[Steve Roberts]

No. AE cannot bend a layer in 3-space without Forge Freeform, which maps the layer onto a NURBS patch, if I recall.

However … if you want to map the layer to a really big cylinder, AE 6.5 can do that with the perspective>CC Cylinder effect, one of the Cycore filters installed from the AE CD. There are also other third-party cylinder plugins from Conoa and Boris.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Your layers should be stacked top-to-bottom in the timeline thusly:

A
B
C

Does that help?

By the way, have you read the manual? You seem to have some experience with other apps and are attempting to apply it without reading the AE manual first. Just a thought. 🙂

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

There is no such format. You can best approach a filmic look on video by doing all of these:

1) shooting progressive, not interlaced (avoid frame mode)
2) shooting at 24 or 25 frames per second
3) watching your zebras (or levels) when shooting to avoid blowing out your whites
4) shooting in a filmic manner: smooth, careful, no zooms, no shake
5) using ND filters to attempt to approximate the shallow depth of field of the larger format
6) cooking your footage using a “film look” recipe found by searching the COW archives, or with a FilmLook or Cinelook plugin.

Note how only one of those steps involved post-production.

Your format will be determined by your budget and the format of whatever camera you can get that will shoot Progressive. If you have the budget for HD, go ahead.

For more info, you should search the COW’s Cinematography forum, probably using “film look” as a search phrase.

Anybody else want to weigh in?
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

… as a separate install from the CD. Look for the Cycore effects.

They don’t come with the educational version of AE.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

No, except to enlarge the image after stabilizing.

To stabilize the image, it has to be moved in the opposite direction. This reveals the edge of the image. If you think about it, the only way AE could avoid showing the edge would be to automatically generate new scenery at the edge of the frame, and that’s impossible for a computer to do unless the scenery at the edges consists of a solid colour.

So if you have solid blue sky at the edges, you might be able to do it, possibly by cloning it yourself before you apply the stabilizer.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Have you tried uninstalling both, then installing them into separate directories, named for the specific version?

I’ve never had problems with multiple versions in separate diectories.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Yep. If you try to animate orientation from 0 to 270 degrees, the object will go backwards 90 degrees, taking the shortest path. If you animate orientation from 0 to 360 degrees, it will not rotate at all.

… and Chris and Trish (through isaac) are righteous.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Or at least, Quicktime 6.5. 🙂

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Have you clicked the little “safe area” button at the bottom of the comp window? Or have you checked out the little triangle menu at the top right of the comp window?

If all else fails, search the help for “safe”.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Select the segment (to be deleted) between two mask points, the select layer>mask>open (or closed), if I recall.

Steve