[Michael Duff]

have you interpreted the footage correctly? right click on the clip in the project window and go to interpret footage … then you need to select the field order …upper or lower …

also, you may have ‘pixel aspect ratio correction’ switched on … this is an option to let you preview widescreen footage at the correct aspect. Have a look in the help file if you’re not sure what this is.

let us know if this helps … good luck

[Michael Duff]

animation codec will work with either video or graphics or a mix of both … it just won’t make the files much smaller if they are video…

but this may not be your problem … it may be that the thin parts of the text are getting lost in the fields…. have you tried rendering with and without fields? try putting a one pixel vertical blur on the text …

is the text layer made using the text tool? or photoshop? or the text effect? if it is not done using the text tool make sure you are not scaling about 100%…

[Michael Duff]

what codec are you rendering out of AE with? I suggest you render out a quicktime with no compression, or with the animation codec.

does the text look crisp when you view it in AE? have you scaled it above 100%?

[Michael Duff]

are you rendering out of AE using DV compression? if so, I probably wouldn’t … if you can afford the disk space you don’t really want to compress your video until the very last step … so when you render out of AE you should be using no compression, or Animation Codec if you have the disk space. If you don’t have enough disk space maybe try a codec like PhotoJPEG.

Also, maybe work with your FCP timeline in the same setting as you render out of AE…. then only compress the video to MPEG-2 when you are finished ….

hope this helps you a bit …

[Michael Duff]

hi .. are you using the PAL widescreen pre-set when you make a new comp? I’d say it’s just a setting for how you view it in FCP. Like on our machines, it still looks stretched on the computer monitor, but then all OK on a broadcast monitor …. maybe FCP has a Pixel Aspect Ratio Corrector like AE does… ?

maybe you can render out a test and see how it looks in QT? it should still look squished, but at least fill the whole 720×576 frame. or even better, burn a DVD and see how it looks on the TV.

oh, if you find that it is actually not filling the screen… in FCP under motion settings there is Distort->Aspect Ratio …. try adjusting this….

hope some of this rambling helps 🙂

[Michael Duff]

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/sjostrom_bjorn/3d_ride/index.html

maybe I was getting a bit excited when I said “rollercoaster” …it’s actually a “wild ride”

enjoy…..

[Michael Duff]

hi … if you’re not sure about using After Effects 3D space then you should check out some of the tutorials here at the cow …there are a few introductory tutorials that aren’t exactly the same effect that you are doing but it will teach you how to use the camera and 3D space … maybe do the 3D rollercoaster tutorial to learn about using the 3D camera….

maybe search the COW archives for “kid stays in the picture”, “3D photo”, “carnivale” …I’m sure there are lots of threads about this technique already ….

give that a go, then if you have some more specific questions feel free to ask…

good luck!

[Michael Duff]

and the picture looks all ok?

I’ve never had much success using mp3 in After Effects … in fact, it is probably best not to render your audio out of after effects at all … do you have some sort of editing software like FInal Cut or Premiere? you should put the video and audio together in one of those programs …

if you must render out of AE with audio … can you convert the mp3 file to AIF or WAV first? and make sure that all the settings in the render queue match the file….

[Michael Duff]

uncompressed quicktime … or animation codec would be the best … but they take up the most space … you can render with or without fields …it’s a bit of a personal preference … remember to render with an alpha channel if you;ll be compositing

[Michael Duff]

hi,
you need to switch on live previewing … there is a button obove the timeline … i can’t remember exactly what it looks like … but search the help for “live preview” of something like that …