[Ashley M. kirchner]

Interesting idea. I thought about it, having 3 comps combined into one. It just seemed a lot of work to have things off set and tracking properly.

But I do like Matthew Keane’s idea of having one big comp with everything on it, then import that 3 times into another and mask out specific area so things off set properly. That, to me, seems easier to do. I’ll have to play with it and see which one I end up using.

Thanks guys!

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Reading the file in MediaCoder, it tells me:

General
Complete name : E:MOV01438.MPG
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 7.11 MiB
Duration : 20s 440ms
Overall bit rate : 2 918 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 1
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Duration : 20s 440ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 652 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.345

Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 20s 160ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 64.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 32.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Awesome! That’s exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Haven’t tried that yet. I try to avoid compressing anything out of AE since they will get re-compressed when I’m in PPro. This way I prevent double compression.

[Ashley M. kirchner]

The AE AVI is fine (if not extremely large because it’s rendered as uncompressed.) And I can view it just fine in PPro.
When I’m PPro, generally I already have the captured (real video) set, and I add the AE AVI on a new video layer, where I want it, then I export the entire timeline. That resulting new AVI (out of PPro) is where I encounter the problems. The captured video is fine. Anything I’ve done inside of PPro is fine, but the AE imported AVI doesn’t look right, it looks jittery.

For the numerous folks who have already posted on here, one of the things I always make sure of is what a lot of you have said. When I work across applications, I always make sure my settings are identical. First, the captured video in PPro is standard DV (720×480) at 29.97 fps. In AE, all my comps are the same setting and rendered as uncompressed AVIs.

It’s when I tell PPro to ‘Export Movie’ (as AVI), the resulting file shows the AE parts having a case of the jitters.

Funny thing is, just for curiosity’s sake, I exported the same thing out as a Windows Media File and much to my surprise, everything looked fine, even the AE parts. So now I’m really baffled.

Oh well, I think I’m going to start playing with the numerous encoders, both within AE as well as PPro and see what I find out.

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Hrm, I’d have to try that. The only reason this came up was because I like to “preview” my AVIs throughout the project. So I tend to render bits and pieces out every so often and view them in WMP before I get to the final render. But I can do the same thing with QT files, so that’s fine.

So here’s another, related question. What if I have to finish with an AVI file, instead of a DVD? Stuff I make for the school district generally have to remain as an AVI on a data DVD. If the export out of PPro is going to muck with the AE (imported) file, I’m screwed.

[Ashley M. kirchner]

I don’t know if it matters really. All I’m doing with the final footage is encoding it back to DVD … mpeg = loss of quality again.

However, the difference is that if I take the AE generated AVI straight into Encore and spit a DVD out, the footage is clean, crisp. But if I take it into PPro first (which I have to do to insert, add, or overlay it into the video footage already captured), it comes out looking horrible.

Some projects can get away with your suggestion of relinking, but most of my projects, the AE parts are inserted in between the video footage, or at the beginning or end.

I suppose another option is to pull the captured video into AE and render everything out that way and go directly into Encore.

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Hrm, perhaps. Although that would be changing the entire layer, as opposed to a gradient from further back to front. Correct?

[Ashley M. kirchner]

Not sure I understand. How should I split the hexagons? Horizontally or vertically? And the Card Wipe, you’re suggesting two of them. Then you’re saying tighter on the rows than on the columns, but for which? Just one? Both? Do I reverse it on the other? Sorry, I just can’t see it…

[Ashley M. kirchner]

I think you both gave me enough information to be dangerous now. Most of what I posted are things I’ve tried, but not in any particular order, and I’ve certainly left out some things, partly because I was just playing around and trying to figure things out.

Things like collapsing the transformations – no clue I had to do that. Same with the orient stuff, even though that’s optional

So thanks to both of you. I’ll go back and take another whack at it tonight, see if I’ll be ripping more hair out, or wiping a grin off my face.