How to fix edges of composition after ripple effect applied

[serious business]

There must be a pretty basic fix for this, but I'm still scratching my head.

I have a composition (1920x800) with a complex precomp as a layer (this precomp is 2200x1400). I have an adjustment layer above that (also 2200x1400) with the Ripple effect applied.

The Ripple effect on the adjustment layer produces black/transparent pixels around the edges, which I'd expect if the precomp below were the size of the main comp (1920x800) but it's much larger.

If I apply the Ripple effect to the precomp itself, no problem. It reads the image data of the precomp that's cropped and works as it should.

But, unfortunately, I can't keep it on the precomp because I need the Ripple effect parented to movement and scaling from another separate layer, which is why I have it on the adjustment layer, and that adjustment layer is a child.

SO... what am I missing? How do I get the adjustment layer's Ripple effect apply to the whole size of the precomp below it?

Make sense?

[Mylenium]

I fail to see the problem. Nothing stops you from using a bigger comp and pre-composing it again after you have worked your magic. Everything else doesn't make sense, anyway. You wouldn't parent adjustment layers but rather connect effects parameters using pickwhip expressions. Your whole workflow is flawed.

Mylenium

[Rick Gerard]

I agree with Mylenium. Your workflow is flawed because you don't have a good understanding of how things render and how adjustment layers work. Personally I would put some sliders in the main comp that were tied to ripple effect properties you want to animate in the nested (pre) comp. Then I would tie the sliders to the other values you want to drive the effect.

[Szalam]

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[serious business · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the replies Rick and Mylenium! Tying the effect to a pick whip expression was for sure the way to go, which I ended up doing in a different part of the sequence to do something similar. For this particular shot it didn't quite do it (I massively simplified the situation when I first described the issue, but there were a few reasons I couldn't do something as simple as just precomp with a bigger composition, because that one had certain parameters that were parents to other layers... and well, actually the much shorter reason is that this sequence was the result of several months and several people's work so there was a domino effect on changing certain parameters in certain shots).

The most ideal situation, if time were no issue, would be to re-organise the whole project.

But in this case, the quick fix I found was to simply add a Fast Blur effect before the ripple in the effect order, turn the blur amount to 0, and tick the 'Repeat Edges' box. And that did the trick! (Not an elegant solution, perhaps, but hey...)