[John Cuevas]

So I downloaded your file. To make an alpha channel, just turn off the “Pale Royal Blue” solid. Then I changed the solid in precomp 1 to pure white. At this point I rendered out “comp 3) to a Quicktime_Animation file with an alpha, to work faster.

I then created a final composition and dragged in a video layer(the picture of the cat). I added comp 3 and put this on the bottom of the stack. I added a displacement effect to the video layer and set “comp 3” as the displacement layer and adjusted the settings.

Next I made a new comp called “highlights” dragged in the cat and water layers, put the cat on the bottom and set the track matte to “alpha matte”. I dropped this into my final comp, added a levels effect to boost the whites, then the CC glass effect. Then I just changed the tranfer mode of this layer to “Lighten” and all done.

The thing with water, is it doesn’t have a color/texture, it distorts what you see behind it.

Here’s my quick little project(I didn’t include the pre-rendered water file, it’s too big): 7795_jurfinalfolder2.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]

If you can upload a CS6 version of what you did, I’d take a look at it.

I downloaded your video and messed around it. Created some alpha channels with some keys and then used those as displacement maps on a layer to create refraction. If you can separate the highlights and add them back over your displaced footage I think you’d get a lot closer than trying to come up with a color as a texture.

Here’s what I made, maybe it will spark some ideas for you: 7794_watertexturefolder.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]

720 x 430 is a very unusual size, are you positive about that spec? For wide screen SD-you would generally make 720 x 480 with a PAR of 1.33.

Like all TV spots though, I would double/triple check the exact station requirements. Generally, you can request a PDF and they will send it to you. Take it from someone who didn’t check—one time, it can be a nightmare.

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]

Look at this tutorial and see how created the ‘look’ of water.

Create Water with Trapcode Particular

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]

Render it out with an alpha channel and a codec that supports alpha, like Quicktime Animation or Quicktime_DNxHD.

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]

Earth Zoom

I’ve done it finishing on video, just takes a little more work.

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]

Press and hold the space bar, use the hand to move around.

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 using the paint bucket effect.

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 you are working with 3 illustrator files(no animation in them) you don’t need to use time remapping. I’m think you are seeing the info from slides 2&3 because you don’t have a background in your illustrator file, which AE will make transparent, hence you can see them.

Create your 3 independent files. Drop them in your composition and move each one to where it should start in the timeline. If for some reason the slides aren’t long enough, you can always just grab the tail of the first slide and drag it to the next slide. Or just move the CTI(current time indicator) to your next slide, select the layer you would like to extend and press “alt+]”

You may want to precomp each slide, create a solid and place it as the bottom layer to give each slide a background. Probably will make dissolves easier.

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 a 1280×720 HD comp with square pixel, drop your footage into that and scale up the footage, AE should interpret it correctly.

If not, I could take a look at your footage if you upload it here(last icon on the reply dialogue) and suggest a proper interpretation.

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.