[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.

[John Cuevas]

My approach would be:

1. Stablize, using Warp Stabilizer in AE
—Lock down your shot first. Stabalizing a shot becomes harder and harder the more you effect the shot.

The other 3 options really depend on the shot, but if I were doing everything in AE, after Stabilizing, I would garbage matte/keylight, pan/zoom then time remap.

Time Remapping adds/subtracts frames, do that last. My 2 cents.

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]

The answer is both.

Shine for instance can be recreated using a combination of effects that ship with AE. There are scripts and tricks to doing what Horizon does.

On the other hand, Trapcode Lux(as far as I know) can’t be easily recreated in AE. AE also has a few particular engines, that can come close to Trapcode Particular, but you can’t recreate Particular completely with the basic AE ship.

Nothing AE ships with can come close to Form, Zaxwerks, Mettle_Shapeshifter or FreeForm Pro or Plexis.

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 not sure why your anchor point is defaulting to [0,0,0] instead of the layer center, when I import my anchor point defaults to the layer center. So I can’t help you with that. But, there is a “name your price” script from AEScripts.com that repositions the anchor point of layer that you might find handy.

https://aescripts.com/repositionanchorpoint/

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 looks like 2 main things going on there. And probably a few differnt ways to accomplish it, but here’s how I would do it.

First the text is being distored by the water layer. Apply a ‘Distort > Displacement Map to the text layer, and adjust the settings to taste.

One thing you can do is duplicate the video layer and precomp the video layer. Now you can add some blur and level effects to make the text distort a littler smoother.

For the color, that just looks like the video of the water was used below a text layer and the video’s track matte was set to alpha matte. Perhaps the video scale, position and time was offset a bit to make it a little different than the waves

I made a quick project using that video(I don’t have any good water footage at home) to show the techniques I would use to accomplish the project.

3536_displacedtextfolder.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]

When you render, what kind of file are you creating and where are you watching this file.

For instance, I have a very capable computer for AE, but if I were to render a HD quicktime-animation and try to play it on my computer, it will stutter and stop…all the information will be there the CPU’s just can’t play it. Once I import the file into my NLE(Avid) it plays fine.

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]

Create your text in precomp and make sure your you have seamless edge. Basically a reasonable amount of space on either side. Now just add an ‘Distort > Offset’ effect to your text. Animate the offet or add an expression to offset position, drop it into your main comp and you should be good to go.

Quick example project here:
3535_stockticker.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]

Check out this tutorial at video copilot:

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/old_film_look/

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]

A QT_Animation when it gets to avid will lose something just being transcoded to an Avid format, so I’m suggesting to render to a QT-Avid DNxHD codec(preferably to what you will be using in the Avid).

It will definetely save space, I did a small test today and it was about 1/5 the size of animation and I can’t see any difference.

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.