[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You probably have CS6 since Free Form was included with AE up until 5.5.
You can get Free From V2 for $99 from Mettle or even better if you have the cash get FreeForm Pro.
The technique I describe uses displacement maps (grayscale images)- so any other plugin that uses that may be of use, although I am not aware of any that does as good of a job as fast as the Mettle plugins do.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Yep- I hear ya, although I did not use DV footage in … I can’t remember exactly. 720p is the lowest quality I work with and I have done entire projects shot on RED (commercials and music videos, some even for cinematic release). One thing worth mentioning is that I did the production on those projects as a Creative Director and Producer so I had complete control of what we used in post.
I know lots of AE artists that do a lot of Motion Graphics for high end productions and even a few who work on feature films- granted those are just a few.
In the end if your work is great and folks start knowing you for your high end results they will care less what software you use.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

As someone who started on a Flame and gradually moved on to AE (passing though Paint&Effect/Combustion/Commotion) I can say that it all depends on what you want to do and how you want to make your living. I totally relate to the “I can do that in AE- you don’t need Nuke” – I think at this moment you can do everything in AE that you can do in any other “big name” package. But you have to adapt to the market you are in. In my opinion Nuke is the one that will get you more opportunities.
I for one though have enough income to stay with AE – it allows me to do way more cool stuff than when I was working with the Flame because I can be a one man band a lot of the times and I get to experiment a lot.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Here’s a post in which I describe a morph technique using only AE native plugins:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/992175

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I’ve heard of CS6 havin RAM preview issues but not being able to see the whole RAM?! Just to be sure- you got the latest updates for AE?
If not- Todd Kopriva may see this and give you some Adobe feedback ( you should file this with Adobe as well).

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Here are a few tutorials that may help:

https://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/unfold-a-magical-pop-up-book-simulation-day-1/

https://www.videocopilot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=47689

https://lesterbanks.com/2011/09/using-newton-for-after-effects-for-pop-up-style-animations/

https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/after-effects/make-animated-3d-pop-up-book/

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I hear you John- SVHS and Hi8…
Gordon- as inthe previous answers you got, I suggest also posting more details about your project:
Your system specs
OS
Version of AE and other software you use
Length of your project
Frame size
Final delivery method (codec, playback)
Anything else you may think relevant.

Based on the above we can provide some feedback.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Cartoon type animation is defined by exaggerated moves. Tune up anything you think normal and multiply it by 10 and you should get closer. Also, using Mesh Warp or Bezier Warp (under distort) to make the top of the text wobble back and forth when it stops could be a way to go.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

For delivery you must contact the folks that run the playback system and ask them what kind of codec you should use for compression. The final delivery codec can be compressed- sometimes quite extensively- without playback quality loss.
As far as your color issue goes:
Are you working in a 32 bit color space?
Is the linearize color space option on or off?
Have you checked to see how the final render looks in VLC or a player other than QT?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

When you import the AI layers, do you import Layer size or Comp size?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist