[Rob Kahn]

Trapcode Particular might help. By setting the physics environment to bounce and the collision event to stick you should be able to spray paint.

Here is a link to the tutorial on bounce.

https://www.trapcode.com/in_action/particular_bounce.html

The stick demo is at the end of the tutorial.

R

[Rob Kahn]

There are a number of utilities which allow mac files to be recognized on a PC. They might help. Im not sure if they work through AE. MacDisk and MacOpener come to mind.

In general though, it’s probably best to use web-safe naming conventions for files. We live in a cross platform – cross media – cross program world.

R

[Rob Kahn]

I tried the above technique. Then I precomposed the flame layer with its matte. The flame became opaque, but my edges were heavily premulitplied (black was the background). Change the precomp mode to screen and duplicate the layer until you get the desired opacity of the flame. At some point you start You can change the bottom of the duplicated layers to normal and play with the opacity to harden up the flame a bit

[Rob Kahn]

Precomposing seems to be necessary for time blend too.

[Rob Kahn]

Try animating your ai shape. Then create a precomp of the animated layer. Then apply the echo to the precomp. Audition the different echo operators. Lower the decay down to adjust the fade. Is that on the right path?

[Rob Kahn]

When you put the music on the timeline there are two things you can do. A double L (press L twice quickly) will show you your waveform. With dynamic music this will give you a visual aid for the beat and crescendos. If you hold down the control (command) key while you can scrub the audio. If you hold control (command) while pressing on the mouse you can sample a few frames froom the playhead. If you press the period key on the number pad, you can play just the music. The asterisk key creates a layer marker. If you tap the asterisks key while the music is playing you can mark on the fly. (on the beat, to the sound etc). The layer markers won

[Rob Kahn]

I think this is what you want. Don’t delete the used renders in the render cue window. Rather duplicate them. The new renders will keep the same parameters as before.

[Rob Kahn]

Just a guess, but maybe the AE preferences files didn’t get cleaned. Check in your users files for the your after effects preferences. Delete it. After effects will create a new one next time you launch.