[Filip Vandueren]

It could be that there is a slight imperceptible dither in your imported file, that you don’t notice, but that your export codec trips on that…

[Filip Vandueren]

Try a roughen edges with a very large scale.

[Filip Vandueren]

Don’t forget to flip the back-layer by setting scale to -100,100 or by rotating 180

[Filip Vandueren]

There are a number of plugins out there that do frame-blending for changing framerate.
And even some that are spec. designed for transcoding.

But if your material is not interlaced, you can try this:

– create an NTSC comp, but change the frame-rate to 24 fps
– re-interpret your PAL-footage and conform to 24fps (it will slow down about 4%)
– drop the footage into the comp and make it fit by scaling down a bit.
– now render, and in Render settings, after choosing a field-render type, choose any PULL-down.

You’ll get a 24P effect

This is the best way to convert to NTSC if and only if you can live without fields, and the 4% slowdown doesn’t bother you.
I know, those are two big “ifs”, but best of all it doesn’t use any plugins.

[Filip Vandueren]

The funny thing is, there are a number of effects that mimic Photoshop’s layer effects, but the only way to have them show up is by importing a Photoshop file…
There is no way of applying the glow, bevel, etc. effects direcly to a layer.

They don’t work exactly the same as in Photoshop anyway, and really limit your options.

I think it’s best to recreate the either by precomposing or by stacking some filters together:

so here’s a way to mimic inner glow/inner shadow using after effects filters:

On your layer:
– Drop Shadow: (Opacity 100%, Shadow Only, other parameters to taste)
– Invert: Alpha
– CC Composite: Stencil Alpha, use its opacity as the opacity of your inner glow or drop.
– Fill, use this to force the color of your glow
– CC Composite: (deselect RGB only) use ‘screen’ for a glow, ‘multiply’ for a drop, or ‘behind’

[Filip Vandueren]

No…

AE outputs movies, movies don’t respond to clicks (the play button in your movieplayer does)

However, you can create markers in a track (by hitting alt-asterisk *) and enter a URL to that marker.

There are a few output-options that will use that URL when the movie is played back and you get to the frame where that marker was placed.

I believe only
File->export->Macromedia Flash (SWF)… (if you set the “include Layer marker Web Links” option)
And Quicktime

The quicktimes will only do the webjump if the movie is actually played from within a webbrowser, not when it’s played from the movieplayer…

[Filip Vandueren]

I agree that you should find a camera that does true 25P as opposed to just throwing away a field in hardware.

Then again, if I have to choose between throwing away a field, thus sacrificing vertical res. or keeping 50i interlaced video…

I’ll go for fake 25P any day.

I’ve really had arguments with music video editors in the past who just wouldn’t do it.
They wanted to keep the 50i… “because it’s sharper”
But hey: we’re not making the 8 o’ clock news, we’re making a music video…. 😎

It doesn’t hurt to have the best method of ‘throwing away’ you can get, and reelsmart certainly is a good option.

BTW: working in PAL it can become very confusing to hear all those 24P stories from the NTSC world flying around, and how “Pulldown-ing” that is supposed to be the holy grail of fake Filmlook.
Truth is, in PAL, practically all 24P (film stock) stuff is just sped up to conform to 25 fps.
So there’s no harm in shooting 25 instead of 24, au contraire, I would say it’s better to shoot 25 if you know you’re going to PAL.

[Filip Vandueren]

Kevin’s got a great Tip on exporting a higher RES RLA.

It makes sense that Z-depth can not be antialiased, because any 1 pixel sampled, can only have 1 depth.

Off-course, if you don’t use fancy stuff like displacement mapping, you can render out your anim once in normal res,
then disable all textures, lights, shadows, etc. and render that out again to a higher res with Z-depth: that could mean a significant boost in render-time, since you don’t need the textures and advanced shading anyway.

[Filip Vandueren]

try using a mesh warp with just one or two rows+ colums,

do a subtle animations of the corners and just move the layer away.

[Filip Vandueren]

I prefer the Limiting Options in SA Color Finesse to get to safe colors.
The “broadcast colors” effect usually shows discrete steps in for example a gradient, between colors it lets pass, and colors it adjusts to make them safe.

Also:
Everyone and his cow is raving about the Scopio Gigio plug-in, I haven’t tried it yet, check it out if you’re serious about broadcast work and colors. It’s a software based scope that analyzes the video signal your graphics will generate, and shows you exactly how offending the illegal problem areas are.

And do follow Chris’ advice on the gear !