[Jon Bagge]

To change the size of the layers after the event without messing everything up, simply proxy render them to, say, half-size (which will reduce them by 75%). Wouldn’t surprise me if you can get a way with third size (1/9th) for some layers. You can always keep layers that are large in the composition at the original size.

When you then render the final composition you *must* remember to switch proxies ON in the render settings, or AE will ignore all your proxies.

I’ve done this myself on occasion when I’ve realised my photoshop files are unnecessarily large. (I tend to like them large)
It’s better than discovering they are too small…

Check out this script to batch render proxies:
https://aescripts.com/rd-approximate/

And finally, pre-render background elements or other things if you can and make final quality proxies to use for the final render.

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http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

CSI did a pretty nice opening sequence for season 10 which was done with a completely different method, and I think look better than most ‘bullet time’ done with multiple still cameras:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3j2XaeVrjE

This is an actual tracking shot done with a real steady camera though a real location with all the actors just standing still. Quite a few elements are added digitally to ‘sell’ the effect. Because the camera is moving all the time, it’s nearly impossible to tell that the actors aren’t actually frozen. Some of the actors are hanging on rigs to make them appear to be frozen mid air. (the coroner for example)

But if you haven’t got an above average size studio, a couple of dusin actors, an art department, special effects crew, a steadycam rig with operator and a million dollars for post production, you can check out Andrew Kramers take on the same effect:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/advanced_time_freeze/

Some day we’ll have to stop recommending Andrew Kramer for every conceivable effect, but he is kind of good at this stuff.

Once you’ve understood the basic methods of achieving this effect you might be able to come up with your own version that does what you need.

But as usual with good looking effects, there is no magic button to achieve this with.

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http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

That looks fantastic, I’d love to know how you set up some of those things. I’ve used DUIK tools a little bit, and your IK seems similar, but how do set up the body rotations?

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

I’m sure any 3D program would be able to create that animation. However it’s far from trivial to do so. I’d say 3D programs are much more difficult to use than After Effects. If you haven’t used one before you’re unlikely to be able to make something like that without spending some time training.

You have have some luck trying Poser, where you can purchase ready made characters and modify/animate them. Poser is essentially made for hobbyists, and stuff done in Poser will tend to have a certain ‘look’. (which tend to be looked down upon by ‘real’ professionals)
However for quite simple stuff like in your example, I think you can get a decent result without needing to learn complex software.
It wouldn’t surprise me in fact if that example was done in Poser.

You could also use After Effects if you went for a more ‘schematic’ and simple animation. It wouldn’t be 3D in the same way, but I’m sure you could make something equally effective that still looked good.

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http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

I agree with how this was probably done. But just to mention, Hans Rosling has done this speach many times before, including on Ted where the graphics were in realtime (although on a regular projector). So he obviously knew exactly how the graphics worked and how to do the performance.
You’ll likely need a lot of practice to get a regular performer to do this well, and you’ll need to know how the graphics will look before you shoot.

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

If for whatever reason you want to do some simple audio editing in After Effects, duplicate the layer with the source audio/video on it.
Turn off the ‘eye’ icon for one of the copies and the ‘speaker’ icon for the other. Now you have two layers one with audio and one with video.

To cut the audio you’ll have to split the audio layer, and insert another layer with new audio or whatever you want to do. As mentioned you can keyframe the audio volume.

But for anything even slightly more advanced than that you’ll want to use either an audio editing application, or a non-linear editor like Premiere, Avid, FCP.

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http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

No direct way, but you could try replacing the character with a wingdings font that makes it a square. You can then track it in the four corners and use a corner-pin on a font with texture.
Then replace the wingdings with a blank.

Or use Roland’s suggestion.

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

Or if you don’t want to spend $$, you can use Color Finesse which comes with AE. It’s excellent, and comes with a full compliment of scopes/waveforms.

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

1. Convert NTSC DigiBeta to NTSC ProRes 4:2:2 file
2. Reverse Interlace NTSC ProRes file into NTSC ProRes 23.98 fps (Progressive) — using Compressor

By ‘reverse interlace’ do you mean remove pulldown? I’m not an expert on these american issues, but surely that will only work if your material is originally shot in 23.98p? If you remove pulldown on footage shot 29.97i you’ll end up with some frames containing 2 different fields. When you then speed up to 25i (I assume you’re speeding up here?) you’ll end up with some fields being different on the same frame and some identical. That won’t be acceptable as you’ve found out.

You should be using a method that interpolates 29.97i to 25i. I sincerely doubt compressor will be able to do that at a quality acceptable for broadcast. You’re going to need some more specialised plug-ins (and some serious rendering time), or much better – use a proper hardware conversion box made for doing this.
These are rather expensive, so you’re probably better off sending this all off to a post facility that can do it all for you.

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects

[Jon Bagge]

Boris and Automatic duck have products that do exactly this:

https://www.automaticduck.com/products/piae/

https://www.borisfx.com/XML-Transfer/

I haven’t used them myself, so I can’t comment on how well they work or which may be better.

They do cost $ though.

————–
http://www.jonbagge.net
Jon Bagge – Editor – London, UK
Avid – FCP – After Effects