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A really noob question
I am a new guy to the whole After Effects thing, so please bear with me.
I am trying to key out a green screen that I did the other day and figured this would be a great chance to get my hands wet in After Effects. I created a new composition, NTSC Widescreen, unchecked lock aspect ratio to 3:2. I imported my 16 x 9 SD footage filmed on an HDR-FX1. When I put this footage on the timeline, it was imported as 4:3 and I have to stretch it out to fit the screen. What gives there?
Then I play the footage. I understand that AE has to “render” it out, and I am aware that the green progress bar above the timeline tells you the progress of what is rendered. My footage only gets about 13 seconds along and then it starts taking away from the beginning of the progress bar to add to the end, so no matter what, I will only get 13 seconds.
This is the only clip in the entire project, only 30 seconds long, and I have tried both uncompressed AVI and regular MPG2. I have 2 dual core 3.3 gig processors, 3 gigs of RAM, XP and have no internet hooked up to that computer.
Please help me, I really want to start digging. Thanks a lot! -
3 Replies
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“When I put this footage on the timeline, it was imported as 4:3 and I have to stretch it out to fit the screen. What gives there?”
you need to interpret the footage … in the project window, right click on the footage then go to ‘interpret footage’ … then select the correct pixels aspect.
“only gets about 13 seconds along and then it starts taking away from the beginning of the progress bar to add to the end, so no matter what, I will only get 13 seconds.”
this is a RAM preview…that’s how AE previews things … you can only preview as much as your RAM can hold.. get more RAM, or preview shorter sections….or render out the whole thing.
“This is the only clip in the entire project, only 30 seconds long, and I have tried both uncompressed AVI and regular MPG2.”
Render settings do not effect the RAM preview… just do a proper render using the render queue and then have a look in Final Cut/Premiere/etc etc etc…
—-hope this helps some … ask again if anything isn’t clear… good lick
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[duffbeer911] “this is a RAM preview…that’s how AE previews things … you can only preview as much as your RAM can hold.. get more RAM, or preview shorter sections….or render out the whole thing.”
From his description of the green bar disappearing at one end as it renders new frames it sounds like he wasn’t doing a RAM Preview but just pressing spacebar.
For all those new AE users out there: HANDS OFF THAT SPACEBAR!
You want to RAM preview. You do this by pressing the numpad’s 0 key. AE will then begin rendering the composition frame by frame and storing these rendered frames in your RAM. When your RAM is full AE cannot render any more frames and it will begin playing back what it has rendered.
You can extend the amount of a composition that can be rendered by reducing the RAM Preview resolution or setting it to skip frames (this is done in the RAM Preview/Time window pane).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Yeah, that definitely did it! Thanks so much.
Now another question. Are there transport controls to use so that I don’t have to do a new render in RAM preview everytime I want to look at it. Maybe like I want to see 10 seconds back or stop the playback and start it again?
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