[Ridley Walker]

It may be the MXF format that’s causing the issues. Premiere (or FCPX) will handle it natively, I think that After Effects doesn’t like the long GOP MPEG format and prefers full frames to work with. Try transcoding the footage to ProRes or something similar (DnXHD perhaps).

[Ridley Walker]

[Andreas Sizynski] “Thing is, I found the “gradient” button, but I have not found an “animate gradient” option.
“

In the method Todd describes you would adjust the gradient opacity stops to your liking and animate either the Start or End Points and perhaps the Colors.

One issue is that converting the text to outlines means you need to put all the characters in a Group then add a gradient fill.

[Ridley Walker]

Yes, I’m very impressed.

It showcases the new ray traced engine well.

[Ridley Walker]

These are Easter Eggs (hidden treats) that the developers often include with applications. They are typically discovered by using modifier keys (alt, shift, control, option, Command) when selecting the “About this Application” from the relevant menu.

Select About After Effects with the Control and Alt keys pressed (Command + Option on a Mac)

[Ridley Walker]

Could you achieve what you want with an animated Luma Matte?

Animate a precomposed black to white Ramp and use that as Luma Matte on the text.

[Ridley Walker]

Sony makes several of them that have been reliable. Choose the desired size, features and capacity.

https://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreSearch?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10551&in_dim_search=&Ntk=&Ntx=&Nrt=&Nrr=&Nrk=&Nrm=&keyword=digital+photo+frame

[Ridley Walker]

[Dave LaRonde] “I don’t think any of them are up to the task of playing back video. It may be possible in the future — and a pretty nice thing to give to a client, incidentally — but I seriously doubt it’s possible today.”

Actually Dave, I really, sincerely, hate to contradict you, but some of these devices can and do play video.

They require specific frame dimensions and most play MP4 even at 29.97fps. Check the manufacturer’s specifications.

I’ve done several short videos with sound for clients who use these frames at trade shows, or in waiting rooms, etc. The advantage for the client is that the frames are small, inexpensive and easy to transport.

[Ridley Walker]

[Andreas Sizynski] “”After Effects warning: Bad argument: index 2 out of range for stream of dimension 2
Expression disabled.

Error occurred at line 1.
Comp: “compName
Layer:2 (‘particle2’)
Property:’Position Z'””

My suspicion is that you have not made the Null a 3D layer, so it has no position[2].

Arrays (x,y,z) are counted from 0 as the first position in the array, 1 is the second position in the array and 2 is the third position.

A 2D layer has 2 dimensions, position[0] and position[1].

A 3D layer has 3 dimensions, position[0], position[1], and position[2].

[Ridley Walker]

I’m guessing that you mean the Continuously Rasterize/Collapse Transformations switch in the Timeline.

Its the second half of that pair that may cause position to shift when you invoke it.

See: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7ed7a.html#WS064964FC-424C-4e5a-A5C3-2160B3DFBCA4a

[Ridley Walker]

Particle World does not have a pre-run setting. One way to achieve what you want is to move the particle layer to an earlier start time, eg: 3 or 4 seconds before the Comp start time.

If you have access to Trapcode Particular, it includes a pre-run setting.