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The BEST way to do it isn’t with AE. The best way is to shoot it — use a practical effect. Why? You’ll get real 3D highlights and shadoes, which you would have to fake in AE. They’ll look like the real thing, beacause they ARE the real thing.

I STRONGLY suggest that you obtain a video projector (AKA screen shooter), record your desired video on DVD, play the DVD through the projector, and point the projector at your subject. Fool with the focus on the projector so you don’t get those nice, crisp edges.

The process then becomes one of rehearsing with the talent, rather than tearing your hair out in AE in an attempt to get an effect that doesn’t look nearly as good as the real thing.

I’ve used this process very successfully myself.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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The only thing that seems odd is that you used the unsharp mask. You shouldn’t have to use that on a good key.

I propose the following test: shorten the work area to 10 seconds by going to the 10-second mark in the timeline and hitting the n (for eNd) key. Now duplicate the comp. Delete the unsharp mask from the duplicated comp’s effects, and give the duplicated comp a new name… perhaps “no unsharp” for clarity’s sake.

Add both comps to the Render Queue, a topic which is covered in AE Help. Use the same codec to render both comps.

Parenthetically, unless you have no other choice, it’s better to Render in AE than it is to Export. The two terms are not interchangable in AE.

When the rendering’s done, you can re-open the Render Queue and look at the time it took to render the two clips. If the times aren’t all that different, there’s something wrong with your installation, or perhaps with your Open GL settings.

Open GL: a nice idea, but because of the varying capabilities of video cards, not the world’s best way for the unitiated to accelerate the rendering process.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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[beamertdog] “Just curious, why would anyone export?

…do you know why when I try and render a composition (only 14 min) as an uncompressed AVI I get a “Not enough space on drive” error at exactly 4.0 GB into the render? … I’ll want an uncompressed video if possible. “

There are certain things you can only do through exporting. For example, I’ll occasionally use AE’s Reverb effect on an aiff, and the only way to make the new audio file is to export it.

I’m a mac guy and not a windows guy, but is sounds like AVIs might have a 4GB limit on file size. But you don’t REALLY need uncompressed to retain the best quality, you simply need to use a lossless codec. For quicktime, I swear by the Animation codec set to best quality. I’m clueless about its windows counterpart.

Why lossless instead of uncompressed?

Here’s why: imagine you have a 50-page word processor document to email. So you run it trough Zip or Stuffit. You know that when the file is unzipped or unstuffed on the other end, every period, comma, number and letter is going to be there, right? And why is that? Because Zip and Stuffit act like lossless codecs, that’s why.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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You owe it to yourself to check out Chris and Trish Meyer’s fine books on After Effects; they retail for about $50 US a copy. Select the book or books that most closely meet your needs.

The Total Training series of AE DVD’s are also extremely good, especially if you like learning by watching and doing rather than reading and doing. However, they’re more expensive, about $600 US for the set.

Those two, in my opinion, are the best ones for the beginner.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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You’re quite welcome. I hope you realize now that there is a BIG difference between rendering and exporting in AE.

Lots of people who start out in AE think to themselves, “Well, I’ll just export. Why fool around with that Render Queue nonsense? It just wastes time!”

WRONG! Those people just don’t get it. They’re more worried about getting going and doing something than they are with knowing all the possibilities for file creation: a tidbit of knowledge that can really save their little pink tushes. They’re looking for an easy way out, and as you discovered, they can end up wasting more time than they ever saved.

Rendering and using the Render Queue give you FAR more flexibility and many more choices in creating your final work. In the end, I find it actually saves time: I can get multiple comps ready to go, add them to the Render Queue, save the project, and AE will render the entire batch as I just walk away.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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[Dave LaRonde from the COW] “That’s reason #4 why, when given the choice between a render and an export, it’s better to export.”

I need to proof read better. The above phrase should read, “That’s reason #4 why, when given the choice between a render and an export, it’s better to RENDER.”

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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Another thought occurs to me…

You might have 24p footage (or 23.98, OR 23.976 — three names for the same frame rate)… and you might need it to be at 29.97. In which case, you HAVE to render and not export.

That’s reason #4 why, when given the choice between a render and an export, it’s better to export.

In the Output Module, click on the Add Pulldown thingie. Choose any one of the five pulldown patterns, and your’re good to start a-renderin’.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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IN AE, there is a difference between rendering and exporting. The two terms are NOT interchangable. And when it comes to exporting, here’s a good rule of thumb:

If AE gives you the choice between rendering and exporting, it’s best to render.

I could go into all the reasons why this is so, but then it wouldn’t be a rule of thumb, would it?

In your case, I would double-check my comp’s frame rate and the frame rate of the footage within that comp. If it all checks out, then add the comp to the Render Queue and have at it.

You’ll find LOADS of information about the Render Queue and rendering in general in AE Help.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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There are a TON of separate-installation Cycore effects; I only mentioned the ones that came to mind immedately. You’re going to have to check over the AE installation disk and check ’em out; some of them are demos, and some are the real deal.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV

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Yes: Keylight doesn’t install when you install AE. You need to open the AE installation disc and install AE separately.

At the same time, you’ll want to install all those Cycore plugins you’re missing like CC Sphere, CC Mr. Mercury, etc.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV