[Brian Charles]

Sounds like you’re looking for Trish Meyer’s tutorial from the Creating Motion Graphics book.

[Brian Charles]

An alternative to masks is a matte. You can create or (scan) a torn paper Photoshop file then use that as a track matte. Track mattes can be animated as well.

If you just want to use amplitude (volume) to drive animation you could use the Keyframe Assistant > Convert Audio to Keyframes which will create a new Null Object named Audio Amplitude that has keyframes for each channel as well as both channels. Then you can either parent or use expression controls to drive the animation using these values.

[Brian Charles]

No you must drag the OpenGl Plug in out of the plug in folder.

[Brian Charles]

Have you tried resetting the preferences file?

When you start After Effects hold down the Shift+ Option + Command key on a Mac or the Shift+ Alt + Control key in Windows.

The OpenGL plugin is know to cause startup crashes, try removing it and then re-launching After Effects.

[Brian Charles]

If I understand the effect you want to achieve, you could try CC Sphere on the text layer. Set the Sphere radius so it envelopes the volley ball then animate the Y rotation.

You may need to mask the layer as the text enters the screen and wraps around the ball.

[Brian Charles]

Apple always announces / releases products at the January MacWorld Expo held in San Francisco.

Intel began shipping the 4 core Xeon in November an upgrade to the current dual core Xeon in the current MacPro.

It is a good bet that one of the new systems Apple will announce is an 8 core MacPro.

If you can wait until then you’ll have a faster computer for the same price or the current computer at a lower price.

[Brian Charles]

I’d advise against cheap RAM for the MacPro. It needs FB ECC DIMMS which are expensive compared to other RAM but worth every penny.

RAMJET will guarantee the RAM but you’ll pay a premium shipping it to Canada.

I agree wait for MacWorld, you could find that you can get an 8 core processor for the same price.

[Brian Charles]

Since you’ve already determined you need a Mac you should increase the RAM to a minumum of 2 GB — more if you can afford it. Also you’ll want to add another hard drive for data and backup.

Its not necessary to but a drive from Apple, virtually any computer parts store can sell you a 200 + GB SATA drive for close to $100 Canadian. They are very simple to install yourself in the MacPro — no cables — just slide the drive into one of the open drive bays.

You should be aware that current Mac releases of software from Adobe and Discrete (Maya) are not Intel native and will only run under emulation through Rosetta. Final Cut Studio 5.1 performs well since it is native. After Effects 7 will work but with some issues (search the forum for best memory settings on Mac Intel).

I have the same computer with 4 GB of RAM and 3 SATA drives in it. I am not using it currently to run the Mac OS but have installed Win XP on it. (Yes — I have software licenses for both OS’s and applications).

Adobe has announced that native Mac/tel versions will be coming with their version releases over the next 12 months.

Once the applications are Universal Binary you will see a dramatic increase in performance.

[Brian Charles]

The short answer is no — you can’t have a different Illustrator graphic for each particle.
However you can use an image sequence or video file or composition where each frame is a different graphic — so you could create a comp sequence of the images you want as particles.

Place this in another Comp and turn visibility off.

Create a Solid layer at Comp size, apply PPlayground and set the layer Map to your image sequence layer.

to control size, decay etc you’ll need a gradient layer (if you use RAMP remember to precompose). Use the persistent and ephmeral property mappers (set Use layer as map to your gradient) to control particle size as they pass over the gradient. Gradient layer should not be visible in Comp but you can leave it visible while you set up to see the effects of the gradient on your particles. Black = small White = big though tyou can set the values in Min and Max settings of the mapper.

You’ll need to experiment to achieve the result you’re looking for.

Have Fun.

[Brian Charles]

The short answer is no — you can’t have a different Illustrator graphic for each particle.
However you can use an image sequence or video file or composition where each frame is a different graphic — so you could create a comp sequence of the images you want as particles.

Place this in another Comp and turn visibility off.

Create a Solid layer at Comp size, apply PPlayground and set the layer Map to your image sequence layer.

to control size, decay etc you’ll need a gradient layer (if you use RAMP remember to precompose). Use the persistent and ephmeral property mappers (set Use layer as map to your gradient) to control particle size as they pass over the gradient. Gradient layer should not be visible in Comp but you can leave it visible while you set up to see the effects of the gradient on your particles. Black = small White = big though tyou can set the values in Min and Max settings of the mapper.

You’ll need to experiment to achieve the result you’re looking for.

Have Fun.