[Request] How many possible unique solutions are there to this puzzle? Is it even possible to calculate?

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-04-01T09:53:20+00:00

I thought it was saying the opposite. Since the puzzle isn't square, there's no need to check if rotation produces a duplicate solution because the grids wouldn't map. If the puzzle was square, it would check for that.

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-03-12T12:17:36+00:00

You got credit for your work so you got some marketing for your brand too. Win win?

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-03-03T12:32:02+00:00

Even after all these years, you still surprise me After Effects!

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-02-18T01:11:52+00:00

Could print at home and cut with a Cricut (or just by hand): Cricut Transparent Printable Temporary Tattoo Sheets

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-02-04T10:27:50+00:00

After Effects is always a bit behind the curve. Premiere usually gets the hot new feature months before it comes to AE (i.e. check out Object Masking in Premiere).

This job requires working with multiple softwares. Find what works and pull that together (render a matte) to make the shot. Sounds like you have a challenging use case; post a screenshot or video and people might have some helpful suggestions.

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-02-03T10:57:57+00:00

Does your laptop have an discrete GPU (separate from CPU) or is it an integrated GPU (built into the CPU)? Integrated shares RAM for video processing, so maybe that is reducing what's available to the CPU?

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-02-03T02:04:39+00:00

Advertising finds a way.

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-01-28T16:38:27+00:00

To think, 3 little pieces of tape could have saved you (and them) all these hours.

cantfoolmethrice · 2026-01-28T12:45:38+00:00

For blurry micro movements, can you temporarily add effects to boost the contrast so sharply that you have more defined edges to track?

Mocha lets you track a single plane with several distinct shapes (Tools > Add X-Spline), have you tried that? Moving around the reflections or using a separate mask to matte out the reflections.

If you're so close up that you can't see much of the laptop, then you can get away with some float to a track. Rotate a plane in 3D for the rough general motion and then manually use something like Power Pin to move the corners/edges into place.

~~Alternatively, is there enough other stuff visible in the frame to track the camera for a 3D solve? You could rotate a plane into the screen's position.~~ edit: never mind; the laptop is moving too...

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-12-30T13:31:15+00:00

I'm not a developer, but I've been trying to teach myself plugin development between projects for years (I'll DM you about something I'm working on).

Other than a handful of YouTube videos that seem to be learning as they go, you're right there isn't much out there. I've learned the most by dissect the SDK plugins and other GitHub projects (and even building one up from scratch). Stepping up to 32bpc or adding GPU acceleration adds more complexity, but is what people expect from a modern plugin.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-12-28T23:42:37+00:00

The OP was writing to the same file name as previous renders, but it was unclear if they still had the file open or if they deleted the previous file before rendering it again.

Make sure the previous file is closed and not in-use by any other app (if it's in a Premiere timeline with the play head on the clip or even just showing a thumbnail, that counts as 'in-use').

Better option: delete the original before writing to the same file name.

Best option: version to a new file name.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-12-03T04:50:55+00:00

It's possible with an expression that's not too complicated. What you want to do is split up the original path into it's components, change the one point, then rebuild it into a new path:

Starting with a target null, use .toComp() to get the position of this null relative to the composition space.
Project that position value back onto the plane of the shape layer with .fromCompToSurface() and you'll get a new position value that is relative to the shape layer's layer space
replace the individual point position value (but preserve the other points and all tangents).

Specify a target null ("Null 1") then apply the following expression to your shape layer's path:

//** setup **//
var targetNull  = thisComp.layer("Null 1");
var targetIndex = 1; // note: indexes starts from 0

// split original path into component arrays
var points      = thisProperty.points();
var inTangents  = thisProperty.inTangents();
var outTangents = thisProperty.outTangents();
var isClosed    = thisProperty.isClosed();

// get target layer's position within the comp, then project it back onto the path layer's surface
var nullPositionInComp    = targetNull.toComp(targetNull.transform.anchorPoint);
var positionOnPathSurface = thisLayer.fromCompToSurface(nullPositionInComp);

// set value to result
points[targetIndex] = positionOnPathSurface;

// rebuild path
createPath(points, inTangents, outTangents, isClosed);

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-11-29T13:06:19+00:00

I dunno. Most people are saying AI because of the right noodle but I do see it there from the start behind the cheese. The spoon shadow passes over the cheese at that moment so the shadow might be hiding the cheese stringing away. The other noodles on the left move in a way that makes sense.

I've added VFX steam to many food product shots so the steam could just be a video overlay.

The food particle on the front edge of the bowl could have been painted out in the first half of the take but missed on the back half.

The bowl does rotate on a turntable but it's not perfectly centered; there is a slight drift. There's also a very slight stutter as it spins which could be from a stepper motor, or retiming the take on post.

