[John Cuevas]

Go to Edit > Preferences and check “Synchronize Time of all Related Items”.

Now in your master comp if you double click precomp 4 at 55 secs, it will open up that precomp at what would be 55 seconds of your master comp.(hope that makes sense).

So you could copy and paste the audio from the master into the precomps and if you don’t move the CTI around, it will be synced.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

If that’s a PC project, if you post it(with a couple of the pictures) I’ll open it up it up and see if the same things happen.

Don’t want to say I’ll open up the Mac project files, because I’ve discovered that Mac/PC people have different problems. But most likely a Mac guy will come along and take a look also.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

You might want to investigate trapcodes Form2

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

Is that a square video insert where you want the surrounding bkg to change color?

If that is the case, create a solid “cntl + y” of the color you want and place it below your video layer. Now just use a mask on your video layer to cut out the white you want removed.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

I’m assuming all the layers are 3d(cause lights don’t affect 2d layers. Anyway, twirl the layers open, go to material properties and turn Accepts Lights to “off”

And the quickest way to do this for multiple layer is to open the property for one layer, then select all the layers and turn the propery off for the one layer.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

Was your projeect and files on an external drive? Premiere and AE don’t lose files very often.

Also, do you have autosaved turned on? Probably the easiest way of preventing projects from getting lost or corrupted. Autosave is located under Edit > Preferences. It’s made for exactly this reason.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

One method would be to use Vegas, Starglow and Fractal Noise.

I made a quick project. First thing I precomped the text layer and dropped it into the final comp. I added vegas to the comp and set the stroke to Image Contours and the blend mode to transparent. The rest is to taste, I added a small expression to the rotation, but it’s not necessary..

Next I create a solid, added 4 color gradient to it and placed it below the text layer, added a wiggle to each of the color points. Changed it’s transfer mode to alpha matte of the text layer.

Added an adjusment layer to the entire thing and added levels, glow and starglow. Levels to give it some pop, glow cause lights glow and then Trapcode Starglow. IMO, Starglow is what sells the effect, so if you don’t have it, you might want to download the trial version and see if you like it.

Finally I added a black solid above the adjusment layer and added fractal noise. Created a simple fractal with a rotating evolution and the transfer mode set to hard light. So that the lights would twinkle a bit more.

Hopefully that made some sense, but here’s the project for you to take a look at, let me know if you have questions, Good Luck.

3592_xmaslights.aep.zip

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

Duplicate your keyed layer and remove the BCC glowed edges effect. Put the layer you want as your “fill” below this layer and change the track matte of this layer to “alpha”

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

Just glad I could help. Have to say if I know anything it’s cause of the extremely helpful people here and great resources here at the Cow(and VideoCopilot.net too)

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[John Cuevas]

I used a previous project where the video bounced in with hold keyframes, where the jerkiness was the goal. The original animation had half as many keyframes and I added more for when I modified it for your project. The hold keyframes really aren’t neccessary, but it didn’t even think to take them off.

I’m glad it worked out for you.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.