Hello all grand wizards~
Scenario: In Batch, creating a texture with several layers and each has its own blending mode and transparency value in one Action. Then feed this texture to next Action for comping and tracking onto other footages. Is there any way or hack that keeps those layers’ blending mode “alive”, as if turn on Collapse Transformations icon in AfterEffect when using PreComp, when compositing onto other footages?
Please feel free for ideas and greatly thanks in advance~
There isn’t any equivalent to “Collapse Transformations” in Flame. Why not just do everything in one action?
Yes and thanks, but each layer need to track and distorted (i.e. ExBicubic to patch on part of an moving organic object such as a face). When layers were not originated from the same resolution, each layer need its own tracking and distortion data and the production time would be multiplied increasing >_<
That makes sense and there are some ways to make the process easier, but you’ll never be able to combine multiple elements into a precomp while retaining their individual blend modes further down in the comp. Action only puts out “flattened” images.
If I’m adding a few different textures to a face, I’ll start by composing my layers in one action. This action becomes the matte painting. All the scaling, transformations, and initial deformations are set on a single frame. Then I will output each layer as its own pass from the action. All these layers are brought into the next action separately and a single track is applied to all of them. At this point you can also do secondary deformations that are applied to every layer simultaneously. Then each layer is output as its own pass again and brought into a third action. This is where the desired blend modes are applied to each layer and the layer priority is determined. It can be cumbersome to continually pass multiple layers between actions, but that’s the nature of the beast. If multiple elements are ultimately using the same blend mode they can be combined into a single layer in the first action.
The first, second, and third actions, or any combination thereof, can be combined into one step, but separating them is often necessary to maintain certain kinds of functionality.
You could also do your blend modes in the first action and then subtract or divide the resulting precomp from your original plate. Then you would have a single layer that would in essence be carrying through all the blend modes together. I’ve done this on occasion but the math can get squirrelly sometimes.
So while there isn’t an exact replacement for Collapse Transformations, the behavior can be replicated by using any combination of these processes and contextual viewing.
Just back from clients session.
Totally agree and using very similar workflow here. Greatly appreciate for your detailed input. Just feel quite cumbersome especially when dealing with large amount of shots with very creative clients in a very challenging schedule…