Mike Procunier
Forum Replies Created
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I’d make your pre-comp size large enough so that it’s edges don’t appear on screen as it moves?
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Are you exporting or rendering using the Make Movie command? If you use Make Movie (Command-M) you’ll have more output choices, can set up multiple renders at once and won’t forget which settings you used, because you’ll see all of your past renders and settings in the queue.
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How big is your final render? If it plays ok in AE but stutters in your media player, it probably that your computer can’t handle an uncompressed or high data rate file. That’s OK just make a compressed version for previewing/distribution etc.
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Trapcode has a free download called “Pyro Pack” In it are a bunch of fire/explosion comps. If memory serves me correctly there’s a Sparkler comp. If not there’s a sparky explosion that you can tweak to make a sparkler. You’ll need the Particular plugin if you don’t already have it.
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It’s like a zip file. Stuffit will open it.
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Look in the tutorial section for Andrew Kramer’s iPod nano tutorial. That’ll get you started.
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Duplicate the comp by selecting it in the Project Window and hitting Command-D (Mac shortcut, I don’t know the PC shortcut but it’s in the Help file.) Rename it by hitting Enter. Now open the new comp and highlight the layer you’d like to replace. Hold down Option (Mac) Alt(PC) and drag the replacement layer from the Project window to the Comp.
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There’s no compression on the psd sequences, so you’re good to go. I do all of my stuff as psd sequences then convert to uncompressed Blackmagic quicktimes. I believe .tga .bmp .tif & .iff are all uncompressed as well.
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If its going to be a Mac Pro WAIT until AECS3 comes out (they’re saying July) AE7 won’t go full speed on Mac Pro (it runs faster on a G5 quad) and has some memory cache issues. There are workarounds but expect crashes anywhere from a couple times a day, to every 15 minutes, depending on project (spoken from experience) The AE8 Free Preview is really cool and FLIES on an 8-core… seriously, it’s FAST. But it still has a bunch of bugs & doesn’t have a preview of Keylight, Cycore or Color Finesse. They’re good at suggesting workarounds, but it just seems really unpredictable right now. As for your video card: if you’re going to go with Blackmagic, at the very least get the Decklink Extreme HD. The Decklink Extreme (SD version) won’t work on a Mac Pro with more than 2GB of RAM, & if you get an 8-Core you need at least 8GB. Good Luck.
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You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head. I’d use the data from Soundkeys to control the vertical scale of a rectangle shaped matte layer. Make sure the anchor point of the matte is at the bottom & feather the top edge so you don’t see any hard edges as it rises and falls. Use this matte over your gradient. Then put your LED mask on top of everything and set it to Stencil Alpha. If you’re not familiar with Soundkeys try creating a similar matte using the Audio Spectrum effect (in Effects/Generate).