[Walter Soyka]

[Jim Arco] “My experience with CF is that it works on the original footage file. If I apply anything effect/blending mode/etc prior to CF, I may get unpredictable results.”

And it’s not just CF; precomposing is necessary with many effects.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

Have you tried Knoll UnMult? It’s free from Red Giant.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[José Cordovil] “I am guessing they are way beyond the budget of the theater company. Also, how do you control the Spyder? Through PC+software? No Mac support? :)”

They are quite expensive. You can control Spyder through either a dedicated control console, or PC software.

It looks like Edirol’s V-440HD can be used in multi-screen setups as a controller for multiple V-44SW units; I haven’t used this setup, but it might be worth looking into.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Patrick Coan] “I didn’t get any results with those, so I tried .mov (h.264) and this is working okay. “

So you’re importing h264 files into AE? I’ll shamelessly lift Dave’s Stock Answer #1:

Dave’s Stock Answer #1:

If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following — footage in an HDV acquisition codec, MPEG1, MPEG2, AVCHD, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 — you need to convert it to a different codec.

These kinds of footage use temporal, or interframe compression. They have keyframes at regular intervals, containing complete frame information. However, the frames in between do NOT have complete information. Interframe codecs toss out duplicated information.

In order to maintain peak rendering efficiency, AE needs complete information for each and every frame. But because these kinds of footage contain only partial information, AE freaks out, resulting in a wide variety of problems.

—

If it’s standard def material, you’d be better off using the DV preset.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Patrick Coan] “I thought after I converted the files to .avi…”

Ogg and AVI are both container formats, capable of carrying streams of information in dozens of different formats.

What codec did you use in the AVI when you converted your OGV file? If you just re-wrapped Theora-encoded video from OGV to AVI, it makes sense that AE wouldn’t understand it.

After Effects likes codecs that use intraframe compression, such as DV, DNxHD, and Uncompressed. You could also use image sequences.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Heath Alseike] “Just curious, can any one explain the difference between premultiplied vs interlaced when rendering mov’s or avi’s.”

They don’t really have anything to do with each other, so there’s no difference to explain. The AE livedocs have pretty good introductions to both, so these links might be a good starting point.

“Premultiplied” refers to a way of storing transparency information; more information on premultipled vs. straight alpha here.

Interlacing is a method for transmitting and displaying video (vs progressive display); see here for more.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

See this recent thread for more on delivering video to broadcasters.

You need to get the delivery specs from the broadcaster. If they will accept digital files, they will specify what they need. If they only accept tape, you will need to work with a post house to prep your work for broadcast.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Brendan Cave] “Hello all, I’m exporting animations from a 3D app and adding it to my After effects composition which I’m then rendering in order to A) be burnt to HD DVD (1280×720) and played on a TV and B) Put on a USB stick to be played by individuals on home computers. “

HD DVD is a dead format — did you mean standard definition 16:9 DVD, or high-def 16:9 Blu-ray?

You’ve got a couple choices on frame rates — what video format do you want to target? What kind of TV will play the footage?

Where are you located? If you’re in the US, you can work with Blu-ray at of 23.976, 24, or 29.97 frames per second. DVD can do 23.976 or 29.97 frames per second. It won’t make much of a difference to the computers, but I’d probably lean towards 29.97, as it’s much closer to an even divisor of the most common display refresh rate (60 Hz).

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

This render sounds to me like it will be really RAM-intensive, and with 6 GB, you don’t have enough RAM to feed 4 cores. If you have multi-processing enabled, turn it off.

It’s great that you’re pre-comping; you can also create best-quality, lossless proxies for your pre-comps, and use those proxies in subsequent renders. This won’t speed up your total render time, but it does re-distributed it throughout your workflow.

You might also consider rendering to image sequences, as you can resume a failed render where it left off.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Mike Piazza] “Hi we’re a new video company that would like to create nice intro to some of our movies can anyone recommend a company that sells Templates that can be use with AE >”

This thread might help…

However, this is your identity — a visual piece that identifies your company’s work. Do you really want to use a template for this? Why use something that other people, and maybe even your competitors, are already using, or could get at any time?

Why not hire a designer to help you identify your needs, meet them, and develop a signature look that’s unique to you?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events