Simon Bonner
Forum Replies Created
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The easiest way to find the correct layer, I’ve found, it to make a note of the time it appears in premiere, and then move your current time indicator to the same time in your main comp in AE. Then just scroll down (use the spacebar to give you the hand tool) the timeline panel to find the layer(s) that is/are on that time.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
First of all, you might as well leave ther audio well alone. AE is not the programme with which you want to work on audio.
To get started, find the composition in your project panel that shares the name of your timeline in prem. They are essentially the same thing. Open it up and you will see all the different clips you edited out in prem on their own separate layer. This can seem a bit disorganised at first, but it’s just something you need to get used to. You can work on collections of clips by selecting them all in the timeline panel and precomposing them (search in help for precomposing & nesting in AE help, or watch Aharon’s podcast on the subject here at the Cow). Then you can add effects to the precomp, which will affect all the clips within it. Or to add effects to all the layers below a certain point in the stack, insert an adjustment layer and add the effects to that layer alone.
Also, bear in mind that AE will interpret visual fades as keyframes in the opacity values for the layers, so this is what you need to leave (the solids folder will be full of your audio fades, which you might as well bin as you shouldn’t need them in AE anyway).
Finally, be aware that AE doesn’t recognise everything from prem. I still use AE7 and prem2 mostly, and if I horizontally flip a clip in prem and then import the project into AE, AE just resets the flip so I have to do it again if I want to keep it. The same may be true for other manipulations.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
It looks like the footage has first been time remapped to go slow while the surfer is in the air. Then the footage has been duplicated and the top layer, the ‘surfer layer’, has had the background masked out by masking around the surfer. Then, while the surfer is slowed down, the bottom layer is pulled off to the left (the part of the sky where the surfer would be has either been painted over with blue, or else is masked out and a clean sky plate is place below it) while a mirror image of it comes in from the right. This may also fly off to the left, followed by another mirror image which, when it maps up with the surfer’s position, is the cue for the surfer to go to normal speed again.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Ok, maybe there’s a better way to do this with expressions, but you could just assemble the collage how you want it, set keyframes for position, then go back a few seconds and just adjust the Z position to where you want it pre-assembly. I imagine switching the camera to top view will make this easier, as will initially moving the layers in blocks (20 of ’em to 60, another 20 to 80, etc, then shifting them apart slightly).
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Are you navigating the buttons on your PC with a mouse, i.e. pointing at them? Try using your cursor keys and see what happens.
What it could be is that the buttons don’t know where you should go if you hit left/right/up/down. In the preview panel, select the option to show you where the buttons point.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Crap! That’s a looming deadline all right!
Don’t worry, Encore is very easy to use. You just need to render out your videos and import them. Then select each one and make a timeline for it. DVD plays timelines, not videos, if that makes sense. So you need to put each of your videos into a timeline and link to that with your buttons.
You’ll also need to set an end action for the timelines, which by the sound of it would need to be “return to last menu”. That way the DVD player knows what should happen when the videos finish.
The background of your menu can be imported as a psd and used in conjunction with one of Encore’s library of menus.
What do you mean by the video needs “internal links”? You’ll have to fill me in on what exactly you want to happen here, as I don’t quite understand.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Maltaannon demonstrates a set of plugins that I think you haven’t mentioned here: check out his tutorial near the top of the list at maltaannon.com.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
You could even transcode the menu vid ahead of time in encore and then delete the 2gb original, as after transcode encore links only to that version.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
You would need to motion track his finger (which might be difficult if his finger is moving against a non-uniform background like a greenscreen, but not impossible), then apply the track to a null object. If you’re not clear on tracking at all, you could follow the tutorial on it at my youtube page (link below). Remember that you don’t need to track rotation – so don’t check that box in the tracker window. Only use a single track point. The next thing you would need to do is to make the start point of the lightning equal the position of the null object (i.e. the fingertip). Off the top of my head I can’t recall if the lightening effect has a start point property. If it does, alt-click on the stopwatch and pickwhip the position property of the null. That should do it.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
It depends how you’re planning to deliver the file. If it’s by DVD, for example, you could place all the individual files in the same timeline or in separate timelines in a single chapter playlist (I’m talking about in Encore here, but presumably other DVD software works in a similar fashion). That way they would play as though they were one video. It would also allow you to skip to specific chapters if you didn’t want to have to watch the whole three hours in one go.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX