[Paul Roper]

As Frank said, you’ve probably got ‘Track Fields’ switched on. It’s in the Options… of the Tracker dialog box. I just did a quick test (with progressive footage – it doesn’t matter) and switched ‘Track Fields’ on, and lo and behold – keyframes every half frame.

For tracking, make sure your comp is set to exactly whatever your source footage is. Worry about all that framerate and pulldown nonsense in your next step(s).

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

It really depends on what the object is. If it’s a simple shape, like a mobile phone or a box, you could model it in After Effects (assuming you’re on CS6) using the built-in 3D tools. If you’ve got the Element plug-in from videocopilot.net, you can import an OBJ (3D model of anything) that you can then animate.

Presumably the motion is going to be very fast – I’m guessing about 10 frames or less – so you can add a decent amount of motion blur and get away with the model not being totally perfect.

Make sure when you animate the move, you animate the model’s z-position, not the scale.

You might want to find a stock photo of a piece of shattered glass (like the spider-web break you see on a car windscreen after an accident) and comp it on to simulate a broken camera lens after the hit.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

If you DO need to use raytraced 3D, firstly make sure your composition’s raytracing quality (comp settings > Advanced > Options) is as low as you can tolerate. I think the default value is 4. This will make a huge difference to your render times. Then make sure your 3D layers have as much turned off as possible in the Material Options (eg. Casts Shadows, Accepts Shadows, etc.). If something’s shadow is not visible, turn it off. If the light hitting it is not adding anything to the look, turn off Accepts Lights. Just keep turning stuff off – hopefully you can get away with reducing some of the effort needed to render it without sacrificing noticeable image quality.

As I’m sure you’re aware, AE consumes vast amounts of RAM and processors for breakfast – the system you’re using is very underpowered. And raytraced 3D is really only feasible if you have a hugely powerful graphics card in your machine* (AE can then offload the rendering to the multiple GPUs on the card) which that MacBook Pro won’t have.

*Even then, it’s still painfully slow compared to a dedicated 3D app like Maya or Cinema 4D.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Hmmm….I just tried using it, and couldn’t get it to NOT work.

Forgive me for possibly stating the bleedin’ obvious, but:

I assume that your “take matte from layer” layer does actually have an alpha channel?

Have you switched off the layer with the matte, so you can see the “good” layer which might be hidden behind it?

The effect works differently from the usual track matte, in that it makes the matte move WITH the layer.

Have you randomly tried switching on/off the Invert Matte, Stretch Matte options?

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Yep – it’s the same if I use the icons at the bottom of the comp window.

[Paul Roper]

Try directly changing the rotation of the camera under its Transform section (just like you’d rotate any other layer) rather than using the orbit tool.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Depth of Field effects do not show up in Draft 3D, only if you’ve got the Fast Previews set to ‘Off (Final Quality)’ or ‘Adaptive Resolution’. Draft 3D is just that – a quick & nasty version without stuff like anti-aliasing, shadows, reflections or depth of field.

Note that is you’re using the ‘Classic 3D’ renderer, you’ll have to use mush larger values for the Aperture and Blur Level camera settings than if you’re using ‘Raytraced 3D’.

Crank the camera settings to some crazy values like a 400-pixel aperture and a blur level of 800% to check if your depth of field is working, then refine it to a more sensible level. Don’t forget the invaluable select an object AND a camera, then right-click to select ‘set focus to layer’.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

Could you just animate the position and scale of the portion of video for, say, 2 seconds before the start of the warp stabilized footage to match (by eye)?

So you’d have a position & scale keyframe 2 secs before the warp stabilization section starts, then another position & scale keyframe 1 frame before the warp stabilization section starts, where you’ve scaled/positioned the outgoing footage to match the first frame of the warp stabilized footage. Wow, that sounds kinda confusing. But it’s very simple really!

There doesn’t seem to be a simple ‘amount of stabilisation’ control on the warp stab. effect – it’s all or nothing.

Hope that helps.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

If you’re running After Effects CS6, check that you’re creating your RAM preview with the Fast Previews set to “Off (Final Quality)”. If you’re looking at your comp in any other mode (eg. Fast Draft), you’re not seeing what your final render will be.

Try switching your comp’s settings between Ray-traced 3D and Classic 3D to see if that makes any difference. Some effects behave unexpectedly when using Ray-traced 3D.

– Paul

[Paul Roper]

I’m on 10.7.5

– Paul