[Filip Vandueren]

Draw some splines on a solid,
set their mask modes to “none”
do a “render->stroke” effect , all paths (on transparant), lower the hardness setting.
add “stylize->roughen edges”

tweak the roughen edges, the stroke hardness and width.

You can also use a “render->scribble” instead of the stroke, use fill type “Centered Edge” and experiment.

for easier animation, set different elements (eyes, mouth) on different layers that you parent to a null.

[Filip Vandueren]

You need to have projects set up and ready to render in the render queue of the file you’re saving.

These comps output modules need to output to a sequence format (psd sequence, tga sequence, pict, etc.) not a Quicktime format.
Also they need to have “skip existing files” checked.

There are Multi-Machine settings factory-available, best to start from those and add for example field-rendering etc manually.

[Filip Vandueren]

I assume your talking about toning down the blur on one layer only…
because the overall effect of motion-blur is governed by the shutter setting of a composition.

If changing that doesn’t do it for you:
You can add motion blur as an Effect: Time->Force Motion Blur.
This has quality settings + it has it’s own shutter, deselect “use comp’s shutter” and use a lower value to get a less pronounced smear.
You use it on a layer that does not have Motion-blur enabled.

[Filip Vandueren]

DO you have Quicktime Pro ?

Since V7, you can do video and audio-capture right from the movieplayer.
Set the input in the prefs,
Just hook up your FireWire DV cam, or use the built-in mic in most systems (iMac, powerBook, etc)

And create a recording: File->New Audio Recording

[Filip Vandueren]

For a mathematically perfect shape, the Alpha Add mode usually works best. It makes two anti-aliased edges ‘sum’ up to opacity.

In my project, I got around it by using fuzzy shapes for the plastic layers, and aligning by hand.
I just quickly scanned all sides of a CD box and filtered it a bit.
I like the scratches, imperfections and noise in there, makes it look less CG 😉

[Filip Vandueren]

You could do it with two layers:

give both of them a channel-mixer, and mix out your R G or B in the bottom layer.
Then Keep only the primary your going to move in the top layer.

Set the top’s transfermode to screen (possible you should use preserver transparancy if you have an alpha)

Now you ca move, scale, rotate, filter the top layer and it will have the effect of only doing it to one channel.

[Filip Vandueren]

Never worked with Maya

but off the top of my head: recalculate the focal length to what it would be in Square pixels and try that.

[Filip Vandueren]

Looks like just one animation per frog, from closed mouth to open.

You can use Trapcode Soundkeys or “Convert audio to keyframes” to trigger Time-remapping to go from closed on silence, to open on loudness.
You might want to smooth the resulting keyframes a bit.

the eyes and other stuff can be done on different layers.

[Filip Vandueren]

Looks like just one animation per frog, from closed mouth to open.

You can use Trapcode Soundkeys or “Convert audio to keyframes” to trigger Time-remapping to go from closed on silence, to open on loudness.
You might want to smooth the resulting keyframes a bit.

the eyes and other stuff can be done on different layers.

[Filip Vandueren]

Just the one Axis.

Sorry for the late reply, you prob. figured it out by now 😎