[Jim Dodson]

email me at jdpix at pacbell dot net

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

Well my simple answer is to pre-compose the text layer — then you can de-select the continuous rasterize button on that pre-comp layer…

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

2 thoughts (one’s a guess and the other is a suggestion).

Guess: Go to Particular–> Options. There is a Random seed setting — experiment with a different number (mine was defaulting to zero)…

Suggestion: There is a “Particular” forum and I know Peder from TrapCode monitors it fairly religiously — (though I think I’ve seen him here in the AE forum as well)…

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

Don’t know about plugins but — here’s one thought:

You mentioned the three video pieces were shot with a fisheye… Maybe try adding the “Optics Compensation” effect then checking the “Reverse lens Distortion” and taking the distortion out of the shots. Then they might line up more elegantly… just a thought….

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

At the risk of sounding like a simpleton, did you try precomposing the roughen edges layer then adding motion blur to the precomp?

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

2 thoughts:

Are you using “Keylight” to pull the key? If so, twirl open “screen matte” and under “Replace colour” choose “source”…

Also, you can pre-treat your footage with “Remove Grain” as follows:

To quickly reduce the noise of a sequence that has a lot of buzzing noise, set the Noise Reduction value to zero and the Temporal Filtering Amount to 100%, and render the sequence.

Do the remove grain in a precomp then pull a key on the precomped layer….

The key will have significantly less “chatter” and your shirt will be far less “noisy”….

As for file size, I usually let After Effects make its huge render file (so I have good quality) then using Quicktime export a smaller h264 codec for internet/emailing etc, but if you prefer, in the Render Cue, if you click on your current Output module then go to “Format Options” you can choose h264 which makes a very nice web-sized file for you….

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

Check out this:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/944017#960740

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

Assuming you do mean that you want to apply tracking data to a mask, heres one way you can do that:

Create a new null. Apply your tracking data to the null.
Now create a new black solid — make it approx 25% bigger than your comp setting in both height and width. Now paste your mask to this solid. Make sure this solid layer is directly above the video layer that you want the mask to affect. Now set the video layer’s track matte to “alpha matte” of the black mask solid (or depending on what you want possibly inverted alpha matte).

Now, using the pickwhip, parent the black solid to the null that has the tracking data.

(You needed to make the black solid bigger than your comp solid otherwise, as the solid moves around based on your tracking data, the edges of the solid would mess up your matte).

Does this help??

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

By a “matte” do you mean a mask?

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX

[Jim Dodson]

Instead of making her stomach completely transparent — did you try maybe a 10-15% opacity so that it’s more like a window than a hole?? — Just a thought…

Jim Dodson

8 Core Intel — Mac – OSX