[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Essentially AE has a rendering order and precomping allows for manouvering around a few limitations that this render order forces on the user. So grouping may actually create more problems than you’d expect.

And the reason why we have a Rendering Order is because compositing applications work better if they work in a non-destructive environment. Non-destructive compositing is crucial as you add stuff, change your mind etc etc etc.

Cheers
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Heh Dude! Haven’t seen you here for a while. I can’t dissect the Expression in under 10 minutes and it’s sleep time but it looks like you can precomp the two groups since layer 1 and 14 are independent of each other.

Or you could simply remove the expression for layer 14 and keyframe that. And use the expression for layers 15-26 – if I’m understanding your purpose for all of this correctly.

HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Heh Dude! Haven’t seen you here for a while. I can’t dissect the Expression in under 10 minutes and it’s sleep time but it looks like you can precomp the two groups since layer 1 and 14 are independent of each other.

Or you could simply remove the expression for layer 14 and keyframe that. And use the expression for layers 15-26 – if I’m understanding your purpose for all of this correctly.

HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Not too sure if FLash outputs to image sequences and/or QT but if it does either then look for one that supports 32-bit. If this is impossible then render your stuff to white and with a black background. Then in AE, use the Shift Channels plugin and set the Alpha to an appropriate setting. Then apply TInt to color to taste.

Cheers
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Yup. 6.5 was the last occurrence of the AE/Zax Classic bundle.

Cheers
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Levels] “One other thing to point out is that a realistic bubble has a significant amount of relection on it. If possible you may consider locating a friend/place with 3D capabilities. Just a suggestions.”

Foam does include a reflection parameter, great physics. Works great, renders fast. The only thing I hate about it is that it doesn’t handle time sampling of the custome bubbles very well. It uses a simple (dumb) time sample of the custom bubble (any layer in the same comp); to the extent that all the particles look alike, except for shape and rotational values. But for bubbles, they’ll work.

Cheers
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Finster] “So it is okay to mix different PARs, as long as they’re interpreted correctly – I can drop my non-square PAR 720×480 QT movies into my square PAR 720×534 AE comp (the TIFFs & other files are all squared & 720×534 as well … only the QT is non-square & 720×480)?”

Yup. Just ensure to stretch the non-square PAR layer to fit the domensions of the square PAR comp.

If you’re ever unsure, you can easily create a perfect circle on a square PAR image (720×534 in your case) and use that as a starting point for all your tests.

[Finster] “My 3D software will only allow me to render 30fps.”
As long as you’rem not having to time-match to any other frame from another footage then the slight descrepancy between 29.97 and 30 fps is largely negligible.

Just do everything in AE. I don’t use FCP so I can’t say one way or another to this Q.

Good Luck
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Finster] “Ultimately I want to render all of this to FCP. Should I leave it up to FCP to convert everything DV 720×480?”

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Always interpret the footage with their inherent PARs. When working with footage with different PARs, always work in square PAR comps. Should you need to render to a non-square PAR, then precomp the square PAR ocmp into a non-square PAR comp at the final step and render away.

As for the different fps, I suggest you interpret the fps for your 3D rendered stuff as 29.97 – assuming that you final render will be at 29.97.

HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

6.5 should do the trick. As far as power goes, go for the bestest available and 4 GB of RAM would be good. Learn to work with proxies, I’ve been saying this a lot lately.
Keep your old machines for setting up render farms.
HTH
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

There are occasions when it gets in the way and that’s where the Tab key comes in handy. Hiding or showing it is a matter of using the Tab key. Lots of power there.

Cheers
Roland Kahlenberg
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files