[John Cuevas]

If I’m reading what you are saying right, the comp doesn’t have a background, you just need to know how to render out a file for Avid with an alpha channel? If that’s the case then it’s pretty straight forward, just select your comp and add it to the render queue(shift + cntl + /). Choose the correct render settings(“DV” for an avid stardard def project, “Best” for HD). Probably easiest would be to use Quicktime Animation and under channels choose “RGB + Alpa” and change the color to “Straight”

Personally, I use the Avid Codecs for Quicktime. You have to change a couple of settings in the Output Module > Format Options, but when it gets to the Avid it doesn’t have to transcode the footage so it’s pratically an instaneous import.

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]

Try CC Ball Action, play around with ball size and grid spacing.

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]

Two 60 seconds animations can have massively different sizes, it depends on the complexity of what you are compressing.

I would make lossless QT_Animation files and take them into Media Encoder and start with a H.264 preset and customize if for your needs. When you use H.264 in the export settings, it has an “estimated file size”. You can adjust the target and maximun bit rates to try and get your file to fit your requirements.

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]

Another option is Digital Juice, you can buy entire sets of people dancing for a pretty decent price.

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]

Couple of things you can do. First thing I would check are your Import Settings, under the Edit tab, > Preferences > Import. Make sure that the setting isn’t set to 0:00:00:01. I prefer to set mine to ‘Length of Compostion’ but if for some reason you need them to be set to 30 seconds you can do it here.

Also, in your composition, you could select the layer of your 1 frame footage still, move the Current Time Indicator(CTI) 30 seconds forward and press “alt = ]”, that will extend the end point 30 seconds. Pressing “alt + [” will move the in point to the CTI position.

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]

Check out this tutorial on Red Giant, might give you some more ideas: https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv/item/26/

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 and I should add that link to our signatures, would save time.

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 can try the Underscore preset in the text animations or

Re: Computer type write effect
by gimmel on Feb 1, 2007 at 9:24:27 am

Put the following code into the Sourcetext expression. Use a slider to animate n.
Isn’t that easy?

n=8;
showtext=text.sourceText.substr(0,n)+”_”;

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]

This most likely is happening cause you don’t have the latest Avid Codec version.

From Avid’s Site:
Update: October 8th, 2010:The following change was made in the 2.3.2 codec package:
•Previously applications utilizing the DNxHD codec on Westmere MacPro 12 core systems would crash. This has been fixed.

The following changes were made in the 2.3 codec package:
1.Previously the settings dialog for the DNxHD codec was not fully visible or functional when used in some third party applications. This has been fixed.

2.Previously editor products would crash when displaying Media Composer’s export dialog box for QuickTime. This occurred in Japanese and other non-English OS. This has been fixed.

Avid Codec Link

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]

There isn’t anything to do to get the best quality of the files, when you import them AE, doesn’t compress or do anything, they keep their native resolution/dimensions.

Maintaining the quality of the files is depends on what you do in AE, if scale a layer a lot larger then it is, it will start to look bad. Another gotcha is interpreting the video footage incorrectly. Finally rendering to a high quality/lossless file will also keep your video looking it’s sharpest.

I’ll also add the Michael Szalapski stock answer, since it’s appropriate here:
Since you’re new to After Effects, I would highly suggest you start here: Link The resources there will help you get a handle on some of the basics.

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.