[Steve Roberts]

You should select the mask shape property, copy, then select the light position property and paste. Does that work?

[Steve Roberts]

Use a 720p preset for the comp.

It’s not the comp size, it’s the apparent layer size.
If the layer appears bigger than its original size (1:1), it will pixellate. If you enlarge it by scaling it up or by zooming in on it, it will pixellate if you go far enough.

For example: In a 720p comp, a 640×360 layer can only fill a quarter of the screen before you risk pixellation. In practice, you can make it look maybe 120% larger before you start to see pixellation. If you view the layer at a very oblique angle, the portions of the image that appear much bigger than original size will pixellate.

To see how this works, you may want to drag a copy of the source into the comp and leave it at 2D for comparison. Then you can see how much its 3D version (apparently) enlarges when you zoom in on it.

So to recap: it doesn’t matter if you zoom in or scale up a layer. If you make it *appear* much bigger than 1:1, it will pixellate.

By the way, for Illustrator layers, use the Continuous Rasterization switch. Check the Help.

[Steve Roberts]

Are you using the render queue by using composition>make movie, or composition>add to render queue? If not, you should.

[Steve Roberts]

If you mean “does it use multiprocessing on a dual-quad”, then the answer is yes. It treats it as an eight-core.

[Steve Roberts]

Search the COW for “flag”. You could look for a tut by Kathlyn, or the Zaxwerks Flag plugin.

[Steve Roberts]

Okay, Try doing what I did. One layer, one comp. Drag the footage into the comp, then apply Sphere, Grow Bounds, then Shine. If it doesn’t work, can you post a screengrab of the timeline, comp window and effects palette?

[Steve Roberts]

Yeah. Like I said. Twice before. 😉

[Steve Roberts]

If you look at the effects palette (the effects applied to the layer used as the texture for the sphere), here’s what I have, top-to-bottom:

CC sphere
Grow bounds
Shine

It’s one layer in one comp. AE 7.

[Steve Roberts]

You can use one of the wipe effects (under “transitions”) and use your flying carrot over that to hide the wipe.

[Steve Roberts]

I found that using Grow Bounds set to a high number, applied before Shine in the layer stack worked. Like Dave’s solution.