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After Effects CS5 layer alignment

Mar 13, 2012 8:57 AM

Tags: #cs5 #after #effects #after_effects #layer #ae #align #alignment #protect #protected

Hey guys,

 

is there a way in After Effects to protect a layer from the layer alignment? Like in Illustrator with Alt+Click on the vector.

 

Thanks for every answer!

1241 Views   8 Replies   Latest reply: fallingscalesmedia, Jun 9, 2012 2:13 PM
 
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  • bogiesan
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    1. bogiesan,
    Mar 13, 2012 9:18 AM   in reply to dthbtdsvs
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    Lock it?

     
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  • dthbtdsvs
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    2. dthbtdsvs,
    Mar 13, 2012 9:26 AM   in reply to bogiesan
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    It doesn't work, because I can't select the locked layer.

     
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  • Mylenium
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    3. Mylenium,
    Mar 13, 2012 9:38 AM   in reply to dthbtdsvs
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    Not exactly sure what you mean by "protect from layer alignment", but there's a million ways to enforce a layer to stay stationary from adding a dummy hold keyframe to a simpel expression with fixed values...

     

    Mylenium

     
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  • dthbtdsvs
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    4. dthbtdsvs,
    Mar 13, 2012 10:37 AM   in reply to Mylenium
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    For example you've two text layers. Layer A and layer B with completly various x- and y-values. If I select both of them and hit the vertical align button, they will both take position in the y-value-middle of them.

    Hope you understand me now.

     
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  • Szalam
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    5. Szalam,
    Mar 14, 2012 6:43 AM   in reply to dthbtdsvs
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    If you don't want a layer to be part of the alignment, don't select it?

     

    Otherwise what Mylenium said should work.

     
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  • dthbtdsvs
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    6. dthbtdsvs,
    Jun 3, 2012 5:38 AM   in reply to dthbtdsvs
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    Sorry for the late answer...

     

    I've done it like Myllenium said... Added an expression to the position value of the layer which should be fixed with the fixed values. But you have to hit the align button multiple times because it uses the middle between the two layers.

    However, now it's in position

     

    thx

    dthbtdsvs

     
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  • fallingscalesmedia
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    7. fallingscalesmedia,
    Jun 9, 2012 2:07 PM   in reply to dthbtdsvs
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    For those of you who couldn't figure out a clear solution, combining what has already been said, I figured out a little system that might help someone who likes to line up their objects WITHOUT have to move-one-of-the-objects-that-you-so-carefully-already-placed...

     

    Simply copy the position of the importantly-placed object (let's call it object A) that you don't want to move, and then select that and the other object you want to align and hit the center align (or whatever align you want).  If you are already lost and don't see the Align tab, you can find it the "Windows" menu.

     

    Obviously object A & B are now aligned but are out of place. Now parent object B (that you didn't copy the keyframe from) to the important object A. Next, paste the original position back into the important object A, and both will return to the original spot.

     

    It's not as nice an abobe built-in solution, but hey at least it works.

     
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  • fallingscalesmedia
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    8. fallingscalesmedia,
    Jun 9, 2012 2:13 PM   in reply to fallingscalesmedia
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    and by the way, you can use this for more than two and it works for text as well...

     
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