[Mike Clasby]

In the time Warp Pluging, set a keyframe – !00% at 3 min, and another 100% at 4 min, then a 50% keyframe at 3 1/2 min. Interpret the footage – loop = 2(or more), and extend the clip. Not cutting required.

[Mike Clasby]

Short answer – Prelinger Archives

HERE’S 3000+ Free and Public Domain, most in Mpeg2

Prelinger Archives – 1,975 items
https://www.archive.org/details/prelinger
Has a host of “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films, examples:
Duck and Cover
Are You Popular?
Girls Beware
Boys Beware
Great color in:
American Engineer (Part I-IV)
American Look (Part I-III)
That Junior Miss Spirit (Part I & II)
The Story of a Star
Vision in the Forest (Country Singer Vaughn Monroe and family meets Smokey the Bear)
Roads to Romance: The Santa Cruz Trail and Land of the Giant Cactus
Freedom Highway
Amateur films of World’s Fairs (USA) in beautiful Kodachrome

Feature Film (630 movies) section (buttons at top) with:
https://www.archive.org/details/feature_films
She Gods of Shark Reef
Night of the Living Dead
Little Shop of Horrors (the original)
Metropolis
Charlie Chaplain
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
M (German)
(Color)
Hercules
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Under the Twelve Mile Reef
The Big trees (KirkDouglas in the Redwoods)
Captain Calamity (South Seas)
Royal Wedding
and Popeye, Superman and Betty Boop
and more

Cinemocracy
https://www.archive.org/details/cinemocracy
13 “Why We Fight” movie from WWII
directors: John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, and William Wyler

Film Chest Vintage Cartoons – 59 items
https://www.archive.org/details/classic_cartoons
Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman and Bugs Bunny

AV Geeks – 95 items
https://www.archive.org/details/avgeeks
More Geeky Stuff:
Soapy the Germ Fighter
Private SNAFU-Booby Trap (Seuss as a GI, yes boobies)
VD is for everybody
Beginning Responsibility: Lunchroom manners
Drugs are like that

SabuCat Movie Trailers – 102 items
https://www.archive.org/details/sabucat_trailers
Bring Up Baby
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Day the Earth Stood Still
Amazing Transparent Man

Universal Newsreels – 601 items
produced from 1929 to 1967

[Mike Clasby]

You might checkout “Fisheye”, one of

Pete’s Plugins (free).

https://www.petewarden.com/index.htm

[Mike Clasby]

They might mean the new Smart Blur filter. It’s an integral part of my favorite Photoshop Action, “Lawtoon”. Bt Lawtoon (available at Adobe Studio Exchange) uses “Paint Daubs”, Accent Edges” and “Diffuse”, none of which are on AE.

[Mike Clasby]

If you go with the follow the leader and you don’t want the layers to colloapse when they arrive at their destination you might look at Dan’s expression page:
https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/follow-the-leader.

Another way to go is to construct the basic dragon is go to Dan’s tut “Animating a Walk-Cycle” (Click on his had above then scroll down).

Then precompose that and the use Distort > Wave Warp on the Precomp (all properties to new comp) layer. It’s easier to see what your doing if you drag the old comp by the tab off to one side so you have both the comp and precomp windows are open at the same time, then any changes in the precomp can be seen in the comp without so much clicking around. Anyway, by animating the wave height in the comp (low>higher>low), while at the same time animating the position in the precomp, gives a pretty nice slinky effect. Sounds confusing but it’s not really.

[Mike Clasby]

If you go with the follow the leader and you don’t want the layers to colloapse when they arrive at their destination you might look at Dan’s expression page:
https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/follow-the-leader.

Another way to go is to construct the basic dragon is go to Dan’s tut “Animating a Walk-Cycle” (Click on his had above then scroll down).

Then precompose that and the use Distort > Wave Warp on the Precomp (all properties to new comp) layer. It’s easier to see what your doing if you drag the old comp by the tab off to one side so you have both the comp and precomp windows are open at the same time, then any changes in the precomp can be seen in the comp without so much clicking around. Anyway, by animating the wave height in the comp (low>higher>low), while at the same time animating the position in the precomp, gives a pretty nice slinky effect. Sounds confusing but it’s not really.

