[Tim Kurkoski]

There are lots of good video tutorials available. You can start here at CreativeCow, the leaders here have created a sizeable library of lessons and tips, starting from the basics to the most complex.

Try starting from this link:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/script_gen/articletypesort/videotutorial_script.html

There are also video training packages you can buy, like Total Training’s excellent stuff (expensive) or Lynda.com (cheaper, but you buy it by subscription or piece-by-piece).

Now, a shameless plug: I have a copy of the Total Training tutorial DVD’s for After Effects 6.0 that I don’t need anymore. I’d be happy to sell them to you for very cheap ($50). If you’re interested, please contact me- timkphotos *at* gmail *dot* com

[Tim Kurkoski]

Thanks, David. E-mail sent to your address.

[Tim Kurkoski]

If AE is failing at OpenGL, and removing the plug-in works to fix it, there’s a good chance that the drivers for your card may be out of date. Get the latest drivers and see if that helps. If that still fails, the card just may not play well with AE.

I suppose that Avid DS could be causing an issue, but only if it’s running at the same time you launch AE, and it’s reserved the OpenGL memory. If closing Avid alone doesn’t help, in theory rebooting could help, as I can imagine that the OGL memory could be getting locked or fouled.

All in all, if you can’t get AE to run with the OpenGL plug-in, you can just leave it out. You’ll miss the acceleration features, but plenty of people live without them.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Once you apply a filter to a layer, it’s set in stone. However, there are two things you can do to get around that:

1. Adjustment layers. These only work for the pre-defined adjustment options (like levels, curves, etc.), but you can tweak them later. What you can also do is apply filters to these layers, and while they aren’t any more editable than they were before, you can do things like vary the opacity of the layer to change how much it affects the layers below it.

2. Layer Effects. These work pretty much the same as how AE works with effects, but as with adjustment layers there’s a limited set of effects that you can use.

Also, consider using Smart Layers. They allow non-destructive transformations (rotate, scale, etc.), and make it easier to revert to your original layer. (You are saving a copy of your original layers or files before you apply filters to them, right?)

[Tim Kurkoski]

I don’t know of any plug-ins that do this (they could exist, I just don’t know them). Your best bet is to just get a filmstrip image and paste your images on top of it. I’m sure you can find one out there on the web (get permission to use it unless it’s explicitly labeled as free) or simply grab your scanner and a strip of film and make one yourself.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Photoshop CS doesn’t support Camera Raw 3.x. The latest version you can use is Camera Raw 2.4.

If your camera is only supported by 3.x, you can get around the problem by batch converting your files to DNG using the Adobe DNG converter. Then ACR 2.4 can read them.

More info here:
https://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/331563.html

[Tim Kurkoski]

Preferences are not saved with your project. Preferences are global settings that stay the way they are until you change them, regardless of which project you have open. Settings that are specific to a project can be found in the Project Settings dialog.

So yes, this is normal. You should try using the “same as project” option for the scratch disks, which will eliminate the need for you to keep changing the preferences each time you start a new project.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Welcome, Michael!

So, what is your beer? I do so like a nice, frosty Foster’s, but I’m sure there’s other brews from your side of the Pacific that are worth a taste.

[Tim Kurkoski]

That makes sense, assuming that you’re using non-square PAR in AE, which is normal. If you’re going to take the TIFF or JPEG files back to AE, you shouldn’t be changing the PAR to square, leave it as is. If you’re repurposing the image for print or web, then you probably do want to set it to square pixels.

The help files for AE have a good explanation of pixel aspect ratios, or you can read Rick Gerard’s article on Creative Cow here:
https://www.creativecow.net/show.php?page=/articles/gerard_rick/pixel_madness/index.html

[Tim Kurkoski]

You can also use the Adobe DNG converter to convert the .cr2 files to DNG, which AE will recognize.