[Kevin Camin]

Oh, just duplicate your shape layer and then, whatever you are trying to add to the negative space, set it to Alpha Matte Inverted below the duplicate shape layer and make sure the duplicate shape layer is hidden (turn off eyeball).

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

To me it sounds like the animation and motion graphics are going to be mostly original the entire time. I would merge the two projects so you can easily retime things. I don’t think there’s any time saving by dynamically linking things in Premiere, they still have to render since they are After Effects comps. I feel you are sort of adding a step by moving what essentially is an animation to Premiere. But if you have live action footage and the animation and motion graphics are secondary then I would do it in Premiere.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

I know this isn’t helpful at this point, but with keying or roto-scoping the ideal condition is a really sharp image, meaning, shooting with a fast shutter speed for moving objects. At the studio I work we aim for a 22.5 degree shutter. It takes a lot of light but gives good edges. You can always add motion blur back in later.

Sort of like the Mocha solve, you might want to apply different strategies for different parts of the image. Maybe roto for parts, but then you might have to animate a mask for other areas.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

There’s actually a way to import Illustrator files outside of the art board but it has to be set up in a very specific way (art board a specific size and something else…). I did a teachout out that included this several years back but don’t remember. Lol. Try Googling it, and I’ll also try to figure it out for you.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

In my experience, best practice is to set your anchor point before applying position keyframes. I understand you’d love to slip your object under the position keyframes and center it but it doesn’t work that way–someone should make a plug-in to have the position keyframes off-set correctly.

You might be able to work with nulls to get what you want in the event you’ve done a ton of animation and don’t want to start over.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

What are you trying to do?

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks for the info! Helped me understand. : )

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Awesome–thank you for the info. Sorry for the delayed response. Your information cleared up a lot for me.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to share your best practices and for answering my questions.

Couple questions:

•If the footage I’m editing was shot log, is that ‘log state’ preserved if I export from Premiere a ProRes444 file? If you can tell, my question reveals I don’t deeply understand log. I know it’s a way of capturing video in a way that gives more data to parts of the tonal curve that our eyes are sensitive to, and it helps preserves detail in the highlights and shadows by not crushing them. But, I’m unclear if the log aspect is a part of the file itself, or if it’s just a file like any other and it was just shot in a special way. The thing about log is that is lacks contrast, so you typically need to expand out the tonal and color data to get true blacks and whites, and in other experiences of mine with photography, doing that can create gaps in the histogram since you’re taking say 180 tonal steps and spreading it over 256.

•What do you do if you are editing with raw files and need to pass to a colorist? I take it you wouldn’t render out of premiere a ProRes, but I’m guessing provide an EDL?

Thanks again, everyone!

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

To a colorist.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin