[Kevin Dearing]

Hi Travis,
Raid array’s have many benefits from protection of data to greater bandwidth – all depends on the type of raid array you go with..

Raid 0 (striped drives) is basically for greater bandwidth. The data is split into fragments which are stored on the drives that make up the array.. But if one disk fails, you loose all data..

Other raid arrays give some protection against failed drives but it shouldn’t replace backing up your data..

Read more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

I’ve only been doing this stuff a little while and am not sitting in front of AE so it’s all from my foggy memory but I use a method that Andrew Kramer displays in one of his recent tutorials.

Essentially, I create a white solid, make it 3d. Add a camera (if not in scene already) and move it around so the solid is roughly in line with the ground plane… Make sure accepts shadows is turned on and a few other settings.. I add a light to the scene and place it where the real light should be.. I make sure that nothing accepts lights but that my keyed people (or object) cast shadows..

It worked out for me quite well two times now..

Here’s the link to the tutorial I was referring to:

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_shadows/

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

In addition to what Dave posted you can check out the podcast that Eran Stern recently did on this very topic:

https://cowcast.creativecow.net/podcast/a-walk-in-the-park–228

Sorry if this was posted more than once – I just posted this but it was hanging when trying to post – doesn’t look like it went through and I didn’t see a message saying I was moderated or anything..)

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Russ,
It’s just my opinion and all but for me, keeping the text in an external file would be easier for me to edit when / if needed.

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Alright, I had a couple minutes to search and came up mostly blank – I did find one thread on the expressions forum where the poster was looking to load external images..

However, I think I got this from Maltaannon and I searched around there a tiny bit but didn’t find it.

Knowing JavaScript you can include files using the #include directive.. Actually, I just found what I was looking for in Maltaannon’s blog: here..

HTH

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Hi Simon,
If I understand you correctly, I guess it depends on how you created the tornado of paper.. If you did it the way Andrew Kramer did in his Energy tutorial then I believe that all you have to do is to make your keyed footage a 3-d layer and move it back in z-space so it sits in the middle of your particle twirls.. If you did the tornado of papers in a different way, then I’m sure we’ll need more info to be more specific – that is if the duplicate layer sandwiching the keyed footage doesn’t work for you..

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Another tutorial by Dan that would likely help is

Animating a Walk-Cycle Using Loop Expressions

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Hi Umer,
I’m not sure but in reading the recent COW mag on Music Video’s, one of the stories referenced a free Kaleidoscope plug-in from Pete Warden.. I wrote it down to go looking for it but haven’t had time yet. I’m guessing that would do the trick for you.. I’m sure a simple search either here on the COW or via google will turn up the plug-in..

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Also, if you don’t _need_ the full resolution for your RAM preview then decreasing the render to half or third will use less RAM per frame which will result in rendering more of your comp – at least that’s what I’ve noticed.. What I do when I need to check a longer comp in full res is I just check it in parts – set your work area to the part you want to see and it’ll render that for your RAM preview.. Annoying but effective..

–KTFA

[Kevin Dearing]

Hi Joseph,
I’m a newbie, but I think I recall reading something about using a script to read in text from a standard text file.. Seems like that would be ideal in your situation (in conjunction with the other suggestions..) Try searching the Expressions forum – I think that’s where I stumbled across the idea.. If I get some time today I’ll try poking about and see if I can find it for you..

–KTFA