[Mike Clasby]

Maybe there is a third party out there, I most just have the AE plugs.

[Mike Clasby]

Maybe there is a third party out there, I most just have the AE plugs.

[Mike Clasby]

Well, you’re right, but there’s always (usually) a way in AE.

Layer > Auto-Trace (drop the Tolerance and Threshold down to about 1) gives you a mask, lickity-split. (Skip a few paragraphs if you don’t have Auto-trace).

Add Stroke.

Render > Scribble also give you edge options for wiggly wider edges.

My fav with a mask is Render > Audio Waveform. (Nice round edges)
Check the Composite on (at the bottom), Audio Layer > Choose a layer WITHOUT sound for a solid (quiet) line, or use an audio layer if you want the outline to wiggle with the beat.
Path > Mask, Displayed samples – up this to cover the outline, animate this to have the outline draw itself on in a really cool way, surprised I don’t see this used.
Waveform Options > Analog Line (default). Anyway this makes for wild outlines.
You can control, Inner and Outter Color, softness, thikness. (Add Glow and maybe a wiggle expression on softness for a neon look)

So without masks (no Auto-trace) you can use:
Stylize > Roughen Edges (choose Roughen Color with Fractal Influence down to 0,Border about 0.5 (this needs to be low because the Roughen eats into the image,
Fractal Influence 0. This give a very fine outline on the INSIDE of the alpha image, it eats in. It can be nice for say a cartoon outline when a layer of the same color – say a hand of the same color as the body passes in front
of the other, gives it a different outline so they don’t blend into the same color, yikes too much info here, but I just did it on a cartoon hand over cartoon body).

Also without mask, try Render > Vegas (with Selected Contours (1 usually gives you the outside), and Rendering>Start, Mid-point, and End Opacity all set to 100%, crank the Width up a bit, choose a color. This works better than you might think and is the sole option if you can Auto-trace to make your mask(s).

Use both of the above if you want a two color outline, or two close together colors that blend into a softer feathery edge.

Otherwise its generate a path in PS then imoprt into AE for a mask.

Wow, this just shows how far I’llgo to avoid working on my project, and with a deadline looming no less. Bad.

[Mike Clasby]

Well, you’re right, but there’s always (usually) a way in AE.

Layer > Auto-Trace (drop the Tolerance and Threshold down to about 1) gives you a mask, lickity-split. (Skip a few paragraphs if you don’t have Auto-trace).

Add Stroke.

Render > Scribble also give you edge options for wiggly wider edges.

My fav with a mask is Render > Audio Waveform. (Nice round edges)
Check the Composite on (at the bottom), Audio Layer > Choose a layer WITHOUT sound for a solid (quiet) line, or use an audio layer if you want the outline to wiggle with the beat.
Path > Mask, Displayed samples – up this to cover the outline, animate this to have the outline draw itself on in a really cool way, surprised I don’t see this used.
Waveform Options > Analog Line (default). Anyway this makes for wild outlines.
You can control, Inner and Outter Color, softness, thikness. (Add Glow and maybe a wiggle expression on softness for a neon look)

So without masks (no Auto-trace) you can use:
Stylize > Roughen Edges (choose Roughen Color with Fractal Influence down to 0,Border about 0.5 (this needs to be low because the Roughen eats into the image,
Fractal Influence 0. This give a very fine outline on the INSIDE of the alpha image, it eats in. It can be nice for say a cartoon outline when a layer of the same color – say a hand of the same color as the body passes in front
of the other, gives it a different outline so they don’t blend into the same color, yikes too much info here, but I just did it on a cartoon hand over cartoon body).

Also without mask, try Render > Vegas (with Selected Contours (1 usually gives you the outside), and Rendering>Start, Mid-point, and End Opacity all set to 100%, crank the Width up a bit, choose a color. This works better than you might think and is the sole option if you can Auto-trace to make your mask(s).

Use both of the above if you want a two color outline, or two close together colors that blend into a softer feathery edge.

Otherwise its generate a path in PS then imoprt into AE for a mask.

Wow, this just shows how far I’llgo to avoid working on my project, and with a deadline looming no less. Bad.