[Al]

so you have animated your text and you want to export it with an alpha to be used in another program? then just render a targa sequence, optioning 32 bit and bingo.

or did you animate your text in another program and want to now bring it into AE and put stuff behind it? Then make your text white, and use it as a track matte for your background layer and bingo.

[Al]

yes. you’ll need two compositions –> one comp for the looping animation, the the final comp for your non looping animation, and your pre-composed looping animation.

if that makes sense… (!)

[Al]

x drive is good too

[Al]

you can fake this in ae if they’ve shot nothing;

at the end of the action, move your vision quickly to the left with a big fat horizontal fast blur. if u like, put another bit of vision in – following your first – it doesn’t matter what it is as you’re blurring it so much. repeat this if you like; depending on how long you want the whip pan to be…

then bring in your next clip from the right, fast blurred as well, and settle it centre of screen, keyframing off your fast blur quickly.

[Al]

if they in are in the distance, you should be fine with using flat images composited well. with the rocking motion; simple rotate keyframing will suffice. with the water reflections; if they’re off in the distance you may not need to worry. if you do need it; just a lighter layer mapped to a moving matte will suffice.

even if you minature it or just use still photos; you’ll sell the final piture by compositing well, rather than your source.

[Al]

incredibly helpful michael from bearcage 🙂

[Al]

see the basic after effects forum —> a long detailed discussion has just taken place on the very subject

[Al]

or get the PS brushes out and go mad.

[Al]

to mind;

have you looked at vegas lights? or for more realistic, check out Lux plugin

[Al]

use colour finesse, bring down the blue (experiment with midtones/shadows/highlights