[Michael Szalapski]

If you need the type to change, what you can do is (after the point in time where she deletes the letters) split the layer. (Edit>Split layer or Ctrl+shift+d on a PC). Then, on the new layer, change the text to be the new text.

AE is an impossible program to master in a short amount of time, but it’s a great program. If you really want to learn how to use it, you could start reading Adobe’s web-based manual; it’s a great thing, as are the tutorials on Andrew Kramer’s website videocopilot.net and the books by Chris and Trish Meyer. Ooh, ooh, and Total Training’s DVDs. And, of course, the tutorials here on the COW.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

In case the sarcasm doesn’t translate well, all Dave is doing is asking what kind of computer you have. Specifically we need to know what operating system you’re using, what version of After Effects, what processor you have, how much RAM you have, and any other information you can give about your system.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

If you want this to actually look like a floating, flowing ribbon, you’re going to want to use an actual 3d program. There’s a tutorial here on the COW for making a 3d ribbon. AE is great for compositing 3d items into shots and often is used for compositing different passes of 3d scenes together to achieve a final look…but it’s not ideal for actually creating anything truly 3d.
However, there are tools such as Zaxwerks 3d Serpentine and the previously mentioned Trapcode 3d Stroke that can do things that look like true 3d.
If you want to go with your idea of using a mask, perhaps this COW tutorial from back in the day for how to grow design elements may help you.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Dave = right. AE is not an editing program at all.

But you don’t have to have the sound synced perfectly to the animation either, unless I totally misunderstand what you’re doing. You just have fast changing text, so get (or create) a fast bleeping/blipping/swishing/clicking/whatever sound and play them together. Most of the time it’ll look like it’s synced up without you having to do anything.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

What are you trying to accomplish as you “blend the images”? If you’re trying to show the old pictures, you could just show one side. If you’re trying to demonstrate the 3d quality, you could use the technique from The Kid Stays In The Picture (and countless other places) and actually use AE’s 3d space with a slightly moving camera.

Or, if you have the option, you could do it actually in 3d with the 3d Glasses effect.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

It\’s definitely possible to add smoke in AE, but how good it looks often depends on your experience. Doing it practically on set would, as you surmised, be a lot easier than the digital options.
You could film smoke against a black background and lay that over your existing footage with the blend mode set to screen.
You could use fractal noise or a similar effect to add the haze.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

It looks like the tree shapes are revealed using videos of ink in a tank of water on another layer as a luma matte. Or something similar.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

From the incomparable Dave LaRonde

Dave’s Stock Answer #2:
When you’re out on a shoot, and you say, “we’ll fix this in post” without knowing PRECISELY HOW you’re going to fix it in post, don’t shoot it! You’ll only end up shooting it over again.
Since post typically costs three times the cost of production, fixing something in post is not a way to save money, but rather a way to spend more of it.
And, before you say “well fix it in post,” always consider who’s doing the work, especially if you’re the one doing the editing.

There is a reason special effect houses charge hundreds of thousands of dollars. Making realistic special effects takes a lot of time, work and experience.

To get you started, try out some of the tutorials on the COW about motion tracking.

Realize that without the light from the fire on the actor or the fire moving in relation to how the person is moving (wind, etc.) it doesn’t matter how good your track is, it’s going to look fake.

You can compensate for the light on the person with an adjustment layer between the fire layer and the person. This layer should brighten the person and add a bit of orange color. Use a mask to shape the glow to just the part you want. You could then use the same tracking information you get for the fire to keep that glow right there, or simply parent it to the fire (or the fire’s null).

As for the air moving the flames as your actor runs around, this might not be too noticeable, but you can always use AE’s distortion filters (or maybe the puppet tool) to reshape the flames.

If your actor turns around or has limbs flailing – as is to be expected from someone set aflame – be prepared to enjoy rotoscoping.

Hope that helps.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Ctrl+shift+D (on a pc) will split your layer at the point where your playhead is located on the timeline. Use that to split your video up so you have layers that are just the video you want to use.
Or, alternatively, export just that part from your editing software.

As far as getting started with motion tracking, try some of the tutorials here on the COW.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

There are several effects in the video, so I’m not sure which ones you’re asking about.

If you’re talking about the pictures flipping into place this is very easy to do; it just takes a very long time and good planning to make it look right. It could be done with layers of pictures set up in 3d space to form a wall; each one with its anchor point set to its right side. Then animate each layer’s y rotation. (I’d have each set of layers that make up each wall parented to a null so you can arrange them more easily.)

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.