[David Johnson]

Although there’s probably a FCP plugin for it, I doubt I’ve ever used it since I always do that in either Photoshop or After Effects … if you have either of those, I’d recommend taking a still frame of the video footage in along with the photo and trying the various match grain tools until you get a look you’re happy with.

[David Johnson]

There are many things that can cause that …

• make sure your comp settings match the kind of footage you’re working with (drag the footage to the new comp icon at bottom of project panel)
• make sure you have the footage interpretation right for the kind of footage you’re working with (the window you mentioned)
• make sure the resolution of your comp window is set to full, rather than half or quarter (drop-down menu at bottom of comp window)
• make sure the resolution of your footage layer is set to full instead of draft in the timeline (forward-slash switch in the timeline)

If those don’t do it, mention the specific type of footage you’re working with and other details so it’ll be easier for someone to help (codec, interlaced or not, format, etc.).

[David Johnson]

Ted offers some very good advice here so I’d only add two things …

There are very many of us who have worked in After Effects daily for a long time and rarely have to deal with any sort of errors, etc. … my opinion is that the vast majority of AE problems are really user error, not the software.

Also, although there is some degree of overlap, AE and FCP are intended to do different things so its’ not necessarily one or the other … most editors I know use both.

[David Johnson]

Yes, TIFF is a good choice … PSD is also a good choice if you might want to do any Photoshop work on the images … I sometimes do certain types of image effects in Photoshop to cut down on AE render times for things that don’t need to be animated.

[David Johnson]

Yes, but you’ll effectively be working on two separate projects so the work done in each won’t be in the other … not sure what that would accomplish. Just to clarify, you cannot work on the same project from two different computers without saving over each others’ work.

You didn’t explain what you’re trying to accomplish so perhaps it’ll help to say that what you would typically do to have two editors work on separate elements of a master project is split the project so that each editor is working on parts of it that are not in the other, then import one project into the other once all the work is done.

[David Johnson]

You would normally use the pen toll with the “-” symbol to delete the vertices that create the hole and you’re done (the equivalent of having originally drawn the mask without the hole). However, since you say that you want that mask to remain as-is without specifying what you’re trying to accomplish by doing that, the only way I can think of to do that is to duplicate that mask, delete all the vertices other than those that create the hole (the outer ones), then change the duplicate to the opposite mode (subtract or intersect).

Hope this helps.

[David Johnson]

These sound like questions for the Red Giant support team.

[David Johnson]

No, you don’t need to upload both files … they’re just different codecs/formats so just use whichever one looks better.

[David Johnson]

I’ve never heard of a mask’s “double arrow” either, but you can also use the mask’s “expansion” property with a negative value to scale it down, although the way Andy said is the proper way.

[David Johnson]

Thanks Kevin.

They are in fact a QuickTime PNGs so it’s a good point that it may be a QT issue. I have the same QT version on both of two practically identical machines … the other doesn’t have this issue and the one that does has only had it for the past week out of 2+ years.

I understand your point about using grey backgrounds for alphas so I do use zero black when I’m making something that’ll go outside my typical workflow (wherein I’m the only editor and all the software & hardware is the same). Otherwise, I’ve used 50% grey backgrounds for all my AE graphics that have alphas for many years without any issues (so I can see shadows, etc. in the rendered files before composited). In fact, I’ve rendered hundreds, if not thousands, of graphics using the same exact methods, software and hardware in the past 2+ years, which was the last time there were any significant changes to anything about the three systems I use (I’m still using CS3 & Final Cut Studio 2 for a few more months).

I’ll try some tests, but it’s looking more and more like I’ll just have to live with this for a few months until I upgrade to CS5 and FCS3.