[Bartek Skorupa]

Do you want to arrange them in the project panel, or in composition?
There is no way of arranging layers in project panel differently than in ascending alphabetical order.
In composition? Just select them in desired order and place in the comp. The layers will be placed in the comp in the order you select them.
I have one little question: Are there any missing frame numbers, or you have all numbers, but just not the right order? Why don’t you import your sequence as sequence?
Import a sequence, place it in the comp and time reverse it.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

Pins are placed relatively to the layer. What you see in the info panel is the absolute position.
If your layer is not placed at the center of the comp or it’s scaled – you get this behavior.
Reset the position and scale of your layer, or if you have to have it scaled, or placed somewhere else – you’ll just have to pre-compose it.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

I don’t know what could be easier than creating just two keyframes at the beginning and at the end.
There are of-course some other ways, but I don’t find any of them better than just keyframing.

Regarding writing text:
That depends on the length of the text. If I have some longer text that I want to have as a single crawling line I prefer to write it in any text editor, just to be sure that I don’t make any mistakes. Text editors wrap text automatically so I can easily read it all without having to move it. When I am happy with the content, I simply select all, copy and paste it to the text layer.
What could be the benefit of creating text in Photoshop?

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

dpx, but I’d worry how the client will react when you ask them to convert.
The truth is: If you want to have the access to all the color information – you have to work on R3D.
Otherwise you’ll lose something.
dpx can pass 32bpc color, so I’d try to ask for dpx.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

… as well as CS4

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

I just found one little option in AE preferences: In general settings the last option you can choose is “Use System Shortcut Keys”.
If you disable it – Cmd-M will not minimize your AE window.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

PF Hoe for example. 79$. Not free, but almost free for what it’s capable of.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

I’m not sure how it works on Windows. On Mac you can click Cmd+\, so maybe you can try Ctl+\

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

Maybe you have some different kind of Mac. On my Mac everything works.
Dave’s solution takes half a second.
If you want to use keyboard shortcuts:
Cmd-Enter, V
0.75 sec.
Writing this post – 12 seconds.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland

[Bartek Skorupa]

Well. I thought it has something to do with Snow. On my OS 10.5.8, AE CS4 – Cmd-M works fine. It “makes movie”.

Bartek Skorupa
Warszawa, Poland