[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Daniel: I have good news for you.
But before, a bit of bad news: After Effects doesn’t offer direct access to word spacing in its’ paragraph setting options.

Now, the good news: it doesn’t offer direct access, but it still supports it.

If you bring a Photoshop text layer that has your desired word spacing, and then convert it to editable text (just in case, select the Photoshop text layer and go to Layer > Convert to editable text), then AE will honor the word spacing in the PS text layer when it becomes a “native” AE text layer.

Bear in mind that word spacing is an option that you can only use in Photoshop when you set area/paragraph text (for example, drag a marquee with the text tool) then pick one of the forced justification options and finally set word spacing in the justification options in the fly-out menu in Photoshop’s paragraph panel.

Pretty good, isn’t it?

There are a bunch of amazing type features that AE supports even if it doesn’t give you direct UI access. You can still have them if you bring them in Photoshop text layers and convert to editable text.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Yes, but just not any MXF file out there. It will handle MXF files as used in the XDCAM and P2/DVCPRO HD formats. Those it will handle directly, as recorded by the cameras.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

HDV is m2t.
XDCAM uses the MXF container.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

What AE version are you using, Jamie? From CS3 and moving forward (including CS4, of course), After Effects does support the use of MP3 audio files (it converts them to uncompressed audio on import).
In pre-CS3 versions, the recommended route was converting compressed audio (like MP3) to uncompressed, linear PCM formats (ie, WAV or AIFF). You could still do this with any simple audio utility (even iTunes or Quicktime Pro), just convert the file and then import it into AE.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Oh, sorry. I see in the title that it is CS4.
Go figure… the convert to AIFF/WAV tip still applies as a workaround.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

It depends on whether the camera you plan to use is tape-based (HDV) or file-based (HDV and XDCAM).

If it’s file-based (ie, it records video on memory cards or discs) Adobe video applications (like AE and Premiere Pro) will handle the native file as recorded by the camera. No need to transcode or re-wrap. You just drag the folder from the SxS card or optical disc to your hard drive, and then import the files into your After Effects or Premiere Pro project.

If it’s tape-based, After Effects will also work with native files. But you will have to transfer them from tape using Premiere Pro. Of course you could also use other editing applications, but those apps may need to re-wrap the files to another format while capturing.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Select the Camera and go to Layer > Transform > Auto-Orient and turn it off.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Oh, of course.
I was so concentrated trying to explain how to use the pick whip 🙂
Add this expression to Focus Distance:
length(position, pointOfInterest)

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Frank: Lens Blur is an amazing imitation of the optical qualities of an out of focus lens, including the blown-out highlights, the shape of the iris blades, etc. Unfortunately, it’s a 2D effect (and AE doesn’t offer a way to extract a grayscale depth map from a 3D scene, which is something Lens Blur could use to simulate DOF). That’s why I suggested the “Lens Blur driven with expressions” solution. But I understand that can be scary (and very render intensive).

That said, there is very high end work out there which makes use of the built-in DOF in AE cameras. I guess it’s more or less realistic depending on context. In many cases, lowering the blur threshold worked for me. Especially when the DOF is really shallow.

How to link focus distance to Point of Interest… Enable the expression field for the Focus Distance property (Alt click the stopwatch) and then point with the pick-whip to the POI property to connect it. From that point on, it will be linked to POI as you adjust it.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

One thing that could make things a bit more realistic is lowering the Blur amount in Camera Settings. While the Aperture/F-stop parameter controls the size of the DOF area, Blur controls how blurred the items out of the DOF area actually are (ie, shameless cheating!)

One trick that could work if you’re not doing per-character text animation but animating whole layers is bypassing camera DOF simulation completely and apply the Lens Blur effect (which has advanced Bokeh controls, like number/shape of the iris blades) to each layer and write an expression that links blur intensity to distance from camera, using length() to figure this distance.
The rendering times could be frightening, though.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe