[Curt Thackeray]

Hmmm.. No.. I’m not actually familiar with LW. I work in 3D Studio Max. But no matter what program you use.. if you EMBED the alpha of the foreground into the Quicktime.. you will not see your background, once you import it into AE. If you just want it flat.. then don’t include ANY alpha channels. If you need to have that alpha.. then I suggest that you render out all elements separately (FG, BG.. and whatever else in LW), composite all layers in AE.. and render out your final from AE.

[Curt Thackeray]

That’s fine.. but I can’t paint OVER the strokes either.. which is actually what I want to do.. and I’ve tried moving forward in the timeline to do so.. and still it won’t let me paint over them.

[Curt Thackeray]

Sorry, my friend.. but it’s the ONLY way to achive what I need to do with this one.

[Curt Thackeray]

Not sure how you rendered out the Quicktime.. Did you embed the alapha of the foreground into it? What I think it’s doing is.. reading the alpha.. and ignoring the BG. If you get the alpha dialog in AE.. asking if you want it straight or pre-multiplied.. well, whatever you choose.. it’s going to read the foreground image as a layer with NO BG, no matter what you have there.

You could render out all your elements separately.. that way, you can just throw them in as individual layers in AE.

Hope this helps.

[Curt Thackeray]

I can tell already just by looking at the clip that this was done using Andrew Kramer’s “TWITCH”. Right out of the box it achives that effect. Depending on how desperate you are to get it done.. you should consider buying it. Go check out his site: Video Co-Pilot.net.
There you will see TWITCH in action. Not sure if he has a demo of it.. but if he does.. you might be able to replicate what he uses for the plug-in, using standard AE stuff.

[Curt Thackeray]

Thanks Guys, for responding!.. Ummm… I already have a terabyte drive.. that’s the thing that’s filling up.. and the reason that my company tells me to keep this stuff around, is because they actually HAVE had clients tell them they want different shots.. different music.. or whathaveyou..

My boss wants me to burn everything to tape.. thus keeping the original non-compressed video.. which would be fine.. except, most weddings that we deal with are over two hours long.. that’s at least two tapes per project.. more like three..

I just don’t have room in my house to store a billion tapes over time.. I’ve been to my boss’ house.. (you can barely walk around in his office..) So I was trying to think of a way to digitally retain them..

I will try the project manager and see how much space I can reclaim..

Thanks again!!