[Sanspoof]

Check out the minimum system requirements for after effects version you are going to use on adobe’s website. Then compare with your specs. You probably are fine. After effects works with a wide range of hardware… it’s just not going to render fast or other things fast if you have a slower computer.

whelp, good luck.
peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Read this article about good grazing, I think it’s great!

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/battistella_david/good_grazing/index.html

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

It was sort of unclear in the post, and this might be besides the point, but you can export to flash format directly from after effects.

Go file>export>flash (.swf)

This will bring up a window that will let you mess with the quality and the bitrate at which will play. Hopefully you can settle on a compromise that suits you.

Hope I could help a little.
peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Yes it does make sense. There are only 2 things I can’t think of that might be the case.

First is if the caps lock key is on (press it a couple times and fiddle). If it is, the video moniter will only update after you release the mouse from the slider. This option is useful if you have a low end pc and are working with really intensive effects… otherwise the system would keep freezing and going reeeeeeaaallly slooowwww.

The second option could be if you have the opengl static textures mode selected for previewing your video. In the video moniter there is a button called ‘fast previews’. When clicked it brings up a drop down box with a bunch of options. I have mine set to ‘adaptive resolution’, but you might have yours set to ‘opengl static textures’. At least the same symptoms happen for me when I’m in that mode.

Hope I could help.
peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Whelp, first make sure the layer you are casting the shadow onto is close enough and your light is aimed correctly (simple stuff but had to include it). Also make sure you’re not in wireframe in the monitor window.

What about the color of the light you are casting… maybe that’s an issue?

But for shadows to work you need to make all of your layers that you are casting shadows with into 3d layers and make sure all of their material options have accept and cast shadows turned on as needed. This and object allignment are most likely the problem unless there is some serious software/hardware problem.

Maybe I helped a little.
peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Once you turn it into a grayscale I’m pretty sure all you need to do is set it as a trackmatte… as long as you have the right layer order things should work out.

trackmatte (grayscale ripples)
video 1
video 2

On the video 1 layer under the “modes” column you can select trackmatte from a drop down box and specify your grayscale ripples layer as (in this case) a luma track matte. This should cut all the way through to the video 2 layer so you can make your transition.

Hope this helps.
peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

If I’m not mistaken 3gp is a file format specifically for mobile phones and other small handheld devices. You’re better off sticking to flash (.swf) as I don’t know of another format that’s going to give you the quality and size that flash does…

and you did say banner as in for web so… I don’t know.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Well, you can always turn off opengl preview in the moniter window, can’t you?

Sorry, don’t have AE7 but good luck.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

Maybe it is the split screen… turn it off in the after effects options and see. If you can’t get into after effects to turn it off without it crashing, try resetting the preferences completely by holding ctrl+shift+alt on startup of after effects. It will confirm if you want to reset the preferences or not.

After effects 6.0 works great, when it works great… though I’ve had a couple really odd and puzzling conundrums now and then. Like once I couldn’t open any projects cause they would crash. Solution? I created a new blank project and unchecked the opengl preview button in the monitor window… and voilla! It worked from there on out, even when I turned opengl preview back on.

hopefully something works and you get back on your feet.

peace,
Michael

[Sanspoof]

When you import your graphic that you made in photoshop into after effects… if you don’t see the transparency right then and there, there is likely something wrong with it.

When I save from photoshop I save as a .tiff and make sure the checkmark ‘include alpha layer’ is checked. Then when I open it in after effects the interpret footage box comes up and I usually hit guess for how it interprets the alpha channel–usually works just fine. At that point if I don’t see the transparancy then and there, I musta did something wrong.

particle playground will use the alpha channel from your graphic only if the graphic is properly interpreted (ctrl+F) and there is an alpha channel saved with the file in the first place.

peace,
Michael