[Ross Gerbasi]

hey tony,

Sorry about the delay here ya go. Please lemme know if you have any problems! We want to try to make this as useful as possible.

If anyone is looking to move projects from final cut to after effects please give this a try and lemme know what results you have. Thanks!

Application
https://www.popcornisland.com/downloads

Tutorial on this is here
https://www.popcornisland.com/tutorials

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

I have been writing a stand alone script fcp2ae for work that we do with the HVX 200. The script is actually done, I just haven’t had a damn free second to post it up. I will this weekend for sure though.

It supports DV, DV anamorphic and DVCPROHD.

It supports nested sequences, and converts them into nested compositions.

It will bring across final cuts basic key frames such as position, opacity and rotation. Then to cap it all off it will also bring in your timing changes, if you have remapped the speed of any of your footage.

Also, for DV people, it supports segments if you use DV Start/Stop detection, like I do :).

Sorry for the teaser post… but I will respond back this weekend when I get a second to breathe. I will post the script and a tutorial on how it works…

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

oh man linear… duh… so much smarter… go with this one.

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

Here ya go, this isn’t marker based, but time based. So change the “fade_in_time” and “fade_out_time” to whatever you want, they are in seconds. So in this case it will take 1 second from the inPoint to fade in, and 1 second from the outpoint to fade out

var fade_in_time = 1;
var fade_out_time = 1;
var ratio = 1;

if(time <= inPoint + fade_in_time){ ratio = (time - inPoint) / fade_in_time }else if(time >= outPoint – fade_out_time){
ratio =Math.abs((time – outPoint) / fade_out_time);
}

100 * ratio;

————-
If you really wanna be organized I would create two sliders on a Null layer. Then parent the values to those sliders. That way you can use the same expression on as many layers as u want, and have global control over the fading. The expression would look like this. If you named your null “Fade Controller” and the sliders “Fade In Time” and “Fade Out Time”

var fade_in_time = thisComp.layer(“Fade Controller”).effect(“Fade In Time”)(“Slider”)
var fade_out_time = thisComp.layer(“Fade Controller”).effect(“Fade Out Time”)(“Slider”)
var ratio = 1;

if(time <= inPoint + fade_in_time){ ratio = (time - inPoint) / fade_in_time }else if(time >= outPoint – fade_out_time){
ratio =Math.abs((time – outPoint) / fade_out_time);
}

100 * ratio;

hope this helps
-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

Not sure what your doing with the 3D Text, but if your up for doing the work outside of AE,

you could check out Swift
https://www.erain.com/Products/swift3d/

I also know a recent (5+) copy of Maya will use the ravix engine for vector output to SWF.

If your up for some experimental programming you can always hit up papervision also 🙂

Otherwise you will probably just wanna stick with something like ProAnimator and export to FLV for flash.

[Ross Gerbasi]

Yeah…. Even though it wasn’t “tested” everything in After Effects CS3 seems to be working great for me, and nucleo.

Mac Pro 2.66 Quad Xeon, running Leapord

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

bLend it.. I am stupid… sorry about that

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

hmmm not exactly sure what this tool does, but it sounds like the CS3 puppet tool maybe helpful…

or I could be totally off…

-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

We just did a huge project over 500 clips all moving from AE into Flash.

We used JPEG 2000, 100% quality, Millions+ and Straight unmatted. You wanna make sure you keep it straight so you don’t have your background color bleeding over when you come into flash.

hope that helps!
-ross

[Ross Gerbasi]

Dave thanks for posting! 🙂 I know I am new here and some of your posts have saved me a crap load of time. Your totally right, but I was really just looking for a solution to the problem.

Actually it ended up being quicker to just do it that way, the old copy, color and flip.

BUT for anyone wondering. I did find a solution.

Start with
Some comp with a 3d character or something that you want to cast shadows.
New White Solid.
Make it 3d.
Make a light.
On your character set the material options to Cast Shadows and not to accept light or shadows.
Set the white solid to accept shadows, not lights and not cast shadows.
Position in the scene as a floor and Pre-Comp as Floor.
Collapse Transforms
Inside Floor comp set mode to Silhoutte Luma
Back in the main comp make sure you have some background behind the floor. (Black Solid will do it)

The Siloutte Luma will cut into the Black Solid giving you transparency with just a shadow. If you need other parts of your scene rendered just go back into the floor clip and create more white solids to take up space.

Your layers should look like this
Main Comp
Light
Character
Floor Comp
Black Solid

Floor Comp
White Solid for Floor (silhoutte luma)
Other Solid for wall
…

🙂 Hope this makes sense, and I know its madness… So honestly Black solid and feather mask is a good solution 🙂 Or Copy comp, tweak and blur… But for those as crazy as me… here is a trick.

thanks
-ross