[Erik Pontius]

You might need the latest codec pack from Avid.
You might need to actually configure the Avid codec itself, and toggle the option for alpha. Add your comp to your render queue, click on the Output module settings to choose QT, click format options to choose the DNxHD codec and tick the option for compressed or uncompressed alpha.
According to the codec readme. Alpha’s in Avid’s codecs should be imported with “use existing” rather and “invert existing” which is used for non-avid codecs (i.e. QT animation).
Oh…and just be sure that your comp actually contains transparency…

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

Export a Quicktime Reference (if your Avid and AE on the same system) or Quicktime Same as source (if your AE is on a different system).
Import this into AE. Double-check to make sure that AE intrepreted the footage properly. (DV/D1 NTSC should be lower field first, HD is upper field).
Do your keying and other effects.
Render out using either a lossless codec like QT Animation, being sure to choose to generate fields (matching your source field order). Alternatively, you can create you QT using Avid’s codecs (DNxHD, etc..)
Import these into Avid, making sure to set you import settings to match field order, etc…

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

I know that Interra Systems creates various various verification tools… though you might want to start that 2nd mortgage.

https://www.interrasystems.com/index.php

[Erik Pontius]

You are probably missing a codec. AVI is just a container and can contain video encoded in any number of different formats.
If you don’t know what codec it might be needing, a handy tool for identifying it is GSpot
https://gspot.headbands.com/

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

My guess is that they output it from FCP using it’s HDV codec. And I’m guessing that your Mac doesn’t have FCP, which means you don’t have the neccessary codec.
This might be a blessing in disguise…working with HDV in AE is a real choir because of the extra processing in decoding the lossy HDV long GOP MPEG2.
See if they can re-output the video in a common lossless codec like QT Animation. The file size will be large, but it will be easier to work with in the long run.

Erik

[Erik Pontius]

You might check the tutorials section…like this one:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/dewar_john/light_spill.php

[Erik Pontius]

It looks like this was shot 24p advanced?
Looks like there are duplicate frames. Looking at the mov you supplied (granted it’s compressed, etc..)…you can see as you step through this footage that the guy walking from left to right behind the “doctor” that every 5th frame is being duplicated.
I’d check with your DP to find out what they shot at, then correct the interpretation in AE to match.

[Erik Pontius]

Check your mask used for your roto frame by frame. It looks as though a couple of the frames, the mask shape lops off a portion of his head as he starts to step forward. You might have deleted a point on the mask, causing a ripple down effect as it interpolated. Adding points is fine..removing them can cause some problems if you aren’t careful.

[Erik Pontius]

The text animations… click on help and then down to “Text animation preset gallery” it will pop up a HTML page in a browser with animated examples.

[Erik Pontius]

You will need to render to a file format that can have an alpha channel. In most cases, these are uncompressed or lossless codecs such as Quicktime Animation. Codecs such as DV do not support alpha channels.
The other important step is to make sure that you choose to render RGB+Alpha and straight matte in your render output module settings.
Of course, make sure that what you have created actually includes transparent areas. Click on the white alpha channel button at the bottom of the preview window…you should see a black & white image, where white areas represent opaque areas and black areas represent transparent areas. If the image is entirely white, the image will be completely opaque.
Some effects, like AE’s lens flare effect, appear to create transparent areas, but are really not. These have to be “unmultiplied” in order to remove the black.
Also, check any import settings in Premiere you might have. It may have settings to ignore an alpha channel.
Otherwise, Premiere may be having problems with QT files..in that case, export your AE effect as a PNG or TIF image sequence (being sure to choose RGB+alpha and straight). Every frame of the effect will be exported as a single image. Then import this image sequence into Premiere making sure to choose the option for sequential files. Premiere will create a video clip from these files.

Erik