[Todd Kopriva]

This bug has been fixed in the 9.0.1 update. I have some details on my blog:

After Effects 9.0.1 update is available

[Todd Kopriva]

Others have said this pretty well already, but allow me reiterate the statement that 32bpc is much better for lighting effects. If you work in 32bpc, you get the HDR advantage of overbrights. You do NOT need to use HDR footage to use HDR in your composition. Many effects can productively create overbrights if you let them.

The best example is a glow followed by a blur.

In 16bpc, you start with a light at brightness 1.0, the glow can’t increase the value above 1.0, and so the blur effect’s tendency to darken brings even the center of a light down below 1.0 quite quickly.

In 32bpc, you start with a light at brightness 1.0, the glow increases to (say) 2.0, and therefore the blur’s tendency to darken doesn’t bring the center of the light down under 1.0. The result, a light with a center that stays bright, even when blurred. Huge, huge difference.

I included a pair of images for comparison in the “Set the color depth” section of After Effects CS3 Help.

Of course, I wonder why I even bother sometimes. [*grumble, grumble*]

[Todd Kopriva]

Yes, that’s normal. Spacebar play just plays video.

From the “Preview video and audio” section of After Effects CS3 Help:

“Standard preview (commonly called spacebar play) plays video in the active Composition, Layer, or Footage panel from the current time.
…
RAM preview allocates RAM to play video and audio in the Timeline, Layer, or Footage panel in real time.”

[Todd Kopriva]

Oh, look! It’s an entire section in the After Effects CS3 Help document on the Web about how to get better performance:

“Improve performance”

And, yes, Nucleo Pro 2 is worth every penny. (This is my opinion and not necessarily that of my employer, Adobe Systems… though I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of my coworkers agreed.)

[Todd Kopriva]

It sounds like you want to create markers in After Effects and export them as cue points in an FLV file.

Have you read the “Create a web link, chapter link, or cue point from a marker” or “About markers” section of After Effects CS3 Help? I think that these sections will point you in the right direction.

[Todd Kopriva]

You can import the files into After Effects and then drag the lot of them from the Project panel to the Render Queue panel. Then change the output module settings for the render items if necessary and click Render. Voila! Batch conversion.

There’s a tip in the ” Render and export a movie using the render queue” section of After Effects CS3 Help to this end:

“To create a new composition from a footage item and add that composition to the render queue, drag the footage item from the Project panel to the Render Queue panel. This is a convenient way to convert a footage item from one format to another.”

[Todd Kopriva]

I searched for “invert alpha” and found this in Help:

“1. In the Project panel, select a footage item.
2. Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.
3. If you want to switch the opaque and transparent areas of the image, select Invert Alpha.”

“Specify alpha channel interpretation”

and this (which Darby mentioned):

“Invert effect”

[Todd Kopriva]

If you want to add some character animation to each of the objects as it’s running—like making a toy horse’s legs gallop—consider using the Puppet tools. You’d only need to animate a few of the layers in the foreground in this manner to create the impression of life in the objects.

For a quick video tutorial on using the Puppet tools, see “Using the Puppet tool” on the Adobe website. For detailed information on using the Puppet tools, see the “Animating with Puppet tools” section of After Effects CS3 Help.

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

[Darby Edelen] “…are ALL of these feature requests reviewed? Are features considered solely on merit or on the number of requests?

I can guess at the answers to these questions, but I’m really interested in what the likelihood is that my request will be viewed/considered…”

Every feature request is reviewed, and the number of people who request each feature does contribute to its likelihood of being implemented.

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

Thanks, Erik, for quoting from the Help document. It’s good to see that someone reads that. 🙂

Here’s an excerpt from the updated document for After Effects CS3:

“After Effects supports a maximum image size of 30,000 x 30,000 pixels for importing and rendering files, except for PICT (4,000 x 4,000 pixels) and BMP (16,000 x 30,000 pixels). The size of image that you can import or export can be reduced by the amount of physical RAM available to After Effects.”

The 30,000px x 30,000px limit applies to composition size, too.

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