[Matt Carl]

Yeah, what Michael’s link says is a good way to change the comp BG color. Just be careful if you are rendering out alpha channels with anything other than black set as I have had problems with them not being clean even if the background was turned off (to checkerboard) during render.

Also the way to change font color is in the Character palette found under Window/ Character. Just click the colored box to select a new color.

[Matt Carl]

I believe that a track Matte will only affect the layer directly above it. If you wanted multiple layers within this Track Matte you would have to pre comp them and then add the track Matte. Sounds to me like you are trying to keep these text layers separate though so you can offset them to make it 3D. In that case you might try making 1 pre comp with your text and track Matte inside, then in your master comp you could duplicate this layer as many times as you wanted to make your 3D by off setting each duplicate by 1 degree in Z space.

[Matt Carl]

Thanks for the input. I fixed this problem by resetting my layout arrangement in FCP back to standard (which is usually how I work). I have a feeling that maybe I inadvertently dragged a panel window a little out of place and perhaps it was overlapping with another window or off the screen in such a way that FCP or my OS did not like. Whatever it was, resetting my window layout back to normal seemed to do the trick and no I can make FCP hide and reappear to my hearts content all day long!

[Matt Carl]

Thanks for the input. I ran a test and recaptured some of the clips at 720×480 (instead of 486) that AE was reading incorrectly as square pixels. Turns out AE read the 720×480 footage just fine (non square) this time. But then to test it further I recaptured this clip a third time using the original 720×486 setting and AE read it correctly for some reason this time as well??? This at least blows the theory that there was some sort of hidden meta data in the original video off the tape telling it to display as square pixel.

Not sure if AE will always read my 480 footage correctly or not now? I plan to test this more extensively (and will post my findings) but until then it is my theory that the 720×480 vs. 720×486 issue is irrelevant and AE is just behaving quirky by reading random clips incorrectly as non-square pixel even though they have the exact same attributes as other correctly read clips.

[Matt Carl]

Thanks for the input. I ran a test and recaptured some of the clips at 720×480 (instead of 486) that AE was reading incorrectly as square pixels. Turns out AE read the 720×480 footage just fine (non square) this time. But then to test it further I recaptured this clip a third time using the original 720×486 setting and AE read it correctly for some reason this time as well??? This at least blows the theory that there was some sort of hidden meta data in the original video off the tape telling it to display as square pixel.

Not sure if AE will always read my 480 footage correctly or not now? I plan to test to this more extensively (and will post my findings) but until then it is my theory that the 720×480 vs. 720×486 issue is irrelevant and AE is just behaving quirky by reading random clips incorrectly as non-square pixel even though they have the exact same attributes as other correctly read clips.

[Matt Carl]

Yes they were shot on different cameras in different places but they were all dubbed down to the 1 tape I have now. I also ran a test of footage all from the same camera and tape and found this problem still persists which should eliminate the theory that different source pixel aspect ratios are causing this. Thanks for the input though! I suspect that this may just be an under the hood quirk of AE and am curious if anyone else has experienced it?

[Matt Carl]

Possibly so but both 720×486 and 720×480 are non square pixel aspect ratios? FCP interprets them correctly but maybe you are correct and somehow something very mysterious is happening within these extra scan lines that causes AE to incorrectly guess the pixel aspect ratio on a few random clips? I wish I could re-digitize these clips at 720×480 to prove this theory but to be honest I can’t figure out how to capture at that frame size through my Kona board? Most likely though there is no rhyme or reason as to why this is happening and I should just accept that like Stonehenge this is purely a mystery that may never be solved.

[Matt Carl]

Nope, they are all 720×486. That is the great mystery to me, all of the settings are exactly the same for these clips but AE is incorrectly guessing some of them as square pixels. I know I can change this under “Interpret footage” but I am curious as to why AE is guessing wrong on some of these when they seem to be identical (captured with same settings off of the same tape).

[Matt Carl]

Thanks Dave. In the years that I have ben capturing DVC Pro Tape at 720×486 it has not given me any trouble and the few black lines at the top and bottom have never been a concern. The bigger issue for me is why AE will correctly interpret most of my footage as non square (.91) but sometimes it will interpret it incorrectly as square pixel (1.00) aspect ratio when the capture settings/codec used to capture these clips were all set the same in FCP? These clips appear identical within FCP but once inside AE they change?

[Matt Carl]

Thanks Rafael. That certainly seems to be the case that I need to change the “Interpret Footage” pixel aspect ratio for certain clips so they are not square (1.00). The mystery to me is why AE is reading certain clips as square and others not when they were captured with the same codecs using FCP? Seems like AE can guess correctly on most clips but I don’t understand why it guesses wrong on other clips that seemingly have the exact same properties?