General Specialist

2006-07-02

AE Preset: Scaling a Motion Path

If you've set up an After Effects animation with lot's of position keyframes, you probably know that you can move the entire animation around by parenting the moving object to a null, and then move the null. But if you suddenly want to scale the animation path without scaling the moving object itself, you're in for a hard time. After watching Aharon Rabinowitz's very complicated method of getting around the problem of not being able to scale a motion path, I thought to myself; "there must be an easier way" and decided to use this as an excuse to dip my toe in the pool of expressions. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Aaron spends so much time on all his great AE tutorials and AE podcasts! Here's an After Effects 7.0 Animation Preset that you can apply to a layer with an animation, and then just scale the animation to your heart's content. If you want to rotate the animation, just parent it to a null, and rotate the null! Download preset Scale MotionPaths (ZIP-file, 1 KB) Of course there's a way to both scale and rotate without the help of a null. I asked the expressions-guru Dan Ebberts who instantly whipped up this preset that will let you do both: Download preset Scale and Rotate MotionPaths (ZIP-file, 1 KB)
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9 Comments:

  • Hello Jonas,
    I tried to use the expression, but in AE7 (German) it does not work. I applied the ffx to an animated solid. The error message says "Class "Effect" doesn't have an instance or method called "Slider". Expression deactivated." (translated from German AE)...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Monday, January 08, 2007  

  • I've just tried both mine and Dan's Animation preset, and both work fine in AE 7.0.1 Professional on Windows XP. Might it be a problem with quotation marks in German?
    Please create a new project with a simple solid in it, and then animate its position with a couple of keyframes. Do you still get the same error when applying any of the presets?

    - Jonas

    By Blogger Jonas Hummelstrand, at Tuesday, January 09, 2007  

  • "Slider" has to be renamed "Schieberegler" in German Versions of AE7. There are similar problems with other words, too. Best solution: Trial and error.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Friday, January 12, 2007  

  • does that plugin work for a motion path in a 3d environment?

    thank you

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Friday, June 15, 2007  

  • It's an Animation preset, not a plugin, but yes, it should work as a motion path is just a position animation created from a path/mask shape.

    By Blogger Jonas Hummelstrand, at Friday, June 22, 2007  

  • thank you so much. Really helps me, this one

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tuesday, November 11, 2008  

  • I have a null that moves in a handheld fashion with LOTS of postion keyframes. the client just said, "It moves to much" I thought i was gonna have to do alot of work to scale all the postion keyframes down. But wait! I just found this expression that does it for you! BAM! I leaving home early. Thanks for this one!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tuesday, February 10, 2009  

  • Wow, you just saved my day. Thanks a lot!

    By Blogger Unknown, at Friday, March 13, 2009  

  • I back your efforts but both presets did not scale the motion path- they only changed the position.

    By Blogger Unknown, at Tuesday, April 12, 2011  

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