Footage XMP Metadata. For additional info and video links, see the earlier post Metadata in After Effects & CS4.

Metadata in After Effects & CS4

XMP (Adobe, Wikipedia) data in CS4 can be used in a variety of ways: in media capture, search, and with Speech transcriptions for edit and animation timing in Premiere and After Effects (AdobeTV demo video). Also, Layers Markers shared among video apps can be converted to Cue Points to trigger events in Flash (video). A metadata workflow overview by Mark Christiansen is on Adobe.TV.

In After Effects, speech metadata can help with syncing video and audio elements since speech metadata imports with layer markers with the transcription as labels. The preference for this feature is off by default (via); the toggle is under Preferences > Media & Disk Cache > Create Layer Markers from Footage XMP Metadata.

Depending on your success with a speech transcription in Premiere, in AE you might not even need to scrub with audio (CTL/COM +drag) to refine marker placement, as you would after using the asterisk key (*) on the numeric keypad during a RAM preview.

After Effects Help LiveDocs has additional details, for example:

"When you render and export a composition, you can write XMP metadata to the output file that includes all of the XMP metadata from the sources for that composition. This includes all of the composition markers and layer markers in the composition, all of the XMP metadata from the source files on which the layers in the composition are based, comments from the Comments columns in the Timeline panel and Project panel, and the project-level XMP metadata for the project in which the composition is contained. XMP metadata from nested compositions is recursively processed and included in the output.

[...] In addition to storing XMP metadata in After Effects project (.aep, .aepx) files and source documents used by Adobe applications (for example, .psd), After Effects can write XMP metadata directly into the files for many container formats [like MP4] ."

Of course this aspect of metadata piques the interest Flash developers like Brooks Andrus (Yes, the h.264 Specification is Freely Available), who shares some screencams from looking at MP4 files inside the Flex Debugger in The XMP Revolution is Here:

"...using XMP extends beyond standard file info and saving a video file’s editing history. Case in point, Premiere Pro CS4 has a killer 'speech to text' transcription feature. The transcription text is stored as XMP within the video file. This allows Premiere and other tools to accurately search for this data within a file (powers the search feature inside of Premiere and Bridge). As a special bonus, Flash Player 10 provides the same data in its onXMPData callback."

AIR application 'Convert Final Cut Pro Markers to Flash Video Cue Points'

While not a problem for Premiere and AE users, Final Cut Pro markers don't work well as cue points in a Flash video file, while the UI for scrubbing and setting cues in Adobe's Flash CS3 Video Encoder is unwieldytiring of this, John Skidgel built an AIR utility to convert FCP XML to FLV XML, which you can import into Flash CS3 Video Encoder. You can pick up the app and check out the walk-through at Free AIR application: Convert Final Cut Pro Markers to Flash Video Cue Points.

John has also made available a few more tutorials from his Focal Press book Producing Flash CS3 Video: Techniques for Video Pros and Web Designers.