[Darby Edelen]

At the point you want your camera to face the layer head on and the layer to fill the frame you’ll need to make sure that:

1) The camera’s point of interest is equal to the position of the layer you want to fill the frame.

2) The camera’s X and Y positions are equal to the layer’s X and Y position.

3) The camera’s Z position is equal to the layer’s Z position minus the value of the camera’s ‘Zoom’ property.

Note: this assumes that the anchor point is at the center of the full frame of video.

[Darby Edelen]

As I understand it, Motion Math was a feature that allowed you to apply mathematical functions to properties. A rudimentary version of Expressions. I believe it was removed in favor of Expressions.

Scripts are small JavaScript… erm… scripts, that allow you to automate processes in After Effects. An example might be reading in text from a file and creating text layers in an AE Composition. Pretty much any process in After Effects can be automated with a Script, it’s just a question of whether it’s useful to automate it =)

You run Scripts from inside of After Effects.

[Darby Edelen]

I should’ve asked a couple more questions =)

What codec do you generally render to? Do you notice it happening only when you’re using certain render settings? Are you rendering to MPEG-2?

[Darby Edelen]

I’ve never experienced this. There’s only one instance of the composition in the Render Queue? It finishes it once and then goes back and does the whole thing over again?

[Darby Edelen]

Yeah, sometimes it’s a little strange working with transparency in Photoshop. Photoshop handles transparency independently of alpha channels. I like this because it allows you to use the alpha channel for other purposes, such as controlling effects like Lens Blur, Lighting Effects and Glass.

However, many programs look at the alpha channel exclusively for transparency, which may or may not be there (or may not be the desired transparency information) in a file produced in Photoshop.

[Darby Edelen]

I’m not sure of the details, but there is a Cineon Converter effect: Effect > Utility > Cineon Converter. You can go from Linear to Log with this, but I’m not sure what settings you’ll want to use exactly or even if this is the preferred method.

There’s more information on working with Cineon files in AE7 at Stu Maschwitz’s blog:

https://prolost.blogspot.com/2006/02/linear-color-workflow-in-ae7-part-5.html

[Darby Edelen]

[Dave LaRonde] “Don’t even bother saving those AE projects as templates”

I think it’s actually better to save them as templates as this means you can’t save any accidental changes into the file, you can still import them into other projects.

Other than that your naming conventions are right on =)

[Darby Edelen]

I don’t think you can make previews for your own templates, but if you can it’s probably hidden somewhere in Adobe Bridge.

[Darby Edelen]

I don’t know that this will solve your problem, but I’m curious as to the outcome anyway.

Maybe try changing the blending mode of the layers that make up the cube to Alpha Add? Again, not sure if that will solve it, but its my best guess =)

[Darby Edelen]

[skimber] “Unfortunately, when I do that, it makes the tires rotate the other way halfway through the animation.”

How many keyframes and what type are you using?