[Fernando Mol]

I just send full reels to clients that actually want to specifically select shots. This can be a trap, because if your client select great takes then they made your job easier, but they can also make a mess when they don’t have a sense of editing and select pieces from here and there that are a hell to match, specially in interviews.

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[Fernando Mol]

So, if I understand right, you have a jpeg with a text on the background and you just want to delete the text, right?

That will totally depend on your background, but I think the tool for the job is Photoshop.

JPEG doesn’t support layers.

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[Fernando Mol]

You shouldn’t export to swf unless you are planning to use it on the web or to import it to a Flash project.

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[Fernando Mol]

I heard someone call it “corte a música” (cut to the music).

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[Fernando Mol]

That’s a good tool, Curtis.

Also, if I’m understanding it right, this could be solved adding a CSS for print. In that CSS you can hide the elements you don’t want to print (just add a “hide” class and define it as display: none;), and you can also change the background color, layout, fonts, etc.

You’ll just need to add the media type in the link for the external CSS and it will be visible ONLY when printing.

<link href="for_print.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" />

For testing, you can change the preview in DW going to the menu
>View >Style Rendering >Print

I hope this helps

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[Fernando Mol]

I think the performance issue is fixed now. It was as you mentioned, Dave, not an After Effects issue. It seems it was a hardware problem, so basic I feel a little embarrassed.

I have a working 1 TB raid disk and it was not close to be full, but it was more than a half full. I did some backups and cleanups and now it has more than a half free space. Not a big difference in space (free 442 GB vs free 627 GB) but the performance in AE is much better now.

Some time ago I read somewhere that hard disks performance could drop down when half of the disk is full, but I didn’t experienced it before. I’m not 100% sure of my diagnostic, but After Effects is working fine now.

You’re right about the codec issue. A year ago I had that problem, when a client asked me for a file in quicktime with DVCPRO HD. I didn’t have the codec then, but I have now (came with the camera).

I’m glad After Effects is running smoothly now. Just in time to start the week.

Thanks again for your time and your useful help, Dave.

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[Fernando Mol]

Agree with the common “container” problem. I forgot to mention the footage codec is DVCPRO HD (720 30PN), recorded on an AG-HPX170.

That shouldn’t give any problems to AE. Right?

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[Fernando Mol]

It seems that it is what it is. AE CS4 supports native MXF but at least in my system it still use a lot of resources just to have the footage available in the project.

I used to work on a Mac with Final Cut and the work flow never was compromised when using the ingested media in After Effects. But, as you mentioned, the Mac files are quicktime.

Maybe CS5, with all the promises on the better performance, can manage better the imported MXF files. We’ll see.

Thanks again for the useful help, Dave.

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[Fernando Mol]

I just copied the folder from the P2 card to the hard drive (mounted the card via USB, drag and drop). Didn’t do any conversion or used any software.

The files are MXF. I imported the full folder from the hard drive to the project in AE.

I did the same in Premiere and it seems to work fine. That’s why I thought it was something with my preferences in AE.

I’m feeling a little embarrassed. I’m doing everything wrong?

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[Fernando Mol]

You can also use the two. Have your material in your site and Choose some videos to post on Youtube, adding a watermark with your site address.

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