Objects won't track to parent clip

[GoinHam]

Earlier today I had successfully tracked a point on my clip, set it as a parent for my null object and had all my composition layers parented to that as well. I had no issues (all objects moved to the motion tracker) and somewhere down the line some of my clips got deleted. I opened a new project, successfully tracked the same point, but now no object will move with it. My null object doesn't and neither do my composition layers. Anything that is parented to the null object will follow accordingly, but I've tried everything and nothing will move along with my main clip. Any help would be great (I've been at this for a couple hours now and it's gotten pretty frustrating...)

Thank you

[Mylenium]

Nobody can tell you much without knowing your exact settings or having screenshots at hand. You could simply have applied the tracker data to a wrong element or your parenting chain might have a break somewhere. We don't even know your version of AE, too, in case this might be one of thoise dreaded cache/ preview issues. Therefore much more info is required.

Mylenium

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

GoinHam said:

Earlier today I had successfully tracked a point on my clip, set it as a parent for my null object and had all my composition layers parented to that as well.

You are either not explaining your workflow using the right terms and the right steps or you did not "parent" the attach point to a null because you can't do that. Are you new to AE or AE's motion tracking tools? Deselect all layers in your comp and press the U key twice to look for modified properties for all layers. If you do not see any keyframes in your "null" layer then you did not follow the right motion tracking workflow.

Standard workflow for motion tracking:

1. (recommended) Select the Motion Tracking workspace
2. If you are using planning to attach another layer or a null to the attach point from your tracking add the layer to the comp
3. Select the layer, which must be a movie or a nested comp with some motion
4. In the motion tracking panel:
   1. Make sure the layer selected is the layer shown as the Motion Source
   2. Choose the types of tracking you want to do and select position, rotation and/or scale as needed
5. In the Comp Panel:
   1. Adjust and position the tracking frame and search area (inner and outer squares) over a sufficiently large and detailed area in the shot that you want to motion track to give you enough information to generate a good track
   2. Adjust the attach point to be over the specific point you want to use as the attach point
6. In the Motion Tracking Panel
   1. Run the tracker and carefully observe the search area and attach point behavior
   2. If needed adjust the Options in the Tracker Panel to give a better track
   3. Make any adjustments you need to if the tracker looses it's place
   4. Use the Edit Target button to select the layer you want use to store the motion tracking information
   5. Click the Apply button

From there you can use parenting to attach additional layers to the "Target" layer. This is not the workflow you described, but it is the workflow you must have used the first time.

[GoinHam]

Thank you very much. I did not select "edit target" the second time around. I apologize for my terminology, I am new to After Effects

[Drummingcyborg]

tough crowd here...

Try making sure either both or neither are 3d layers