How is this effect done?

[Adam Bennett]

I could be wrong but I don’t think there is a way to freeze frames in AE.

You can get around it by saving the frame as a tiff, re-import it, then when you’ve masked the actor or whatever out you can copy and paste the mask onto that tiff as well

[Joseph W. bourke]

Jeffrey –

I generally output a still frame in the “Save Frame as” section of the Composition pull-down, or if I really want to get tricky (as in the slo-mo then speed-up style that’s used all over the place) I use “Enable Time Remapping” in the Layer pull-down. It takes a while to see what’s really going on with time remapping, but once you get the hang of it, you can do some really cool stuff.

Essentially, when you enable time remapping, you get a keyframe at the start and end of the clip. You then want to add additional keyframes in the Values section in the timeline where your clip is. Play around with it a bit and it will become apparent what does what. Reading the help file on Time Remapping will help a lot as well. You can do freeze frames, DT (dynamic tracking) effects, and all sorts of creative stuff. Good luck.

Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV

[Chris Holland]

You can use Time Remapping to freeze a frame and have it restart later.

Basically here’s what you do:

1. Layer/Enable Time Remapping
2. Add a keyframe where you want the freeze to start
3. Add another keyframe where you want the freeze to end and change the time to what the first keyframe is. Or just copy the keyframe.
4. Find your end point and adjust your velocity so that it is at 100%. Basically so it plays at regular speed. If you don’t adjust your last frame of video’s keyframe it will speed up your video to fit it in the same time.

Fortunately when you use Time Remapping it basically makes your layer length infinite. You can roam all over that layers video.

[Jeffrey Gould]

Thank you for the replies. I had a feeling you could do it with time remapping. I have the total training series, so I’ll if they cover it. You layed the ground work for me to get started. Was I right about masking out the subject and then replacing the background with images or text or whatever? Thanks again.

Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions

[Tim Vaughan]

From what I have gathered, yes, you are on the right track. I personally would find and export my still frame within the movie, split the layer at the frame, and set up my time. (ie 6 seconds between for the still). From Photoshop, I would seperate my subject(s) from the background and place on different layers. From there, reimport the still as a psd composition and work with the layers, changing out the backgrounds, adding text, and doing whatever it is that is wanted. Once through with the image manipulation, start back with your movie. Easy (though a bit time consuming) as pie.

[Basilisk]

Hand matting a character in full motion video will be a major task – if you have a lot of time and no money it maybe an option. The best way is to film your character on greenscreen and then composite him on the background – it is then simple to switch the background. I would guess this is how the effect is done in the example you are thinking about. You need a good camera and lighting team to pull it off convincingly
The most recent examples on my website have all been done with greenscreen footage – basilisk.co.uk
James