David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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Try using a camera to see your 3D layers “float in space”.
3D layers can cast shadows on a background or solid color layer, but only if they are 3D layers and “behind” the layer casting the shadow in Z space. Also, check your 3D layer options (cast shadows, accept shadows, etc.). Depending on what you’re doing, you may also want to change your comp settings from the default Standard 3D renderer to the Advanced 3D renderer. Personally, I only use the Advanced when I need it (basically when 3D layers are intersecting/crossing paths) since my tests in AE5.5 showed it to slow down down render output (that may have changed in 6.5, but I haven’t checked lately since I see no reason to use it unless I need it).
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SheerVideo won’t read the files either, but I never mind having an additional codec in my arsenal so thanks.
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[I have a love hate relationship with Trapcode Shine. I love it, but so does everyone else. It’s totally overused, but i can’t stop using it myself.]
That’s exactly how I feel…and, apparently, a whole bunch of other people too.
Back to the point…I find GenArts Sapphire, Digital Film Tools and Boris Continuum Complete to be indispensable, although they are amongst the more pricey plugin sets. They’re also those sets of many plugins that include some I rarely use, but most are useful so they’re still well worth it. Also at the top of my list are the ones already mentioned like Invigorator, Magic Bullet, Trapcode. I aslo like Red Giant’s other products, ReVision and Digital Anarchy, although most of those are geared more towrds specific needs. I’d say my least favorite is Eye Candy, although i do occasionally use 2 out of the set of 20.
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Hilarious! Maybe in case the government needs to buy some copies of AE to go along with those $500 hammers!?
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It sounds like you just have an old version of the plugins that work with 4, but not 5.5. I have several DigiEffects packs and don’t recall whether plugin updates were necessary from AE 4.1 to 5.5, but would be surprised if they weren’t.
By the way, if it’s at all within your reach/needs, AE 6.5 is well worth the upgrade from 5.5….just my 2
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Thanks for deciding to post anyway…this may be the answer to an isssue I had to work around for the moment and am curious to check when back at the ofice. But, I still don’t understand how field dominance can get changed without the editor changing it, which is why I never even thought to look at that.
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Also make sure your layer isn’t a locked “Background” layer…if it is, double click it to make it an editable layer. And, when you want to select a layer instead of a portion of it with one of the Marquee tools, Control-click it in the Layers list.
No worries about the version…if these expensive pro applications aren’t your bread & butter, it’s not always wise to stay on the bleeding edge (the wallet & the brain from functionality problems & learning curves). Photoshop and similar apps are my bread & butter, but I still upgrade slowly to avoid the workflow hault that can come from initial release bugs, incompatabilites, etc.
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I don’t recall exactly what the preference is called (“synchoronize” something), but it’s the one that allows you to see changes made in one comp update in others. For some reason, it seems this AE functionality doesn’t work very well on Macs…works fine on my PC, which is not as powerful as my work G5, but it severely bogs down AE on a very beefy G5 and gives me the spinning beachball constantly. I’ve gotten in the habit of turning it on only when needed while working on Macs.
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Could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s possible in CS to open Acrobat PDFs as layers (maybe in CS2).
Don’t recall if I had to change a setting to get it this way, but each time I open a PDF in Photoshop a dialogue asks me which page I want to open. I then reopen it to get each page that I want and copy them into one layered PSD. May seem like a pain, but it’s pretty quick and not a problem for me since I never need more than 3-4 pages out of a PDF in PS. Plus, it’s worth the trade off of getting the PDF text on a transparent background allowing me to use it that way or put it on the “paper” of my choice, which is pretty handy since I’m usually bringing PDFs through Photoshop to prep them for After Effects.
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In your comp view options, make sure show masks is checked, select the point you want in the comp window and go to menu selection Layer>Mask>Set First Vertex (it’ll be grayed out if you’ve selected more than one point at a time). If you’re on a Mac, the process is pretty much the same, but I don’t recall the details since I’m on a PC at the moment.