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I'm a sprite animator in Adobe After Effects.

For example, I want to be able to skew a layer, but because this image is very small on its own, when I scale up its scale property and then skew it using one of a few possible effects, it does the skew based on its original resolution, meaning the pixels trying to show the skew are very large.

The only way I know of to do this is to use the transform property, and to scale it up that way, then use its scaling property. Trouble is that this means that the bounds of the layer are much smaller than the visible portion, and it means I have to screw with anchors and positions again to get everything back to normal, which is very tedious.

I basically want to be able to skew just like in Flash. Is there any way to do it that is much quicker and smoother than the method I described?

Here's an example image: enter image description here

In the first and second sprite, it's scaled up by playing with the layer's scale property. On the third one, it's scaled up using the effect called "Transform", and then I use CC Slant to skew it. For a few reasons, this is tedious and a bit unwieldy, so is there a better way to do this without using Transform? I know I can do something similar by precomposing the sprite, but this is also unwieldy.

I should also mention that I only own AE CS5.

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  • i find your question incredibly hard to follow, pictures illustrating each step/process would be extremely beneficial. side note, throwing it out there, maybe try using the continuous rasterize option? (i probably dont understand the question adequately)
    – Alex
    Dec 21, 2016 at 7:35
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    Here's an image: puu.sh/sWmWO/79e1b713da.png In the first and second sprite, it's scaled up by playing with the layer's scale property. On the third one, it's scaled up using the effect called "Transform", and then I use CC Slant to skew it. For a few reasons, this is tedious and a bit unwieldy, so is there a better way to do this without using Transform? I know I can do something similar by precomposing the sprite, but this is also unwieldy.
    – Anase Skyrider
    Dec 21, 2016 at 8:06
  • precomps are kind of required in ae, otherwise things differently get unwieldy. perhaps ae isnt the right tool for your job.
    – Alex
    Dec 22, 2016 at 6:23
  • AE gives me a lot more possibilities, and allows these kinds of animations to achieve a certain quality, which is why I use it. Precomps aren't so bad, but the main issue is trying to edit things that you need to see multiple comp layers for, and being stuck in only one frame. And I heard from someone else that if I use a precomp, then I need to animate the 3D camera in each precomp (I use 3D space for parallax).
    – Anase Skyrider
    Dec 22, 2016 at 17:19
  • The final point isn't a 100% accurate. You can click the continuous rasterize button (little sun) on the precomp layer and 3d from the precomp will be brought in to the comp with the camera. If that makes sense? Otherwise I can try and explain better.
    – Alex
    Dec 22, 2016 at 19:41

1 Answer 1

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Well, the answer to the question in your title is to apply the CC Slant effect to an adjustment layer above your (scaled-up) sprite layer. The adjustment layer will have the same resolution as the comp.

But based on the description below the title, I'm not 100% confident this is what you want. Let me know.

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  • This is almost what I want! This is so close! Now I just need a reliable way to apply this only to the layer or layers I want. Precomps would help, but then I could just apply the effect to the precomp itself, and I want to avoid precomps as the additional levels of comps within comps means going in and out of stuff, which can make multi-level editing more difficult.
    – Anase Skyrider
    Dec 21, 2016 at 21:43
  • Well, I think that not allowing precomps is an odd constraint. Maybe After Effects is not the right tool for the job. But good luck!
    – Bobby Circle Ciraldo
    Dec 22, 2016 at 6:01

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