[Andy George]

Hi Rob

[rob spence] “I have a dv project 5:3 format”

I assume you mean 4:3 unless Im missing out on some new format 🙂

Since your footage has already been letter-boxed you don’t have a ton
of options other than getting the footage as something else.

If you want to stay in NTSC then you want your footage in 4×3 Anamorphic (widescreen)
This format uses non-square pixels to “fake” a 16:9 aspect ratio since there
really is no such thing as 16:9 ntsc.

But since your coming from film you could set your sights a lot
higher and get an HD version if possible.

If you can get your footage delivered in almost any
other fashion than DV you will be preserving a ton of information thats
available from the Film.

-Andy

[Andy George]

[Kate Koyama] “ok I have a question:

if i have to deliver a video to be played in different formats, say :

– for a high def tevelision (render m2v for DVDS)
– web (I guess I could render as flv or quicktime)
– 20″ screen computer (quicktime animation I guess???)
-ipod (I’d render as a MPEG4, I think)

can I do one video only in 720 by 480 NTSC widescreen????? does the one size fits all to apply do this?”

1 size could fit all but not this one. You are going to want to set up an HD composition to the
specifications that fit your needs. For example 1080 or 720p. 720×480 NTSC widescreen is standard definition not high definition.

After effects is not compression software. For the best image Render 1 HD master from after effects and use some type of compression software to convert that Master into everything else you need.

[Kate Koyama] “because I was wondering when you put a DVD on the computer and it fills the whole screen, the movie doesn’t look pixelated. But When I make my video (720 by 480 NTSC) fill the whole screen of a computer it looks very pixelated. So I was wondering how come the the DVD movie looks fine when it has the same dimensions as my movie (I’m assuming the DVD movie was also composed in a 720 by 480 area).”

This is probably because you are using after effects to create your M2V file.
You need to use software intended for compression.

-Andy

[Andy George]

Hi Chris,

One way to make a keyframe is by clicking on the stopwatch of the property you want to animate.
Then when you adjust the value of the property a keyframe will be created.

If you render to the “lossless with Alpha” preset in your render Q it will create an
alpha channel were there is no image.

I would recommend taking a few moments with some beginner tutorials.

Here are some good ones-

https://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

-Andy

[Andy George]

Chris,
Try this-

Apply the number effect to a solid. Set your decimal places to 0.

Set a keyframe on the value offset property. Set it to 60. Move forward in time and
set a keyframe to your value offset property. Set it to 0

-Andy

[Andy George]

Hi Brian,

Yes that makes sense. You could use a “follow the leader” expression,
which would allow you to set a consistent offset between each scale.

Is that what your looking for? Here is a article that does a good job
of breaking down Time offset in expressions.

https://www.creativemac.com/2003/12_dec/tutorials/followtheleader.htm

-Andy

[Andy George]

Hi Brian,

Is there a reason you want to use a null or gradiant?
The way I would scale multiple items is like this-

Create a null object and apply the “slider” effect from the
expression controlls effect catagory.

Open the scale property of the first item I want to control the scale of (“layer_1” lets call it)
and option click on the stopwatch to reveal the expression controls. Quickwhip
the scale property to the slider effect on the null object.

Now select layer_1 and go to edit>copy expression only.

Select the rest of the layers you want linked to the null and paste-

-Andy

[Andy George]

Leo,

Yes AE works poorly with HDV format’s. Do a search on the forum for:
Dave’s Stock Answer #1
for a good explanation of the problem your experiencing.

Basically you need to convert it to a intermediate format before importing into AE.
Prores or lossless quicktime works well. Or even an AVI if that’s what you prefer.

-Andy

[Andy George]

Hi Jan,

When I import images from either photoshop or Illustrator (I am using pngs at the moment) and place then onto the composition area they appear stretched. Is this correct? Having to manually re size them seems odd to me.

Do you have the “toggle Pixel aspect ratio correction” button selected? It’s at the bottom of your
composition preview window and looks like a box with an arrow on top of it. Since your working in an
anamorphic standard definition project this is going to make a big difference on how your images preview.

When I render my project I use video for windows and then select format options at which point I choose divx codec 6.8.5 2 logical cpu’s and then 720hd etc and pal 16:9. The size of the file is then around 4mb’s and I then use either a CD or a usb flash drive to plug into a dvd player.

To get the best results out of AE you should render to a lossless formatt such as Quicktime Animation or Prores. The “lossless” preset in your render Que will do just this.

Then use compression software such as Apple compressor, sorenson squeeze, Adobe media encoder..ect to compress the lossless file to your destination format.

Your render setting’s appear to be an HD format, but your composition is standard definition.

If you can provide more details about what exactly you are trying to do and what the final destination for your video is, then we can provide more details on an appropriate work flow.

-Andy

[Andy George]

I think your correct on what is causing the error Doug. I had the same error after pulling out a Blackmagic card. Deleting the Blackmagic quicktime components solved the issue.

-Andy

[Andy George]

What version of AE are you running? It needs to be the most recent update.

-Andy