I've got a question for Adobe After Effects, which might require writing an expression (and that's something I only know the absolute basics about). Any solution is welcomed, though, maybe somebody knows a plug-in or a workaround.
Here's what I want to do: I want to transform a layer, for example I want to scale it but also might want to rotate it. The transformation, however, should not apply uniformly to the entire layer. The extent of the transformation should rather be controlled by a black and white layer, that serves as a "map" to map the transformation on the target layer. (Just like a mask or a matte, not an alpha-mask though, that will simply control the alpha channel of the layer. It should control the extent how much the layer is transformed for each pixel.)
I imagine this similar to the effect "Displacement Map". With displacement maps, you can set a value for the maximum y-displacement and one for the maximum x-displacement. The target layer then is
- displaced by this maximum value, in areas where the map is pure white
- not displaced in areas where the map shows mid-grey
- displaced by the negative maximum value, in areas where the map is pure black – and everything in between
I want to control my layer transformations with such a map, just like I can do it with displacement maps. The only difference to displacement maps is, that I want to be able to rotate and scale the layer with this "Transformation Map".
Any suggested solution will be much appreciated! Maybe somebody knows a Plug-In that can do this or a workaround for the displacement map effect – or maybe somebody can hint me towards the right direction for writing an expression :)