[Kevin Camp]

for ae to deinterlace, you just need to set the interpret footage settings fro those clips correctly (or verify that they are interpretted correctly).

select the clip of the guy at his computer in the project window (not the timeline). then choose file>interpret footage>main… check that the separate fields is set to lower (for dv ntsc), and if you are going to render progressively (not reinterlace) then choose preserve edges, if you are going to re-interlace it when you render then leave it unchecked.

do the same for the footage that you are going to put into the laptop screen.

if it is still jaggy, let us know how you are putting the video in the screen.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

yeah the movement was almost definately a wiggle expression. i think there was probably a posterize time effect or posterize expression to give it that low frame rate jerky movement. a similar wiggle expression could have been applied the glow effect (controls like amount, threshold, intensity etc.), maybe also to a blur.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you would need to check into running 2 monitors on the macbook… i believe you can only get video mirroring on the external video port. meaning what you see on one monitor is the same as the other monitor, so you would not be able to have the timeline on the small monitor and the other panels on the big monitor.

but from the sounds of it, i think the macbook will work for you for a while… but you will probably out grow it sooner than you would the pro.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

also, when you import into fcp… if you rendered out of ae without adjusting for broadcast levels, you should be able to tell fcp that it is an rgb file at import so fcp can make the adjustment.

you can do it in ae, by using an adjustment layer, applying levels and setting the black output to 16 and the white output to 235. if your still concerned about color saturation, you can apply the broadcast colors effect after the levels effect.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i wouldn’t say the intel graphics chip is good, but you won’t need a good one to use ae or photoshop. in ae just set the preview preference to not use opengl and you should be good to go.

there have been several posts about using the macbook for por applications, try seaching the posts. but the biggest difference between the two laptops is the screen size, the little macbook will feel pretty cramped if you are working in ae and photoshop often, but either will run ae and photoshop.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you have one layer with a series of masks, and one stroke effect, correct?

you can choose ‘all masks’ from the stroke effect controls to use all masks to generate the effect. inn addition you can set it to stroke the paths sequentially or all at the same time.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

there was a post a week or so ago that pointed out an issue where the timewarp effect on a layer prevented the a mask from working… do you have any effects on this layer? and do you see this happen on other layers? and have you checked the mask property to make sure that it is set to ‘add’ (default) or the appropriate function for what you want?

you might also try to hide all the other layer in your comp (click the eyeball icon in the timeline to turn off layers), and if needed click the checkerboard button at the bottom of the preview window to toggle between background color and the checkerboard pattern in transparent areas… or click on the colored circles button (rgb button) near the checkerboard button and select alpha to see just the alpha channel for the comp (again background layer would need to be off).

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the next ae (cs3) will fully use the extra processors…. currently, there are many effects that do take advantage of mulitple processors (there is a list of the effects and processes that utilize multiple processors some where on adobe.com) but the render engine does not.

[Kevin Camp]

i would check into the widescreen dvd options in your dvd authoring software, it would be a better way to go than fake letterbox. you would also want to check out creating progressive dvds. you could then work in a 23.976 fps dv widescreen preset and burn a widescreen progressive disk.

see if the cow has a forum for your dvd software… even if they don’t you might post in one of the dvd forums anyway, many people have used several different applications and can probably give good insight.

[Kevin Camp]

your fisrt 24p project sounds a lot like my first 24p project… the photographer suggested 24p, and the producer and editor said, oooh! 24p and handed my their spot for ssome keying and effects… by the end i was, uuugh! 24p.

you can deinterlace the footage, but you will need to split the footage up at the edits into the original shots to be able to do so. you can then reassemble the footage in a 23.976… just re-edit the whole thing… no big deal (sarcasm here)

but unless this is a very simple editting job or a very special project, i think i would leave it, you just won’t be able to scale or reposition the footage at all, and some effect that envolve other movement may not look quite right and keying will be dificult, but i think it will be passible.

and you are correct, you will render as progressive… this is becaase you can’t de-interlace the footage, so if you try to interlace the interlaced footage, you’ll get bad results. so you’ll have some oddities as you render effect that will be rendered progressively on footage that is interlaced.