[Steve Roberts]

Did you check the help under “keyboard shortcuts”?

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

I just made an HD comp, tossed in Particular, a light, a camera, and a bunch of big stills (1Kx2K). The full-quality, full frame rate RAM preview seems to be playing back fine … once it finishes rendering to RAM. (G5 v.2, dual 2, 2.5GB RAM)

Have you tried upgrading to 6.5.1? Apparently, it should fix spinning “beach ball of death” (BBOD) issues.
Do you have anything else running, such as iTunes?

Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Here’s one way. If you need more help, search the AE help using the terms in bold as search terms.

1. Create a black solid as a layer in your composition. It should be above the footage layer.
2. Select the solid, and reveal its opacity using the T key.
3. Using hold keyframes, set a key for the solid’s opacity at 100% at the start of the clip.
4. When you want to see the footage, set an opacity key for 0%. This should automatically be a hold keyframe.
5. Move forward two frames, and set a key at 100%.
6. Copy the last two keyframes, move forward two frames, and paste.
7. Keep doing this until you’ve shown enough footage.
8. (The last keyframe should be 100%.)
9. When you RAM preview, be sure to preview every frame — don’t skip frames.

You might want to make the interval three or more frames instead of two.

Hope that helps,
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

It’s not a graphics card issue.

If you just pressed the spacebar, AE is playing from disk — that will rarely result in smooth/fast playback. You want to use RAM preview – check the help for that.

If you don’t get enough frames playing back, reduce the comp window’s magnification and resolution. They should match: e.g. 50% mag and half res. If you still don’t see enough frames, you need more RAM to store those frames.

If that doesn’t work, let us know.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Make a text comp that is twice as wide as the main comp.
Drag it into the main comp.
Apply CC sphere to it.
Make the text sphere bigger than the other sphere.
Make their centers match, so one is around the other.
Use the expression pickwhip to make the rotation parameter for the text sphere match that for the grid sphere.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Make a text comp that is twice as wide as the main comp.
Drag it into the main comp.
Apply CC sphere to it.
Make the text sphere bigger than the other sphere.
Make their centers match, so one is around the other.
Use the expression pickwhip to make the rotation parameter for the text sphere match that for the grid sphere.

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Great tip, Peder!

Thanks,
Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Give this a go:

https://www.digitalanarchy.com/3Dlayer/3Dlayer_main.html

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Is this page useful?

https://www.planetoftunes.com/dv/optimise.html

Steve

[Steve Roberts]

Do you have the latest version of Shine? I seem to recall having this problem until I upgraded.

Steve