[Alex Serban]

Dave, no need to attack novices on this forum. Because someone can’t drop $100 on a plugin that performs one task doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of real advice, which you couldn’t supply.

Sascha, I use the Remove Noise effect which is built right into AE. The results are great, and free, though the render is long and painful.

[Alex Serban]

“channels-set matte

also if something is too transperant toss curves on it, go to the individual channels and select alpha, pull the curve to the top lieft”

I have to say this is what worked best for me in my particular case. the luma matte, set matte, etc. all made the light pastel colors of my image transparent until i messed with the alpha curves. thank you

[Alex Serban]

It needs to be Photoshop Extended

[Alex Serban]

Thanks everyone! Blurring the matte layer, duh! And the CC light sweep effect is a gem, I haven’t gone through all the effects yet, I wonder how many there are that would save me time like that haha.

[Alex Serban]

There are two distinct “still image effects” i see in the video in the range you provided. The first one is a camera panning left, looking at a picture standing on a table. The second is a simple pan that was done in an editing program. That is easy as pie to recreate in any basic editing program and does not require after effects. You simply activate keyframes in your NLE, position where you want the photo start and add a keyframe there, move forward in the timeline, and reposition the photo where you want it to end up (the NLE should add the second keyframe for you).

The first effect I saw though probably was shot in real life. However, this effect can be done inside of After Effects as well. It’s called “Camera Mapping.” It involves re-creating the geometry in the photo in the 3D environment in After Effects using solids, and then using a light to project the photo onto said geometry. Very cool effects can be achieved doing this. It is an intermediate-advanced technique and I don’t know where you are in your After Effects journey, but you need to at least understand 3D concepts and how AE works.

A very good video tutorial on Camera Mapping is provided by Andrew Kramer on videocopilot which can be viewed here:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/3d_camera_projection/

Also, Trish and Chris Meyer have written an illuminating (pun intended!) chapter dedicated to lights and shadows (which are what is used to create this effect) in their fantastic book “Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.” They are pretty much the go-to people in AE training.
https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Motion-Graphics-After-Effects/dp/0240814150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358569499&sr=8-1&keywords=creating+motion+graphics+with+after+effects

Good luck!

[Alex Serban]

Thanks for posting this workaround. I tried out your method and it does work. In other words, you are using a solid as an intermediary to copy/paste a mask from one layer into a scaled layer in order to retain the mask size. A question for you though- how do you convert between the scale percentage of a layer that is above or below 100% to it’s corresponding pixel count in the replace footage->solid menu?

For example, i want to copy/paste a mask (keyframed with an animating shape) from a 100% (original) scaled layer onto a layer that has been scaled up to 241%. Copying and pasting directly from the first layer to the second results in a mask that has been scaled up by 241%. I need it to conform to its original size on the new layer while retaining its keyframes. Resizing it frame by frame on the new layer is both time-consuming and affects my original animated motion path.

A workaround I thought of to this is to pre-compose the receiving layer which will reset the scale to 100%. However, I precompose to solve a lot of my after effects puzzles which results in cluttering my project with dozens of compositions >.>

[Alex Serban]

thanks for posting your fix, i had the same problem!

[Alex Serban]

hey bud, had this problem tonight and your last post saved the day. thanks a lot for coming back to the forum and posting your solution!

[Alex Serban]

Hi Sue, you can just go to Preferences-Audio and uncheck the Preview Audio while Scrubbing box. EZ

[Alex Serban]

No need for snottiness. It drips all over this site.