[David Johnson]

Thanks much.

[David Johnson]

Todd, When you use the PNG codec, for the “filter” setting, do you use the default “best” or none? I haven’t been able to find anywhere what this “filter” setting refers to or the differences between its options.

[David Johnson]

Just in case you find the combination of the two replies confusing, I’ll clarify that we seem to be both saying the same things in different ways. For example, my workflow is to always work in square pix (without PAR correction view), then nest and fit the square pix comp into a rectangular pix comp as the final step before renders. If I also need a square pix deliverable (i.e., web video), I typically convert the rectangular pix render back to square pix when I compress it to the needed web format, which any compression software can do.

Again, the bottom line is that Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction is for viewing only … what matters is the actual aspect ratios of your comps & docs.

[David Johnson]

In addition to AE’s native Echo effect, there are several third-party plugins that do the same and offer many additional controls … the Boris Continuum Complete set has two Trails plugins, the Alien Skin set has a Motion Trails plugin and there are a couple others I don’t recall right now.

However, I’m just mentioning this as an FYI … I wouldn’t consider it practical to purchase expensive plugin sets just for one relatively simple effect … most all of them do things AE can already do, just a little faster or better so they’re generally more appropriate for folks whose workflow requires a wide range of tools and who already know how to do those things the “old” way.

[David Johnson]

In both AE and PS, Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction is for viewing purposes only so it doesn’t affect the output and, therefore, whether you have it turned on while designing is a matter of personal preference. Far more important than the viewing mode is that your designs (AE comps & PS docs) are the proper aspect ratio for the final output you need … generally, square pixels for computers and rectangular pixels for TV.

[David Johnson]

Welcome Theo!

Perhaps the COW has finally found someone who can answer my question … can you tell me how to make and print photo-realistic million dollar bills with Photoshop? I would’ve said billion dollar bills, but I didn’t want to be greedy.

[David Johnson]

By searching past posts in this AE COW forum and the https://forums.creativecow.net/demoreels COW forum, you can find dozens if not hundreds of links to some of the best AE work out there.

[David Johnson]

I’m not an IT guy, but I’ve been using a half dozen Adobe programs since their early versions (as well as similar suites & and many other NLEs) so I’ll just mention my partial 2 cents …

I (and about 90% of the editors I’ve ever known) strongly prefer Nvidia graphics cards … “Leadtek – QuadroFX 3800″ sounds like an Nvidia chipset, but it sounds old since I think Nvidia is up into the 8 or 9 thousand series now, but again, I’m not an IT guy … check Adobe’s approved card list for your AE version.

Get as much RAM as you can afford.

Avoid OpenGL like the plague.

My view of Win7 (or anything else not tried & true) is, if you’re using your computer tools to make a living, stay on technology’s cutting edge, but leave the bleeding edge to those who don’t rely on technology (to deal with all the conflicts, bug reports, etc.), then adopt it once it’s solid … maybe it’ll be perfect right out the gate, but then again, no O/S of either platform has ever been thus far so why expect different?

[David Johnson]

Ben Richards “AE seems to render the SAVED project file not just simply the current OPEN file”

I thought AE always forces project files to be saved before anything within them can be rendered … mine does, but I’ve been using the same workflow and custom render settings so long that I sometimes forget what the default behaviors are.

In my view, always saving before every render is the only way to work and working in a way that forces a save makes it impossible to forget.

Glad to help.

[David Johnson]

When you select a mask in the AE timeline and look at it in the viewer window, the square that represents one of the vertices is a little bigger than the others … that is the mask’s first vertex and, thus, where a stroke effect will begin. Just select the vertex on the opposite end and go to Layer > Mask Path > Set First Vertex.

You can also accomplish the same by reversing the stroke effect, but it’s simpler and makes more sense to just reverse the mask vertices.