David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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In any Explorer window, go to the Tools dropdown menu and choose Folder Options … that’s on XP and prior O/S … don’t have access to a Win7 machine at the moment to check if it’s in the same place.
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Hmmm … I’m on a laptop without AE at the moment so I can’t check … maybe I recalled wrong and “accept lights” doesn’t apply to ambient lights or something … sorry.
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Hmmm. I’ve had situations in the past where installing some third-party plugin caused it to take over certain AE extensions and claim them as its own … to fix that I had to go into Explorer’s “folder options” under the File Types tab and change it back there. In some cases, I had to go so far as to delete the extension from the “Registered File Type” list, then re-add it … that worked though.
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Sounds like you’re on a Mac … I could never get this supposedly basic OS function to work right either … we should be able to just go into Get Info, select the program of choice, select “change all” and done, but I’ve tried it many times with many different files and it just doesn’t want to work. I nor our Mac tech have been able to get it to work right or consistently so, if you do, please post the solution. My guess is it probably has something to do with having multiple versions of a program installed.
If you’re on a PC, it’s basically the same method, although the files should open with the right program by default unless you’ve changed it … just right click, go to “open with” and check the “always” box.
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Turn off the “accepts lights” property of the 3D layer?
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If you have the BCC plugin set, there’s a plugin called something like “Outlines” that you can Unmult the black from, then if need be, apply more jitter to your taste using distortion filters. It’s a quick and dirty way, but it does the trick in some situations.
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Not sure I understand the question … in other words, what does the file format have to with your ability to paint on any layer?
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If I understand correctly what you’re asking, just use radio waves on a shape layer , then use that as a track matte for the footage you want to reveal.
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First, I have to mention that my preference has always been to do all effects, animations, grading, compositing, etc. in AE and use my NLE only as an NLE. So, I almost exclusively use plugins in AE and that’s how my answer leans, although most of the same are also available for FCP (for now … the fleetingness of NLEs compared to AE is one of many reasons for my preference).
Not counting ones like Mocha and Color Finesse that are already bundled with AE, my short list is: GenArts Sapphire, Boris Continuum Complete and almost everything from Red Giant and Zaxwerks (which actually makes the list not so short after all). I’ve used almost every plugin ever made for AE at least a few times over the years so I can also tell you that all of those happen to be among the largest, widest-ranging and most expensive plugin sets.
I must also mention that this question has been asked very many times in the AE forum and the real answer isn’t as simple or straightforward as the relatively short answer I had time to offer at the moment. Search the forum and you’ll see what I mean … there are other excellent plugins and sets, but many tend to be pretty specific to particular project types and/or tasks (like Particular, which is an awesome plugin from Red Giant).
I hope my two pence helps.
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I know it’s been a while, but I just now happened across this thread again. Only from seeing Stephen’s reply, I realized that, despite the “I want something original” wording of the initial question, you might’ve been talking about buying the template and having someone tweak it. My answer was based on building something similar from scratch but, if just tweaking a template, it should definitely be significantly cheaper. As Stephen said, how much cheaper depends on the details.