[Darby Edelen]

QuickTime Photo JPEG works pretty well for playback in AE. Of course, at that point you might as well use an image sequence, especially since that would give you more choice as to the compression (or lack of compression).

[Darby Edelen]

[cboyes] “the server is running OSX and I’m working on an Apple with OSX 10.4.9”

Welp, I’m out of ideas =) unless your server is using a funky file system (not HFS+, which is not likely) there shouldn’t be any problems with the file system causing a loss of file compatibility.

Do the file sizes of the archived projects look correct? No zero K files?

Does AE give any more information when it says “Unable to import file”?

[Darby Edelen]

Here are a few of the shortcuts I use (they just make more sense to me):

right is the right arrow, left is the left arrow =)

-Next frame: cmd-right (ctrl-right for Windows)
-Previous frame: cmd-left (ctrl-left for Windows)
-Advance 10 frames: shift-cmd-right (shift-ctrl-right)
-Back 10 frames: shift-cmd-left (shift-ctrl-left)

Additionally here are some shortcuts for moving layers and keyframes (select the layer or keyframe you want to modify):

-Move keyframe ahead one frame: opt-right (alt-right)
-Move keyframe back one frame: opt-left (alt-left)
-Move keyframe ahead 10 frames: shift-opt-right (shift-alt-right)
-Move keyframe back 10 frames: shift-opt-left (shift-alt-left)

-Move layer in-point to current time (maintain duration): [
-Move layer out-point to current time (maintain duration): ]
-Cut layer in-point to current time (duration shortened): opt-[ / alt-[
-Cut layer out-point to current time (duration shortened): opt-] / alt-]

Also, if you hold down shift and drag a keyframe or a layer it will snap to the location of the playhead.

It’s more than you asked for, but they’re all helpful shortcuts =)

[Darby Edelen]

[bill875] “How do I get just the selection (the earth) into the after effects comp without the white border?”

Are you saying that the mask on your Photoshop layer isn’t exact? Or are you saying that the white ‘background’ layer in Photoshop is showing? If the latter: when you import your footage into After Effects make sure you don’t import the Photoshop file as “Merged Layers,” this will effectively flatten your file’s layers into one. Instead you want to choose a layer in the Photoshop file to import. Alternatively you could just delete the white ‘Background’ layer in Photoshop so that you can see the checkered pattern (meaning those pixels are transparent) behind the earth image.

If you are trying to remove the earth from a layer with a white fill then you’ll just need to make sure your selection doesn’t include any of the white on that layer when you use Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.

It’s hard to know exactly what the problem is without more information about the Photoshop file(s). I don’t know how many layers are in the file, if there’s an alpha channel, etc.

[Darby Edelen]

Ahhh, fun fun =)

Here’s the way I usually go about this:

-make a solid and apply fractal noise to it
-tweak the fractal noise settings until you have something that looks wave-like (white areas will be ‘high’ and black areas will be ‘low’)
-pre-comp this solid
-put the layer you want to wave below the pre-comped fractal noise, pre-comp this layer as well and make sure that the solid/banner/whatever you want to wave doesn’t reach the edges of the pre-comp (this is necessary to have the edges of the layer pick up the fractal noise displacement)
-apply a Displacement Map to the layer you want to wave and choose the pre-comped fractal noise as the height map’s source
-duplicate your waving layer and place it above the fractal noise layer, set the fractal noise pre-comp to use the waving layer as an alpha track matte
-set the fractal noise pre-comp’s blending mode to multiply (this adds ‘shadows’ at the low points)
-tweak the settings to something you like, animate the fractal noise to make it look like the banner is blowing in the wind

It may seem like more steps than you need, but it’s pretty easy once you understand what you’re doing (so pay attention!) and the results are worthwhile.

[Darby Edelen]

Can you give us any more information about the server and your local computer? What file systems are the media using and what OS(es) are you running? I’ve had similar things happen when going between different file systems.

[Darby Edelen]

I don’t have a definitive workflow for you, but I would say that your solution will involve pulling a matte from a modified source and then applying that matte to your original source.

I’ve heard that converting an image to YUV, blurring the “blue” and “green” channels and converting back to RGB can help in some situations.

[Darby Edelen]

I don’t know where my previous response went, but it should’ve had all the info you needed in it. Anyway, here’s a step-by-step on it:

Just select the layer, press ‘u’ to reveal animating properties, select the last keyframes of all the animating properties, drag them down the timeline to the 1 minute mark, increase the values of the properties to try and maintain the same rate of change in the values. For example: something animating from 0 to 10 over 5 seconds is animating at a rate of 2 units per second, at a minute you’d have to change the second keyframe to 120 units (60 secs * 2 units/sec = 120 units).

[Darby Edelen]

[bill875] “what I mean is fractal noise I guess”

I was a little unclear on what you were talking about in your original post. Although I’m still not entirely sure what you’re working on, this makes a little more sense =)

Fractal Noise has a few properties that are often animated. The most common is probably Evolution, which is an angle control that can be animated to give “fog” an undulating vapor look. Your effect is probably animating this property. You can extend the animation of the property by moving the last keyframe later in the timeline. Note: this will slow down the speed at which the property animates so you may want to move the keyframe later and increase its value.

Under ‘Evolution Options’ in the effect controls you can enable ‘Cycle Evolution’ and then set how many ‘rotations’ are in a cycle. If your angle control animates from 0

[Darby Edelen]

[mcdesigner07] “Does anyone see any red flags?”

It’s not really a red flag… but AE won’t benefit very much from such a beefy Graphics Accelerator. The only time this will benefit you in After Effects (I don’t know much about Combustion) is when you’re doing OpenGL previews. When it comes time to render, or if you use Adaptive Resolution for your fast previews, everything is handled by the CPU.

In addition, AE isn’t aware of multiple cores, but this isn’t a red flag either as you can use Nucleo Pro (which can make use of multiple cores) to render.

I have a 4GB system at work and I think that if you plan on running multiple applications at once you might benefit from more RAM. When dealing with large Photoshop files and After Effects I often experience slow downs (mostly in Photoshop).