[Stuart Elith]

Ok well part of your video resolution thing is to do with aspect ratios. While HD has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 square pixels, non-square pixels can be used, just like in standard definition footage. In this case, 1440 x 1080 has a 1.33 pixel aspect ratio (have a look at the New Comp settings for HDV 1080, and you will see that aspect and resolution.

So I don’t know what your workflow is (if you aren’t DOING anything to the file but simply placing it in those programs i would think the resolution shouldn’t change but i don’t know).

In regards to playback, if you are trying to play back the footage in AE with the spacebar (a “normal” playback), forget it. AE isn’t meant to be an editing tool, and doesn’t handle realtime playback very well for many situations (maybe none? i don’t know, i certainly don’t do it). RAM previewing is the norm, I do this even with an untreated piece of HD footage.

[Stuart Elith]

Hey Jason

it’s not really what you’re after, but i found/made a script for applying an effect, which you can then assign to hotkeys using KeyEd (google it). So I have a few of my key effects assigned to hotkeys within AE, and it works really nicely.

See this post :
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/12690

You’d need to paste that script into a script file (there are some already in the AE scripts folder, just copy and replace one). Then you go into AE and assign hotkeys in KeyEd Up to “Run script #…”.

There’s a bit of fiddling involved, so if you’re actually going to do it, i will explain a bit further, but its a little messy.

[Stuart Elith]

It will add an extra layer, but I would use a track matte. I think this is as simple as any other way of doing it.

A track matte is a layer that works a bit like a mask – in your case, creating a shape above the photo layer and setting the PHOTO layer to alpha matte will only reveal the photo in sections that exist in the above layer.

Read up in the manual for all the details, they are very handy and important to learn 🙂

[Stuart Elith]

Firstly, my preference is to set stills/solids to have a default length of the entire comp length… I like this because i usually have to trim the length anyway, so i might as well start with the full length. But that’s just personal choice.

Secondly, you CAN select multiple layers and drag their outpoints together – I’m not sure about old versions of AE but CS3 (and i’m assuming 4) behave like this. I just tried then with 3 layers with different out points. Select them all, drag out one of their out points (make sure all 3 are selected) and they will all slide out.

[Stuart Elith]

Dave was just being a bit sarcastic, I think… 1080p is certainly nothing new, and AE has no problems handling it.

Joseph, your machine will undoubtedly be equipped to deal with it. Have you made sure that the audio is actually switched on in your footage layer? There is a little Speaker icon next to where the visibility Eyeball usually is, in the layer switches, and if that isn’t on, the audio is disabled.

Also, try pressing the . key on your NUMERIC keypad – this previews only the audio. See if that is working. Another similar test is to hold down Command (Mac) or Ctrl (pc) and drag along the timeline, this ‘scrubs’ the audio in realtime, similar to Final Cut Pro or other editing software… it will sound garbled but at least you’ll know the audio is working overall, and that you haven’t accidentally turned your speakers off or something!

[Stuart Elith]

If I were you I would keep playing with it in Flash… from what you’ve described, you should definitely be able to use some simple Actionscript in flash to jump back to different points on the timeline. This would be beneficial both in making the file size smaller (as you don’t need to render out as much video) and also more customisable.

If there are other factors that REALLY prevent this being an option, why don’t you just render your AE movie, re-import it and cut out the section you want to play again? Not an elegant solution but will work, and is very quick and easy, particularly if it’s just for this one occasion you need it.

The solutions suggested with LoopOut are good, and it’s worth learning about that expression.

[Stuart Elith]

Hey Giuliano, we have an After Effects Basics forum which is probably better suited for this kind of question, as motion tracking is quite a fundamental (though important and intricate) tool.

Check the AE help file for some great info about it, and also if you search for “motion tracking tutorial” or something, I KNOW there are tutorials out there, so give that another go, i suggest. People are usually happy to help out with specific things, but it sounds a little like you just haven’t really looked into it much, and i think it’s a good idea to learn some basics about it yourself, then come back when you have points to clarify.

For your last question, no you can’t track depth of field in AE, you will have to do that manually.

[Stuart Elith]

I think the two main ways to achieve these kinds of things are by rotoscoping, or greenscreening.

Roto has the advantage that you don’t have to worry about color spill (things don’t take on a green tinge) and in some cases you can use the real shadows and stuff like that, because the action was still filmed in the same environment.

Greenscreen is nice if you shoot it well, as you don’t have to do all the manual roto work – even if the band aren’t doing high-energy movements, you still will spend a LOT of time doing the cutting out. Small movements are very tedious as you can’t just ignore them, and you really need to pay attention during the roto so that the masks move at the right times and don’t wobble.

Since it sounds like there is quite a bit of space between the foreground (band) and background (fight) plates, you might be able to get a really nice composite with green screen – there could be enough space so that the light spill will be minimal, and the foreground and background won’t be interacting with each other (as there is space between them so the shadows won’t be cast that far back, i am guessing).
You could potentially shoot the fight scene in the real environment, then have a green screen be put up behind the furniture (still in the real environment so lighting and color and stuff are consistent) and shoot the foreground.
If you needed to, you could maybe shoot the greenscreen in a different location (if there wasn’t space on set) with consistent lighting and still get a good result.

In my mind, the lack of interaction between the different plates is a BIG help, not to say this will be a piece of cake, but it might be 🙂

[Stuart Elith]

There is indeed a clone stamp in AE. If you look in the manual, there are pages of stuff about how to use it well.

You can probably also search the internet for wire removal or paint tutorials, I think some of them will mention some tips too… you need to be careful so that the paint blends in smoothly, try not to change your clone sample point within the scene, or you will get jitters or boiling in the image, which makes it look noticeable.

[Stuart Elith]

There is another way to export multiple parts from one comp. In your case, it sounds like that script mentioned would work well, since it’s all from one timeline that you imported, and you can just split it into sections to render off.

But if you have done some comps that have multiple layers contributing to one final shot, but want a few sections rendered separately from that comp, you can do the following :

Define the work area as usual, and send it to the render queue. Here, choose Render Settings and select Time Span > Custom. This will set the time span to the current values of the work area. You can then go back to the comp, define a new work area, add to the render queue and repeat the process. Then when you have all your sections done, you can just hit Render as usual 🙂

You need to choose Custom because this kind of locks in the current work area values… if you just leave it as Work Area, each time you change it in the comp, all the renders will be using the new value.