My 5 COW Posts
Re: Importing MPEG's into After Effects
by Dave LaRonde on Nov 21, 2009 at 5:41:23 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Trey Yoder] "...Please don't tell me to get a converter."
Well, then, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, because AE doesn't play nice with mpeg. You could get MPEG Streamclip -- free, both mac...
Re: LED lights in After Effects
by Dave LaRonde on Nov 13, 2009 at 2:04:33 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
I'd start by working in square pixels just to make life easier. If it's to be SD, I like 720x540, and in HD, 1920x1080. In my main comp, I'd nest two other comps:
• An Animation precomp: animated hi-contrast text,...
Re: rendering fast forwarded video
by Dave LaRonde on Oct 21, 2009 at 7:45:01 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Veress Attila] "Any way to speed it up or any other methods to speed up a video that doesnt make it render for days(im using time stretch)?"
Turn off Frame blending if it's on....
Re: Greenscreen: Secondary Color Correction after using Color Key?
by Dave LaRonde on Oct 15, 2009 at 3:55:03 pm
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
It sounds like you're using FCP's own chroma keyer to pull the key. Bad idea. That keyer stinks.
To get a good-looking key including spill suppression without buying any other fancy keying plugins, you really owe it to...
Re: Quality concern at 480
by Dave LaRonde on Oct 13, 2009 at 7:29:54 am
in the Panasonic HVX - HPX (P2) Forum
[Martin Bolduc] "...will I use 30p or 60i for my web and TV productions? "
For web AND TV, I'd shoot 30p. Things will be fine for web output, and the motion 30p captures looks...
Re: Free After Effects Template
by Dave LaRonde on Sep 21, 2009 at 12:19:02 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Have you thought about putting it on the Adobe web site? They got stuff like that on it, y'know...;.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA...
Re: Scale Keyframes instead of moving them
by Dave LaRonde on Sep 10, 2009 at 12:38:39 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
From AE's Online Help:
" Expand or contract a group of keyframes in layer bar mode [aka the timeline]
Select at least three keyframes. Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and drag the...
Re: I get this error "the file format module could not parse the file" 45::35 When i try to export in after effects
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 24, 2009 at 11:37:09 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[ladorn45] "The file format module could not parse the file"....
Typically -- okay, a few versions of AE ago -- a parsing error in still footage meant that it was made in CMYK color and not RGB....
Re: Keylight 1.2... help!
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 11, 2009 at 5:29:21 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Q [Helena Haimes] "I've just installed CS4 on my PC, and am now trying to finish off a nearly-completed project I was working on on a mac .
The project - which contained a lot...
Re: Add alpha channel to AE6.5
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 5, 2009 at 12:25:36 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
There are two ways to do this:
Create TWO files: the RGB image (often referred to as the Fill) in one file, then its matte in a second file. The matte file is 100% white in the...
Re: DVX100B Squeeze ('Anamorphic') footage to DVD
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 1, 2009 at 12:36:34 pm
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
[Maria Luisa Gambale] "It's true that the footage is not true anamorphic on a DVX100B without an anamorphic adapter... But I don't think the aspect RATIO should look that different. "
Hmmm..... I'm going to guess that you...
Re: Instructions to perfect energy ball,
by Dave LaRonde on Jul 23, 2009 at 11:48:17 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Well, there are energy balls and there are energy balls:
Do you want an electrical-type energy, with lightning seething over the surface? Do you want a fusion-type energy, as in a solar flare? Do...
Re: Compressing 20hours footage on one DVD
by Dave LaRonde on Jul 20, 2009 at 11:47:33 am
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
Well, let's see....
You have 18 hours of footage to fit on one DVD. You don't want the compression to take a long time, because you're too impatient to wait. You don't want intermediate...
Re: Auto-Orient Problem
by Dave LaRonde on Jul 12, 2009 at 10:49:31 am
in the Adobe After Effects basics Forum
[Tamika Adair] "...I created the line in PSD, brought it in and used the Write-On effect to make it appear to grow. Then, I copied the keyframes used in the brush position and pasted them on the arrowhead's...
