[Erik Pontius]

I think that there is a separate plugin called Avid EMP (external monitor preview) on the Avid installation CD (check the “goodies” folder) that enables AE preview via the Mojo.
The major side effect (at least from a while back when I was using it) is that you can not have Avid and AE open at the same time without some really bad behavior from the Avid.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

It’s definitely possible to do it all in camera, however, from scrutinizing the animation a little, it looks to me like this is a combination of things.
It looks to me like the actual production camera is on dolly track, and is being crabbed along. It starts at the far left of the frame pointed at a wall, window, etc… then the camera pans to the subject as the dolly is pushed along and the camera continues to pan keeping the subject center frame, then pans to the opposite wall. The “swish” part of the pan is too smooth and exact to really pull this off full speed and was most likely a slower pan…the kind of force required to quickly pan a heavy camera and start/stop it smoothly at that precise location overcoming the momentum would be very challenging. The footage is probably then manipulated in AE or something similar to ramp up the pan and add motion blur and blend the next scene which is shot in an identical manner.
Just my $.02

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

depends. Is this animation a series of illustrator or other vector frames? or is it a movie (quicktime file, etc..) that has been made out of vector images?
If each of the frames is a true vector graphic, it should scale infinitely without any problem when the “collapse transformation” switch has been turned on.
If the vector animation has been “rasterized” and encoded into a Quicktime file, scaling it up will really impact quality.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Use the NTSC/PAL presets in Photoshop, you can create a black or white solid. Save it as a photoshop PSD file, then import into after effects. Drop this into your 720p comp and hit ctrl-alt-shift-G. Then by adjusting the opacity or clicking the layer visibility on/off, you can gauge what area will be visible in a 4×3.
Alternatively, create another composition using AE NTSC or PAL preset, then add you 720p comp to it, then hit ctrl-alt-shift-G to scale the comp to fit in the vertical space and keep the aspect buy cropping the sides of the image off.

Make sure that you account for overscan.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

try punching the “Collapse Transformations” switch for the nest comp layer.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

AE has support for importing DPX files as an image sequence. You might check the AE help file as it has some tips in dealing with DPX files.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

I’ve done full body shots before. The old fabric green screen I had was something like 12ft x 20ft. So I was able to get the subject far enough away from the vertical part and just tried to be careful with the lighting on the part covering the floor…then its a matter of how good your chromakey software is and how much time you can spend tinkering with it. In my case, the full body shots were comped into a AE 3d camera move that swooped down from above and then switch to a tighter shot, so spill wasn’t as big of an issue since the subject was relatively small in the frame in the full body wide shots.
Another good tip I’ve seen is to lay down white core on the ground around the subject whenever the floor is out of the shot, but you still need your subject standing on the greenscreen…helps to minimize some of the spill.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

I would avoid having your talent stand/sit on the greenscreen unless you are doing a full body head-toe shot as you’ll have a lot of spill. That extra fabric in the photo, that is on the floor, helps to cover the floor behind your subject when shooting a seated subject. You want your subject as far away as feasible from the screen to limit spill.
recently bought greenscreen from a company called EEFX.com.
I bought it as a replacement for a seamless fabric one I bought a while back. Problem with the fabric is that is was very prone to wrinkling. The new greenscreen is made of a “looped” fabric sorta similar to felt that is connected to a foam back and a nylon backing. The felt type fabric is is pretty diffuse when hit with the lights and really helps keep it evenly lit. The foam core helps to avoid wrinkles since it expands. I’ve shot a bunch of interviews with it and have been able to pull some very nice keys. I have it in a small studio, but have to pull it down between shoots and put it up again when I need it. I haven’t traveled with it yet.
I once hired a crew for a remote greenscreen shoot, they had a greenscreen made out of a very stretchy material. They just stretched the fabric over some c-stands with some clips….no wrinkles.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Letting AE generate the fields will help to make the edges of text and graphics crisp when it’s imported into the NLE.
Some edit systems like Avid’s you pick a field order on import so that it knows how to deal with the fields.
Most edit systems are lower field first when dealing with SD, however, some could be upper field first.
You might try rendering with lower field first, making sure that you client is aware.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

One way might be to duplicate your camera and remove the wiggle from the duplicate and move it to the top of the layer stack. The active camera in AE will always be the top most camera layer in the stack, so adjust your in/out points for the wiggle-less camera to cover the area you don’t want wiggling… Experiment with it..

Erik