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Keep in mind that if you’re fusing them into a solid shape at the end (for logo or whatever) that you can hide the lines of the pieces by faking the merge. Just transition from the animation of your pieces making the cube to a final copy of the simplified cube. If done right, it’ll look like your pieces merged to create a unified whole.

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I’ve said it to people before, but AE is not a 3D modeling program. If you’re wanting to create true 3D blocks in AE it’s going to take some hard work.
From your starting point of creating the pieces of your blocks in your graphical editor use tight mathematics within each piece to be used. You may want to also create a 2-4pixel black/color border (or a border of similar size with 10% opacity color of your pane)to use as a safety net for intersecting panes in AE (AE can’t join two layers into a polygonal 3D object (the layers just sort of sit there, touching each other). You’ll have to create each block as a separate comp to keep things organized (retain layer properties, don’t flatten it to 2d for the final comp). Import your graphics (pieces) for one block. Model the block to the best of your ability in AE 3d and parent all the layers to the front pane; That way if for some reason you move it in it’s original comp you won’t mess up your layer’s intersections. If you get the original 6 blocks (of tetris) made in a single generic color in their original comps, you can add them into your main comp in any order, angle, color (color effects) that you want.

I did something like this with a pacman theme once. It’ll take a lot of work, but if you can get it to the point that you like it, most other people won’t notice, in the split second that something is on screen, the details. Like Stu says, It’s suspension of disbelief, use broad strokes.

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Not as such…
As it currently stands AE does not have a NURBS-like feature that allows you to warp or bend a layer in 3d space. There may be a plugin that does this as a 2d simulation of 3d space, but as far as I’ve seen, actual arcs in the AE 3d world don’t exist. It’s all about tricking the eye to believe it’s seen a 3D sphere, Arc, bend, etc.. in 2d.
You can assort separate layers in an “arc” (made up of different flat planes on the radius of a shared center point) in AE 3d space, as described a bit in the “ring of Cows” tutorial on this website. This may work for your purposes if you play with it; but really, if you want video on a true 3D arc, curve, etc., then use a 3D program like Cinema4D and skin your object with your chosen video layer.

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I don’t have rights to the final comp… would if I was allowed. Thanks for the the idea.

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I am very well acquainted with rotoscoping.
If I rotoscope the water (impossible, by the way)I lose the smooth integration of the element, and still have to key out the color.

Keying to a different color spread and masking out the unecessaries with a feathered mask has been my choice.

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there you go… Use the masking suggestion in a previous reply and the dummy shot. put tracking dots on your principle in camera and track the dummy plate to it in post to allow for blood splash on the skin or shirt.

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Aharon’s Podcasts are a good easy start. You can get them all for free by signing up here on the COW or finding them in the Itunes store.

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I’m not sure if I’ve got this right in regards to your deal, but I had something like this happen in a high end render of a file a while back. It didn’t show up in the transcoded DVD file later. I had to attribute it to somehow having been caused by my system’s video processing power. I never had the problem again, but you never know. ghost in the machine

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I use one for photoshop, but find myself using a standard mouse in AE most of the time. It’s always good to have, but you’ll have to use it a lot to return the investment.

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Before totally going crazy with the influx of random replies in both of these areas (they’re very open ended in regards to options) try reading the AE help file all the way through, or check the manual index for null objects and parenting expressions. once you get a decent understanding through trial and error on non-consequential practice projects of your own, the tutorial’s will make a lot more sense. This is a big program, take your time…