[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I always prep my puppets in PSD before going to AE. However, as Dave said, a precomped layer should not throw off your parenting – that is unless the precomp has a different size that the layer, in which case it will mess up your parenting. If your layers where imported cropped to the size of the objects in them and you precomped at the full size of your frame than you will have these issues.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If you have FreeForm Pro or even FreeForm V2, you could create a displacement map based on a tree bark texture and then follow the tutorial below to create a “tunnel” that simulates the tree trunk:

https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/AE-3D-tunnels-FreeForm-Pro-1/1

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

For future rigging I highly recommend duik tools – free and pretty well explained in their tutorials section.

https://duduf.net/?page_id=151

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I would use Adobe Media Encoder to resize and render (loss-less codec) the different videos to the size you need. Define a custom preset (or several, depending on your needs) and then just drop all your rendered videos that need to be resized into a watch folder. Bring the final results in your AE comp

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If you’re referring to moving the position of your comp (frame) in the comp panel, then all you need is to press and hold the space bar while right click-ing and moving your mouse in the Comp panel. This will move your comp frame around.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

If you’re using the Camera Tool to animate you are animating the camera- therefore everything moves in 3d space. To animate the sphere use the Element 3d controls or generate a Null that controls the sphere and animate that.
If you need to animate the camera but have the light in the same position as it relates to the camera itself, parent the light to the camera and animate the camera.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I’m with Kevin on this one. Use VC Optical Flares or Knoll Light Factory combined with a white solid masked out (feather edges and apply glow- work at 32 bit) for volumetric feel.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I would planar track (Mocha seems the way to go) and replace the pager screen before doing any stabilizing work.
Who still uses a pager anyway?!?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

What plugin/particle system are you using (there’s quite a few options)?
Can you post a sample image?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I use Remove Grain a lot more than NeatVideo, especially when I need to remove grain from elements that where shot on chroma. It does not seem slower to me. Here’s a tip straight from Adobe – I follow this and it has worked for me:
To increase the speed of the Remove Grain effect preview, adjust the Remove Grain controls in order in the Effect Controls panel. Specifically, the most efficient workflow is to find effective degraining settings first and to adjust the last three controls last.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist