Making a Math/Resolution Mistake Somewhere

[erinholtco]

Apologies in advance for the (probably) very stupid question.

Specs: I'm working with an HD Video Comp, 1920x1080 resolution.

Goal: Make 4 equal horizontal rectangles to fill the screen (using AE's native shape layer rectangle drawing tools).

Approach: Divide height by 4 —> 1080/4 = 270. Made 4 rectangles, 1920x270 each, according to the Shape Layer size properties.

Problem: Math doesn’t equal out. The rectangles are too tall.  Yet, when I make this in Adobe Illustrator, the math works out just fine. So, there's something I'm misunderstanding/overlooking about AE resolution, size properties, or comp properties. Anyone know off the top of their head what I've botched?

Screenshots to come. Thanks in advance!

[Roei Tzoref]

make sure you are working in square pixel aspect ratio in the composition settings, and do show some screenshots with the Ae interface visible and the layers modified properties revealed (type UU after you highlight them)

[Dave_LaRonde]

If there's no pressing need to use shape layers, you can always make 4 comp-sized solids, and then scale the vertical dimension only to 25%

[erinholtco]

Roei Tzoref​

Hi guys, my name is Taylor. Erin posted this for me earlier today. Thank you for your suggestions. I've added some screenshots that show my settings. Perplexingly, the rectangles are too small today.

Below: Illustrator file that I want the After Effects file to look like.

Below: After Effects Composition Settings

Below: Rectangle Size

[Roei Tzoref]

as the pink layer is highlighted, press UU so we can see the modified properties. we might see the scale is not 100% in the transform properties or shape group.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

This is what your comp should look like:

I created this comp by choosing Rectangle tool (q) and double clicking it with a blank HD comp in the timeline. Then I pressed the U key twice to reveal all of the modified properties of my shape layer. In the Rectangle 1 path property I deselected the link, selected the Y value, used the right arrow key to move to the end of the numbers and pressed / 4 and enter. The size is now set to 270. After Effects will do math in most property boxes and it's a real time saver.

Next I pressed the p key to reveal position, selected the Y value which highlighted the entire Y value and typed 270/2 to set the position of the first shape layer. Ctrl/Cmnd + D duplicated the layer and I selected the Y value again, used the right arrow key to move to the end of the numbers and typed + 250, pressed enter then held down the shift key and drag the x value to the left to position the second shoe layer. I then repeated the procedure twice, went back to each shape layer and changed the color of the fill and I'm done. Total time about 1 minute.

Pressing the U key twice verifies that the only modified properties of the layer are the size of Rectangle 1, the color and the position. It has to work.

If you press the U key twice and check you'll see something else that has been changed. If you don't let us know. If you do then it should be pretty easy to fix.

[erinholtco]

Thanks so much. Using the in-program math inside the fields seemed to do the trick.

[Mike_Abbott]

Do your shape layers have a stroke - ie a line around the outside in the same colour as the fill?

That would effectively increase the visual size.