[Walter Soyka]

Looks like you’re on an older version of After Effects. It uses a very outdated MP4 encoder, and it’s imposing some format constraints on your output — including a maximum horizontal resolution of 320 pixels!

I’d suggest rendering to an intermediate codec (such as with the Lossless output module), and then uses Media Encoder to create your MP4 from there.

[Walter Soyka]

There are a few things I can think of that might answer your question:

Firstly, 2D layers won’t show in orthographic views (top, front, left, etc.), but they do show in camera views (although, of course, they do not react to the 3D scene).

Secondly, if you are catching an image layer at its edge, you won’t be able to see it. That’s because the layer has no depth, and it’s not pointed at the orthographic camera.

Lastly, if the image sits far away in the scene, it may be out of range of an orthographic view. You can’t orbit an orthographic view, but you can pan and dolly it to reposition the “active window” that the comp provides. (If you’re using the Advanced 3D renderer, you can turn on Draft 3D mode, and then enable the “Extended Viewer”, which will render the scene in the viewport, unrestricted by the boundaries that the comp settings provide.)

[Walter Soyka]

You need to use an output module preset with an alpha channel, which will encode and preserve the transparency.

Try either the High Quality with Alpha (ProRes 4444) or Lossless with Alpha preset.

Personally, I’d suggest ProRes 4444 for almost all cases — it’s visually indistinguishable from a lossless codec, but significantly smaller on disk.

[Walter Soyka]

Hector might be on the right track. What if you disable Edit > Preferences > Display > “Hardware accelerate composition, layer, and footage panels”?

Also, I like Parsec better than RDP or TeamViewer for remote control — might be worth a look. Very responsive, great visual quality, easy to use.

[Walter Soyka]

That’s strange! The normal Ae behavior is to rename the asset when you do a footage replacement.

When you’re replacing the asset in the project panel, do you perhaps have “Import as sequence” checked in the file selection dialog box?

[Walter Soyka]

I think the value graph is a lot easier to understand intuitively than the speed graph. Some great notes here:
https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/graph-editor-after-effects

My whole team uses Flow from Aescripts to help keep our motion curves consistent:
https://aescripts.com/flow/

schoolofmotion.com

The MoGraph Secret Weapon: Using the Graph Editor in After Effects

The Graph Editor is one of the most important features in After Effects. Here's how it works.

[Walter Soyka]

You can only add expressions to properties that can be animated. No stopwatch, no expression.

As a workaround, you might consider multiple layers, each one with a different “Based on” value, and link their opacity to your dropdown so that only one is actually visible.

[Walter Soyka]

Time Stretch is non-destructive, but it can be hard to find.

If you right-click on any of the column headers in the timeline panel (i.e., where it says “Layer Name”, “Mode”, “Track Matte”, “Parent & Link”, etc.), it will open a context menu. Click Columns, then Stretch.

This will add a column to your timeline display called Stretch. Anything that’s not 100% is what you’ve modified.

[Walter Soyka]

Trapcode Form is a good tool to create looks like this:
https://www.maxon.net/en/red-giant/trapcode/form

maxon.net

3D particle grids plugin | Red Giant - Trapcode Form by Maxon

Trapcode Form is a plugin for After Effects that lets you create 3D particle grids and objects. Build particle grids visually, in the new designer. Select preset behaviors and styles for base form type, particles, and physics.

[Walter Soyka]

This is pretty straightforward to script. Please note I’ve done only limited testing, so please make sure it works the way you expect before you rely on it in production.

This script will step through your project, remove footage items that are not used in any comps, and report back a list of what it did. It’ll leave empty folders intact.

It will not preserve items that are referred to by expression only.

app.beginUndoGroup("Remove unused footage, not folders");
var removedItems = 0;
var removedItemNames = [];
for (var i = app.project.items.length; i > 0; i--) {
    if (app.project.items[i] instanceof FootageItem) {
        if (app.project.items[i].usedIn.length == 0 ) {
            var itemToRemoveName = app.project.items[i].name;
            var itemProjectPath = [];
            var itemParentFolder = app.project.items[i].parentFolder;
            while (itemParentFolder.name != "Root") {
                itemProjectPath.unshift(itemParentFolder.name);
                itemParentFolder = itemParentFolder.parentFolder;
            }
            itemToRemoveName = itemProjectPath.join("\\") + "\\" + itemToRemoveName;
            app.project.items[i].remove();
            removedItems++;
            removedItemNames.unshift(itemToRemoveName);            
        }
    }
}
app.endUndoGroup();
alert(removedItems + " unused footage item(s) removed. You can undo this if you wish.\n\n" + removedItemNames.join("\n"));