Lost in a Timewarp

[Tripp Woelfel]

I need to use AE's Timewarp effect but I feel like a real gumby since I can't get it to do what I want. Here's my story:

- Create a new comp by dragging the clip from the project bin to the new comp control. This makes a cop the same length as the clip.
- Set the work area bar to the portion of the footage I want to use.
- Right click on the work area bar and trim comp to work area bar
- Apply timewarp effect to clip in comp and set speed to 50

Simple enough, right? Not really. When I press "0" on the number pad to start the preview, it somehow applies the effect beginning with the start of the clip, not the beginning of the comp. I'm clearly doing something wrong here.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a better way, or does anyone know of a good resource on the Web where I could learn more about this effect? I've did a bunch of searching here and elsewhere, including Video Copilot but haven't found anything helpful.

TIA

[Murray Christian]

What specifically about Timewarp do you want to use? I've never really used it and what you describe happens when I try and use it as well (I was hoping precomposing first might get around it but it doesn't). It does have some nice options though.
However a simple 50% speed up or slow down is easily done by using the layer's time stretch adjustment (right click on the layer->Time->Time Stretch) or the graph and that problem doesn't appear.
(obviously it's better to figure out why the effect seems to do what it does, but if you need a simple time adjustment right now that's one way to do it, is all I'm saying.)

[Tripp Woelfel]

Murray... I want to take the footage and slow it by 50% and have AE's Timewarp tween frames with the pixel motion function. I used Timewarp about nine months ago with some stunning results, and some that were simply rubbish.

Since the footage is 24p I want to maintain the motion smoothness at the reduced frame rate. I guess I could look at Time Stretch and see what frame blending will do for me. It might be enough.

My guess is that AE's Time Stretch and PP's Time Remapping are equivalent functions. If one offers no benefits over the other, and I can't get Timewarp to work, I'll just frame blend in Premier Pro with Time Remapping, although I'd rather not.

Timewarp is a really powerful tool that, as I said before, can create some wonderful footage but I haven't been able to figure out/remember how to use it. That's the problem with an old brain. I've not found any good tutorials on the Web, and of course the Adobe help file is just rubbish.

[Jim Montgomery]

Originally Posted by Tripp Woelfel

I need to use AE's Timewarp effect but I feel like a real gumby since I can't get it to do what I want. Here's my story:

- Create a new comp by dragging the clip from the project bin to the new comp control. This makes a cop the same length as the clip.
1 Set the work area bar to the portion of the footage I want to use.
2 Right click on the work area bar and trim comp to work area bar
3 Apply timewarp effect to clip in comp and set speed to 50

TIA

Try doing it in this order 3, 1, 2.

[Tripp Woelfel]

Originally Posted by Jim Montgomery

Try doing it in this order 3, 1, 2.

Aha! Makes sense. Can you explain to me why this works this way? The effect clearly has some idiosyncrasies (or I'm an idiot), and I'd love to understand the concept a bit better.