[David Johnson]

It’s called banding … check out these threads …

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/972516#972552
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/953147#953155

[David Johnson]

convert it to an aif or wav

[David Johnson]

Although I run AE on both Macs and Win machines, I just noticed that your error window screen grab is from a Mac … not sure there’s a Mac version of Sherlock and I don’t recall off-hand the names of codec tools I use on Macs since I rarely need any of them on either platform.

I only briefly scanned the info in the links Todd provided, but it does seem QuickTime related (I believe the Animation codec is installed via QuickTime). You might want to give those resources another look and make sure you don’t have any QuickTime issues … in one of those threads, a guy with the same issue resolved it using Kevin Camp’s advice to isolate specific QucikTime components.

[David Johnson]

I’ve run both BCC and the BorisFX version of FEC from their first versions to date on several different Macs and several different Win machines for quite a few years now, as well as many other Boris products such as Red, Blue, etc. With that said, I’ve always considered Boris AE plugins among the most reliable, consistent, and well-written plugin packages available for AE.

That’s not to say the issues can’t be related to Boris plugins … from your description, it sounds like they are. Perhaps there’s something specific about your system that’s causing some sort of conflict with one of the Boris install components that all of their plugins share … unlike some AE plugins, Boris products seem to install stuff other than just the AEX files, which I assume is what gives them the unique user interfaces, extra features, etc.

One of the things I like about using plugin packages from the well-established plugin developers like BorisFX that have been making AE plugins a very long time is that they tend to have much better support than the one-offs and that has in fact been my experience with Boris on the rare occasions I needed support from them. So, that’s my two cents as to whether what you’re experiencing is common with Boris products and I’m sure others will chime in … from there, I’d say get on Boris support and ride them until you get a solution. It may take a little time since it may not be a common issue they face, but your description articulates very well that you’re not some college kid running a hacked version of their plugins on a 15 year old laptop to make YouTube videos so I would guess that they’ll work with you until they resolve the issue.

[David Johnson]

Scott,
Since the consensus seems to be that video cards don’t make much difference for AE, if there’s anything beyond the obvious, could you elaborate on the reasons that you prefer high-end video cards? For example, were you speaking in terms of the benefits to a video workstation as a whole, rather than just AE (i.e. NLE, 3D programs, etc.)? Or, were you referring to possible future benefits of running AE with a high-end card? Something else?

Thanks for all of your valued input on the COW.

[David Johnson]

In addition to checking the error code, the first things I’d try are:

• run Adobe Updater to see if there are any current bug-fix updates
• turn off Open GL
• run a codec tool like Sherlock to check for any codec issues on the machine
• if the problem comp has a bunch of effects in it (especially third-party), try some short workspace test renders with select plugins turned off to see if the issue may be related to a particular plugin, the render order if there’s a large stack, or if the render fail consistently happens on a particular frame

If none of those help, post as much detail as possible here and in the Adobe AE forum. For example, by “render a high rez animation of it for making an hd version”, do you mean the Animation codec? And, the codec, screen size, fame rate, etc. … of your imported footage, comp and render settings.

Hope this is some help.

[David Johnson]

Sounds like its corrupt … do u recall having any problems or error messages last time you worked on it? In any case, try opening an new AE project and importing that one into it instead of opening it directly. You can also try, opening it either way with all plugins, etc. disabled.

Of course the best option would be to just use your backup copy of the project, but my guess is that you wouldn’t be posting if you had one.

If none of those work, search the forum for other things to try … has been discussed many many times.

[David Johnson]

Considering the post subject, the “best” way is in a 3D program … sorry, overstating the obvious, I know. I’ve made some very nice photo-realistic turbulent oceans using Psunami, have never tried it using Form and doubt very much any AE plugin exists that can do it any better than Psunami … granted, it does take a bit of work if you don’t want to use one of the very nice but done-to-death presets.

[David Johnson]

I realize this is a much more active forum, but you’ll probably be better off to post this question in the BorisFX COW forum and also pose the question to BorisFX support. Then, if you get too much of an ambiguous sales pitch type answer from the latter, post that info on the COW to see if anyone can help decipher it.

I’ve been a fan of BorisFX products for years and heard about XML Transfer upon release, but it is fairly new and I couldn’t rush right out to buy it … my guess is the same is true of many AE and FCP users so it seems unlikely someone here who can answer definitively will come across your post before it gets even further buried under more recent posts.

[David Johnson]

Or, if you’re starting with with video footage, you can accomplish the same by just skipping a bunch of frames. Sorry for overstating the obvious, but it really is that simple.