[David Bogie]

CC Sphere is not a 3D plugin, it just maps a layer to a simulated 3D object.
CC Sphere will hold resolution if you precompose it properly and use the correct scaling/zooming operation. Using a comp camera will yield a different result than using the camera in the filter.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

No idea what you’re talking about but hardware acceleration for AE is almost always proprietary; the hardware only works with a specific codec and limited supply of redundant or useless filters for that specific codec.
Harken back to the days of Blue Ice and some other doodad that had “cine” in the name. All expensive, full of holes, and long dead.
Let us know if you buy one.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[Nicolas Hansen] “Also, what I’m trying to achieve is, I have 4 words (work, shop, about, contact) – I want each letter acting as if it were attached to a string, have the letters drop down, where they recoil a bit when they reach the “bottom.” Sway a little before they settle, etc. I’d also want an animation where it looks like the letters are smacked a little (this would be the mouseOver animation). Hope this makes sense “

Seems to me I’ve seen all that kind of mouse-generated animation available directly within Flash or maybe Dreamweaver. You see this kind of stuff often on the more advanced Web sites. there are several online forums that highlight the best of Flash interactivity and mouse-fired animation. Umm, I have no idea where this stuff lives, I have never used Flash and hope I never do.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

The Boris trial isn’t going to help you much unless you’re willing to cough up the cash for the full version. That’s $400 to $2,000, depending on product decision, for just one effect that would be easier to shoot live and then modify to look like it was an effect.
To learn Boris, you read the manuals and start pushing buttons at random. The distortion filters are probably where you’d start. There is a Boris forum here on the Cow and their generally friendly user groups offer good information.
See also pigsfly and toolfarm for Boris information and help.

toolfarm.com
https://www.pigsfly.com

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Can’t be done realistically in Motion so what’s your tolerance for stylization?

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[zoe smith] “”Curl 01″”

Probably.
Where are you seeing this “curl 01”?
Is it a preset, a template, a replicator?

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

almost every keying project I have ever done requires several filters applied to several copies of the source layer. In your case, you can create your multiple copies as precomps, stock them up, and swith between them by trimming them or, much more conveniently, render than separately and cut between them in your NLE.
You can attempt to use a garbage matte that is created by altering the greens and pulling a luma key. You use this as your primary alpha source and then tweak additional copies. It’s tricky and a compromise.
Unfortunately, when you use different keying techniques to get the best possible key on different shots, you often affect the color cast of the shot.

You can research problem chromaky setups and solutions on the Net. Take you a few hours. You need to prepare your client for the worst possible case. There are some things that simply cannot be fixed in post.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[anthony Faulkner] “Motion won’t import keyed clips, and the keyer in motion is as good as useless. “

I have no problems importing keyed clips but my definition is obviously different from yours.
I’m with Noah, create chromakeys in After Effects at least.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Might be easier to do it reverse using Shatter.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Keying relies on three things: Lighting the set properly, adequate chroma resolution, and adequate pixel resolution. DV blows because of the pixel quantizing. The best keys have those buzzing squares because that’s what the pixels look like.
If you can’t all three of those factors working in your favor, you learn how to cope. With DV, that often means suing several copies of your footage each processed with a different type of keyer, image enhancer, or matte filter. When you combine theam all together, you can get a lovely matte.

You can research chromakeying with DV endlessly o the Net and, if that’s the only video format you’ve got at your disposal, you can get a DV-specific or DV-friendly keyer. One of them is called something like DV Garage.

bogiesan