[John Cuevas]

What you are describing is the keyframe interpolation or the ease.

Full explanation here: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7d99a.html

Shortcuts are here—Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts):
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7987a.html#WSE5FE1D4F-AC9D-4caf-8F7C-2D3DC9B95E98

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

Arial, it’s clean, easy to read and boring, perfect for disclaimers.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

I really don’t know of a guide, maybe others here can help with that. I’ve been doing this for quite some time now and the comp setting is and always has been “What is the highest quality deliverable?” If you are going to be entering this in festivals, I imagine you will probably need a 1280 x 720 at a minimun.

As you stated before it easier to scale down than the converse. If you are worried about your computer and new one is out of the question, try pre-rendering finished elements and replacing them into your project. You mention green screen footage, instead of keying it, adding effects, compositing it over the background, just key it and render it out with an alpha and reimport as a new asset(though save your original keyed work compin case you need to go back).

Another stategy I’ve used when computer power is an issue is to render to a “PNG”(lossless) sequences. If for some reason the computer can’t make it through the entire sequence, I can just look at the last frame completed and start a new render from there. Then when I’m finished, I import the numbered “PNG” sequence, create a new comp and render that to my deliverable.

I’m sure some others can post some other stategies to get the most out of your computer. Good luck.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

I’ve run into the same problem. It seems to happen when ever the monitors go into power saving mode or if we turn them off. We adjusted the time to 12 hours now, so they don’t shut down and it’s fine.

It’s odd, cause Iwe don’t have this problem on my other systems running 2000 or Vista, just Windows 7.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

You have probably hit the layer or transfer buttons in the bottom left corner of the timeline window. Press that and your modes should come back. Or just right click on the columns line(source name, parent…) and just choose “switches” or “modes”

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

Note: For additional keyboard shortcuts for use on keyboard without numeric keypads, see Previews (keyboard shortcuts).

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7987a.html#WS92185E47-2062-4ca7-ABF8-8AAEE0DEBB7D

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

The “B” key will set your workspace in-point. The “N” key sets workspace out point. Pressing “0” on your number keypad will start a RAM preview, where each framed(in the preview area) will be rendered to your RAM.

This preview will render both audio and video. To preview audio only, press “.” on your number keypad.

More info: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7ec9a.html

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

I made a quick little project and added another lens flare layer to affect the opacity of the text when the flare gets near. A quasi light-wrap effect.

3346_lensflaremattes.aep.zip

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

One method might be to create an adjustment layer above your text and add a blur and adjust it to taste. Then duplicate your lens flare, place it over the adjustment layer and then set the adjustment layers track matte to luma. Now when the bright spots of the lens flare move near the text, the text blurs. You could might also want to add a curves effect to your duplicate lens flare and really crush the blacks, so you only have the hot flare center and not the rings effecting the text.

Another option that also would use the adjusment layer would be to make a solid with a circular feathered mask(lens flare size) and use that as your luma/alpha matte. Then you could just alt-click your postion, use the pickwhip and tie the circle-solid to the flare center.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

[John Cuevas]

Looks like stock footage of damaged film layed over the video, perhaps with a transfer mode. Easy to recreate it, create solid and mask it and add a heavy feather. Drop it over the video and create a flicker to the opacity, 0 to 90 to 75 to 100 to 0 over just a few frames. Then mess with the transfer modes.

I did a quick google search for “Creating light leak film effects” and found some free downloadable leaks…might be easier than creating them from scratch. You have to scroll down the page a little, but there are 4 of them for free at 720p.

https://www.digitalcinemafoundry.com/2010/02/19/free-film-burns-exclusively-here/

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com