[Steve Roberts]

Distortion is necessary, and I’m not optimistic about the results. Why? Look at the legs. The forward leg is longer than the rear leg. If you flop the image on the X axis, the forward leg is still longer. Connect the forward feet (original + reflected) and the rear feet are way too far apart. The problem lies in the fact that onscreen, the Y-positions of the feet are different. The fact that they’re both touching the same floor is irrelevant.

Why do we think reflecting in post would work? Because we’re imagining footage shot directly from the side, where there’s no difference in the Y-position of both feet. Now that would work. Technically, it would only be dead accurate if the camera were at floor level, but that would be picky.

All that said, try Distort>Transform and skewing. You might try the Puppet tool.

Personally, I’d convince the client to lose the effect. But if you said you could do it, you have to bite the bullet and make it work, or lose face.

[Steve Roberts]

Gpt a screenshot of the ugly shot in the AE UI, also showing the data for the clip as seen up in the Project window?

[Steve Roberts]

a) Interpret the footage and make sure that field separation is off.
b) Pixel aspect ratio correction (in the comp window) can sometimes pixellate things. Switch it off if it bothers you, but it won’t affect the render.

Did either of those work?

[Steve Roberts]

I would make the two keys (0, then 1x, easing the second key) then apply this:

loopOut(type = “cycle”, numKeyframes = 0)

Try it and let us know …

[Steve Roberts]

Here’s the link for those who can’t see:
https://www.youtube.com/v/Nfc9GLxlhEw

Yeah, all the guys were roto’ed.
https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=6611

[Steve Roberts]

Are you trying to save to different locations? Maybe the saving drive is messed up? Try an external drive, even a flash drive?

… and system data, please. OS, computer, where you’re saving, AE version.
Also, what kind of codecs are you rendering to? Or what kind of files are you exporting to?
Also, have you made any system changes recently?

[Steve Roberts]

Yep. Ask the editor who’s getting your stuff. Frame rate, frame size, codec, pixel aspect ratio, delivery medium, progressive or interlaced.

… don’t ask the client. 😉 … unless it’s to get the editor’s contact information.

[Steve Roberts]

I render out of AE (picky, picky) to the Animation codec, then use Quicktime Player to export that clip to DVCPROHD for FCP editing.

Rendering to DVCPROHD straight out of AE has resulted in less-than-optimal clips for me. (shrug)

[Steve Roberts]

Thanks, Todd.

[Steve Roberts]

Is one of your keys (alt/shift?) stuck?