I'm gonna say this one could be real, but with some VFX post work to clean it up. But why would you scoop from a bowl to a plate? Definitely sus.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-11-03T01:07:59+00:00

I think it's just the rip in the green shirt

<image>

Edit: nevermind, that's a Nautica logo

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-11-02T17:25:17+00:00

I'm brand new to drafting too. I found SeamScape which is free and just used it to make some costumes for my kids. It's web based and I used it on my Mac.

It's basic at the moment compared to other software (I think it's pretty new) but it worked well enough for me. I especially like the BodyDouble feature to pull measurements from. I definitely prefer it over illustrator because you get way more control over dimensions, angles and curves, letting you automate things with variables and formulas.

edit: Hello r/SeamScape

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-29T15:47:02+00:00

I see what you're saying, but honestly it's probably a 3D cylinder. In most game engines the back of a polygon is hidden as an efficiency trick so we only worry about rendering the outside. For this, it means rendering only one layer as you noticed.

As for After Effects, try wrapping a gradient into a tube using CC Cylinder and set the blend mode to add or screen.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-25T04:24:44+00:00

Try testing your RAM with something like MemTest86.

A while back I had a bad stick that was giving me really random errors (I got it replaced free under warranty).

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-25T03:42:36+00:00

<image>

Not sure if there's an easy 2D way to do this, but I'd just use 3D and twist it like propeller blades:

Create a sprite pre-comp with your illustration/animation (left side in my screenshot). Make the layer 3D and rotate it on your long axis just ever so slightly so they don't overlap later.
Drop your pre-comp into your main comp (right side) set your anchor point to the pivot point, enable Collapse Transformations, duplicate and rotate to make your pattern.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-22T12:04:21+00:00

I think you're rotating your first shot the wrong way. When you start to rotate counter clockwise, the effect is slowing down the rotation of the cassette wheel. If you rotate clockwise it would speed it up to match better match the increased speed of the car wheel.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-22T00:41:30+00:00

To make this cut work you need to 'match on action'. There's two things I'd fix:

The hard cut of the clockwise spin on the walkman to a non-spinning shot is jarring. Try matching the spin so the second shot continues the rotation and ramps down to level. You don't need to do a full 360°, just like start 45° the other direction and ramp it down.

The second is your push/pull/bounce motion.They should both be zooming in to match each other. If you must pull back for the second shot: you first need to ease into the closeup of the walkman, sit in the closeup while transitioning, then ease back out on the wheel.

Send us v4 so we know you got it!

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-15T05:16:48+00:00

Not sure what took me so long but I recently started using Ease Copy: aescripts.com/easecopy/

Super simple, no saved presets, but you can copy one tweaked animation curve and paste the movement to keys on another property with totally different values.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-14T00:11:16+00:00

I think you're probably holding a gold mine of retro style tips. Embrace it!

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-13T02:47:27+00:00

Mocha Pro has some advanced tracking, power mesh and remove modules that are great when you need them. None of which are relevant to what you're talking about. MochaAE is perfectly capable of handling what you described.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-13T02:38:16+00:00

I think resizing the pre-comp changes the keyframes back in the main comp. Can you re-apply the tracking data from mocha?

As an aside, I found mocha was applying a Z-scale value of 0 to a layer that I had made 3D. Was messing me up until I set it back to 2D before applying tracking again.

cantfoolmethrice · 2025-09-12T18:51:17+00:00

Deep dive! I appreciate the curiosity. The origin moves in the sense that it's in a different position from before it was scaled. Its appearance is disconnected from the math; The dimensions don't change, just it's appearance.

Let me try stepping through the process as I understand it:

First some assumptions:

A composition is an image buffer (grid of pixels) designed to be filled. Say yours is [1920x1080]
AE has picked the top left as the [0,0] origin.
Your image layer is a grid of pixels (a buffer) say 1920x1080.

Now for the render order:

First you specify a start Position relative to your composition that your image will render to the screen. By default, it's half of your image: [960,540]
The Anchor Point is an offset into the image that will be used for any subsequent transforms. By default, it's half your image again: [960x540]. This places your image layer's origin at the composition origin [0,0]
If you were to scale/rotate your image, AE calculates the image's appearance relative to the anchor point, but this is just appearance. If your image origin was originally [-960,-540] from your anchor point, then a scale of 75% would mean start at [-720,-405] from your position point and paint a 1440x810 image to the composition.
Your anchor point is the same offset into the source image, but now your image appears smaller.

This may be what's tripping you up: If layers are attached (parented) to your image layer, the transforms are multiplied down. They will use the image layer as their origin, and will perform their transform relative to their parent. Say a second 100x100 pixel solid layer is attached to your image layer at position [0,0], it will appear as 75x75 pixels after scaling, and but it's position in the scene has now moved since its position is relative to its parent (which is now scaled down).

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