Media player to replace quicktime on windows (NOT VLC)

So after searching around for a bit since quicktime doesn't seem to hardly work in windows anymore I needed a player that can both frame by frame, be light weight, and play MOV's etc. Everyone talks about VLC but it doesn't frame by frame very well at all and honestly I think it looks awful. Windows media player is clunky as heck and often won't even play mp4, or MOV files.

Enter smplayer. You can frame by frame with the < > keys , .

Under preferences you can go the interface tab and change it to mini GUI, so that the icons aren't so big and clunky. you can turn off the top tool bar.

You can tell it to allow multiple instances under Options>Preferences>interface> instances tab.

So overall it seems light and tight like quicktime was, I have my frame by frame functionality and it doesn't look like it came out of some geeks pocket protector (well mostly :) If you tune up the interface a little.

Enjoy!

smplayer
http://www.smplayer.info/en/info

UPDATE on QT codecs: also just FYI if you are having issues with quicktime you may also be having issues with the quicktime codecs. For instance in maya I couldn't get QT for playblasts since QT won't even install. I downloaded this quicktime alternative and it did the charm perfectly.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm

Make an object or shadow follow/parent only on one axis after effects

Let's say you want the y axis to stay fixed but you wanted the object to translate along x with another layer or object. For instance the shadow for a bouncing character.

Start with code something like this in the position expression for your object that needs to track your "parent object" Set y to the desired fixed vertical height.

y = 900;
x=  ;
[x,y]

Simply Click to the left of the semi colon after x= then pick whip to the x position of the object you want it to follow.


The code should update to something like this.


y = 900;
x=thisComp.layer("name of your layer").transform.position[0];
[x,y]

Now it will follow along with your object only on one axis!

Text antialiasing in Chrome not working

I have no idea what caused this issue. But somewhere along the line I found that the fonts in chrome suddenly looked TERRIBLE. Like no anti aliasing what soever. Jaggity mess.

You can adjust clear type text. from your windows search bar (find it there) and turn that on but that seems to only effect windows fonts. After some more digging I found that it's a little setting in chrome you have to turn on.

Go to chrome://flags/




Search the page for "LCD text antialiasing." Then set this to "ENABLED"

This fixed it for me! how incredibly annoying.


If you still have the problem you can also try this.

Search the page for "GDI Text Printing" Then set this to ". "ENABLED"

3 Quick After Effects Productivity tips

I'll keep growing this list as I come across little tibits that help. In the mean time feel free to comment with a quick tip of your own and i'll add it to the list.

TIP 1 - How to resize or change the color of a solid after you've already created it.

Simply select your solid layer and press Shift-CTRL and Y. It will pull up the dialog box so you can change the color and size of the solid.
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TIP 2 - Link two text layers content together with expressions 

If you want to link multiple text layers to one in AE so that you change one text layer and it will change the letters in the linked layer(s). This can be really helpful if you have an effect that relies on many layers of text all working together. For instance if you have a typo you need an easy way to change them all at the same time.

HERE IS HOW - Expand the text you want to link to a master text layer until you see text>source text. ALT click the little clock by "source text" to open up the expressions for it.

Now on the layer you want to link the text two expand it as well so that  "source text" is visible

Now in the slave text layer use the little pickwhip icon and drag it to where it says "source text" in your master layer. (it won't work if you juts try to place it on text or the text layer)

NOTE: This will not sync the font px size, those would still have to be synced manually.

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TIP -3 Scale the selected layer to fit in your composition window

This is stupid but I always forget the hot keys so I figured i'd post it. To scale the layer to fit in your composition window use these hot keys

Ctrl+Alt+F - Fit All 
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G - Fit Vertical 
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H - Fit Horizontal