[Todd Kopriva]

Try this handy script by Chris Zwar.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

Kevin and Dave are definitely pointing you in the right direction. There are some tips about keying green screen footage in After Effects Help, including links to some free chapters online from experts like Mark Christiansen.

That page also has some tips and links regarding the all-important suggestion to plan and shoot for color keying from the beginning.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

FWIW, I leave it off most of the time, too. I only turn it on when working with a large number of 3D layers, and even then only when working on timing of animations (as opposed to the detailed look of a frame).

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

There are instructions for time-remapping a layer (in your case a precomposition layer), including freezing a frame and increasing the layer’s duration, in the “Time-remap a layer” section of After Effects Help.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

Reshape was only in the Professional version of After Effects 6.5, not the Standard version. (We’ve since stopped offering a Standard version, for After Effects CS3 and CS4.)

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

One way to do this is to add the effect to an adjustment layer, and have the adjustment layer’s duration just be for the time when you want the effect to be active. To restrict the effect to just a single layer, you’d need to precompose the layer with the adjustment layer.

Another way is to split your layer and apply the effect to one of the new layers but not the other.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

from “Parent and child layers”:

“To show or hide the Parent column in the Timeline panel, choose Columns > Parent from the Timeline panel menu.”

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

This hasn’t changed between After Effects 7 and After Effects CS4.

As Dino says, you can Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the time display to cycle through the modes.

Because this feature hasn’t changed, you can read the “Time display units” section of After Effects Help for more information.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

Please give more details about exactly what is happening and what you’re trying. Since you say that you’re using P2 media, then you should make sure that you’ve read the “Import assets in Panasonic P2 format” section in After Effects Help. Let us know where exactly in those steps things go wrong and what happens.

Also, as Kevin said, the ‘G5’ part of your system description seems to conflict with the ‘CS4’ part, since After Effects CS4 doesn’t run on PowerPC processors… which I think is what the G5 has.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Todd Kopriva]

MXF is a container format, and the video and audio that an MXF file contains can be in many different formats—requiring many different decoders to import and decode the media. This is very much like QuickTime container format that can contain video encoded with many different encoders. The codecs (encoders and decoders) matter.

So, what kind of video and audio is in your MXF files? And what version of After Effects are you using?

from “Supported import formats”:

“MXF is a container format. After Effects can only import some kinds of data contained within MXF files. After Effects can import the Op-Atom variety used by Panasonic DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, and DVCPRO HD video cameras to record to Panasonic P2 media. After Effects can also import XDCAM HD files in MXF format.”

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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