[Jack Howard]

Forget that last paragraph. I typed it up before I experimented on AE, and it was phrased all wrong, and I forgot to delete it, sorry.

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can alter the shape of the cone in the light. You could try a thrid-party plugin, have a look around google. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of any help. As I said before, the only way I could think of is to alter the position of the source, the point where the light points to, and the angle of the cone.

I found something else you as well, instead of making that shadow “illusion” I said before, if you go into the “Material Options” of your text, and check on “Cast Shadows”, it will cast your shadows for you.

Hope any of this helped,

Jack Howard

[Jack Howard]

Hi David,

Concerning your rendering problem, try going into “Edit”, “Preferences”, “Output” and make sure that the box that says “Segment Movie Files At (whatever yours says)MB” is UNCHECKED. That should fix it.

Unfortunately I cannot help you with your Avid problem. Sorry.

Hope this helps,

Jack Howard

[Jack Howard]

Hi Ricardo,

If you create a light inside of After Effects, and it should give you the options of moving the light source around, as well as where the light points to. Adjust these to your needs. Also, ensure that “Cast Shadows” is checked on.

If the “Cast Shadows”, fails to Cast Shadows, then try duplicating your text, making it Black, Blurring it, then positioning it in 3D space to act as a shadow. Experiment with transfer modes with this method.

A third method you could try is to make this circular spotlight, then to make it 3D and put it in whatever perspective you need it.

Hope this helps,

Jack Howard

[Jack Howard]

Hi Alex,

Because After Effects is just a compositing program, you can’t “flatten” layers like you can in Photoshop (unless there’s a way unbeknownst to me). You can group the layers together by Pre-composing them, however that won’t make the file size smaller.

If you want your file to be smaller, you will need to render it out, not as .avi, but as something that compresses the video. I recommend rendering it as a .mov (Quicktime Format). It will make the file size a lot smaller, while still retaining a good amount of quality.

However, I suggest that you experiment with the different types of formats to render to. Either way, you will need to stop rendering it out to .avi if it is the final render, unless of course if it is going into an editing program like Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro, etc.

Hope this helps,

Jack Howard

[Jack Howard]

Sorry for being a bit late (5 years haha), but just found a topic about Sony Vegas’ replacing footage. Here you said there is none, but there is! It’s only hidden (slightly).

Go into “Project Media” find the footage there you wish to replace, right-click, and hit replace. It’s simple as.

I missed a couple of posts on here, so I apologise if someone has already stated it, or if I’m just stating the obvious; but when I found out, I was over the moon. Am using it now and will do for years to come!