Shatter Effect : Is this a Bug?

Hi

I was using the shatter effect last week (AE CS3, Mac OS 10.5.2, Mac Pro) after
not having used it for years. Anyway, I had a layer which I wanted to shatter at
the end. So I split the layer where I wanted the effect to occur and added the
shatter effect to the end half. However all I could see in the layer was the
final state of the shatter effect. Despite being applied to a separate layer
(the beginning having been effectively trimmed off with the split) the effect
was still being applied from the start of the media! I expected the effect to
apply only to the visible footage.

I won't lie and say this didn't cost me a lot of time ... I tried to repeat the
effect on another computer... but used the whole clip as a sample and so it
worked fine! Then I started ploughing through plug in versions .... I'll leave
it there! However when I finally twigged that the effect was always operating on
the whole media clip I was able to work around by animating the radius from the
clip start to it's IN point on my layer.

Seems odd though.... unworkable on a long clip!

Is this a bug? Or am I missing something fundamental?

Thanks

That's the way Shatter has always worked - it recognizes the start of the source
footage, not the in-point of the layer.

Yepp, Andrew is right. Strangely enough the simulation time is derived from the
absolute comp time, not the layer's relative time. You therefore need to create
keyframes for the forces if you want to change the start of the simulation.

Thanks for the clarification...

Seems mighty odd to me, but I hardly ever use plugs like this. Just enough time
in between to forget little things like this!!

Yes, it's odd and one could consider it a bug, though on other levels it makes
perfect sense. Depending on your personal opinion, feel free to report your
thoughts to:

 <http://www.adobe.com/go/wish>