[Sanspoof]

What you want to do is called parenting. Create a null object layer and parent the layers you want to be affected to the null object layer.

Then when you scale the null object layer the others will follow suit without changing their individual scale values.
peace,

Michael

[Sanspoof]

So what format is the 720p footage in? Cause I notice that if it’s in some flavors of mpeg (no matter the size of the material) AE get’s really slow for me.

But otherwise I am fine, and you have way better specs than I do.

[Sanspoof]

Another way to play the audio is if you hit the period/del key on the numpad (right next to 0, the ram preview button), it will act just like a ram preview, but will only play the audio.

You might already know this but I thought I’d share.

But if you really want to work with audio a lot, I’ve heard time and again that it’s best to use a seperate program devoted to audio rather than AE (such as audition).

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Yes, I know that it is possible.
There is an auto-orient button/property somewhere.

Ah, found it. Have the camera you want to use actice (selected as the view you see in the monitor window). Then select the layers you want pointed to the camera and hit Ctrl+Alt+O (or layer>transform>auto-orient).

Play around with that and it should do what you want.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

So it’s late, and I’m not quite sure I followed everything… but can you do some sort or precomposing and then set the mode for the pre-comp to something that will drop out the black and place your backround under it?

And if you’re worried about the guy being somewhat transparent, you could always turn a copy of your guy footage to a solid white and use it as an alpha matte instead… right?

Maybe someone else has a better idea.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Will precomposing B&1 (1 is still set to screen) while having 2 outside and set to screen work?

I don’t really know, and don’t have time to check.

later,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Time stretch and then frame blending???

You can time stretch a clip however much you want, and then by turning on frame blending it will smooth together. And depending how much you time stretched the clip, the more blurry the effect frame blending has when it smoothes it all down… I believe.

Timestretch can be found in Layer>timestretch… or on your timeline by adding the duration panel and then clicking on the clip length to bring up the timestretch window.

Frame blending in uneder the switches section of your timeline; check the box. Note: the bigger frame blending button next to motion blur and soloing is for preview of layers you’ve already checked frame blending for; so you can basically preview the frame blending when you hit num0.

Or if you actually want an 8fps jerkiness you could precompose your footage and then for the precomp layer press ctrl+k and set the frame rate to 8 (correct me if I’m wrong).

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

First, you import your footage into after effects through File>Import>file… (Ctrl+i).

Then drag the footage into the timeline and above the footage you want the transition to work on.

Check the trackmatte box in the modes section in the timeline for your black & white footage. Then, for the footage layer under your trackmatte, select the trackmatte dropdown box and choose lumamatte or inverted lumamatte depending on what you want and how you set up your layers.

That should be what you’re looking for.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Actually from what I gather, AE is going to look smoother in the end if you turn on motion blending. That is unless premiere has motion blending as well, which I am not familiar with.

Michael

[Sanspoof]

What you most likely want to do is use your alpha matte layer as a track matte for the original footage.

have your alpha video layer(or whatever) above the footage layer you want trackmatted in the timeline. Select the trackmatte checkbox for the footage layer and select your alpha layer from the drop down menu.

That should be it. This only works if you have a seperate alpha layer video and your seperate footage layer. But if you have other configurations there are always many different ways… so play around with it.

peace,
Michael