[Steve Roberts]

Currently, the graphics card doesn’t affect AE very much — it’s not the same as working in a 3D app that uses OpenGL effectively. But if you’re considering buying Apple’s Motion, graphics cards (and RAM) mean a lot. The Radeon X800 would be my choice, because it’s fast and only takes up one slot.

To better answer your question, I don’t think that AE layer interaction will be affected by the choices you’ve listed. Either will be quite fine.

Anybody else?
SR

[Steve Roberts]

Hmmm. It sounds as if the footage was rendered progressive. Either that, or it’s an artifact of field separation on interpretation, if there is such a thing. Haven’t tested that.

Can you reproduce this effect with the footage interpreted with field separation off and with no transforms or effects applied within AE, then rendered to the DV codec?

(If you do nothing to the footage, it shouldn’t matter whether you render fields on or off in this case … though I haven’t tested that either.)

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Select all the keyframes that you want to move, then hold down alt (opt on mac) and drag the last keyframe to the right. It should stretch out the bunch.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

I just created a solid, then applied shatter and made a RAM preview. It blew up the solid, with all falling bricks gone after 3 seconds. I made no changes to any shatter settings.

You must have changed something. Did you try spinnning the camera around to see if the sphere is actually touching the object to be shattered?

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Well, imagine what would happen if you shot it for real from above:

– if the logo is very slightly convex, not flat-faced, it will break the surface of the water starting from the center of each text character.
To get that effect, you could consider animating the simple choker effect to start the text thin, enlarging to normal width. Maybe use a blurred copy of the text as a gradient map for the gradient wipe effect.

– the breaking of the surface of the water would create ripples in the shape of the text. I think the Wave World effect could be used for that, but if you gradually reveal the text as above, you’ll have to consider that the ripples would be formed by the thin text before the normal text.

– as the text rises it will get apparently larger. A 3D layer could be used for that effect. If you want the text to have depth, you could try using shatter for that, but then it gets a little complicated.

That’s all I can think of …
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Often the new builds of AE include nifty little features. Check out the sections in the Help with “6.5” in them. Good stuff!

Cheers,
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

In AE 6.5 you can place the bug on a guide layer.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Try searching Amazon on “compositing”. Brinkmann’s book may give you what you need.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

The key information in your post is “DVD player”. This means, for NTSC, you’d use a comp that is 720×480, D1/DV pixel ratio, 29.97 fps. Use the DV preset size. For PAL, use the DV PAL preset.

For render settings, use Best. For output module, I’d use Quicktime Animation or Photo-JPEG, then take that rendered movie into an application that compresses to MPEG-2 for DVD playback. Examples are Canopus Procoder on Windows, Compressor on Mac. There are others — you may need to check the COW’s DVD forum for details.

Hope that helps,
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Have you checked the COW’s demo reels forum? Mograph is another place.

Steve