Re: AE taking ridiculously long time to render keyed footage
by Dave LaRonde on Jul 9, 2009 at 2:02:38 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Burt Rutherford] "....The first video took 14 hours for a 9 min comp… and just last night I started rendering the 2nd video, which is 20min, and when I came in this morning, it was 17hrs into the...
Re: NTSC for a PAL kind of gal
by Dave LaRonde on Jun 26, 2009 at 4:58:40 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Whew, glad we got that cleared up. Just one more question -- I understand your preference for working in square pixels. But why do you want to work in 16x9 when the NTSC resolution you cite is almost...
Re: Pause a frame for 2 seconds?
by Dave LaRonde on Jun 22, 2009 at 8:59:29 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[john isaacks] "...I would like the play head to pause at for about 2 seconds...."
Ah, a person who thinks that AE works like an editing application.... surprise! It doesn't!
If you want the animation of ANY layer...
Re: Drag multiple stills outpoint in timeline
by Dave LaRonde on Jun 9, 2009 at 11:38:39 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Move the timeline cursor to 30 seconds select all the stills, and use the option-] keyboard shortcut. The layers' outpoints move to 30 seconds, and the inpoints stay put.
Oh -- the windows version of that keyboard shortcut would...
Re: growing vectors and type animation
by Dave LaRonde on May 21, 2009 at 8:52:33 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
The beauty of using vector graphics in AE is that they don't need to be particularly big: the Continuously Rasterize switch keeps 'em nice 'n sharp.
The REAL trick to these kinds of camera moves in 3D lies in STORYBOARDING...
Re: How to create radial stripes in AE ?
by Dave LaRonde on May 18, 2009 at 11:57:50 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
The transitions that look like animated latitude lines on a globe are a little trickier.
I would animate the position and vertical scale of solids in perhaps a 4000x2000 square-pixel comp, then nest the comp in a main comp,...
Re: Why does my Final Cut suck in animating motion and size?
by Dave LaRonde on Apr 22, 2009 at 12:35:43 pm
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
It has a lot to do with FCP's scaling algorithm, which just isn't as good as its counterparts in either Motion or AE.
It may have to do with the codec you're using in your FCP timeline, too. For example,...
Re: best way for green screen
by Dave LaRonde on Apr 7, 2009 at 11:16:07 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
You can learn how to work the chroma keyers in AE easily enough.
But your simply-worded request betrays an assumption that pulling a realistic-looking chroma key is a piece of cake. In almost every case, it ain't. Here's just...
Re: Problems with Canon XH-A1 Footage
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 20, 2009 at 3:02:35 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Dino Muhic] "...Sure, HDV is crap, but some months ago I worked on some HDV footage from a much cheaper Sony FX-1 and it didn't look as terrible as that..."
You simply got lucky before.
Dave's Stock...
Re: Problems with Canon XH-A1 Footage
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 20, 2009 at 3:02:23 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Dino Muhic] "Can I convert the MPEGs directly in After Effects, lets say as a proxy, or do I need to do it before importing it into AE?"
You have to do it before.
Think...
Re: Time remapping drop frames etc
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 9, 2009 at 7:53:07 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Dave's Stock Answer #1 :
If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following -- Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 -- you need to convert...
Re: Can't hear audio in AE 7.0
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 8, 2009 at 10:13:56 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Hey kids, what time is it? Time for little AE 101!
Always remember that AE is a compositing and effects application. It's NOT an editing application, and it doesn't work like one... not even remotely. It's a...
Re: format issues
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 6, 2009 at 1:07:35 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
If you don't mind converting all the video to a high-quality codec first, knock yourself out. ANY version of AE is going to need the video from this camera in a codec different from H.264. Here's why:...
Re: how to change default mask color?
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 19, 2009 at 5:01:35 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Just use cycle mask colors, and on those stinky, washed-out label colors, change 'em to whatever you want. Make sure you make the first color on the list something you REALLY want to have. Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV...
Re: Multi-rendering in the same machine?
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 18, 2009 at 11:29:25 am
in the Adobe After Effects basics Forum
[Rodrigo Higa] "...i was wondering if it would be possible to multi-render a project in AE using only one machine..."
If you want to substitute a render farm composed of eight machines for the eight processors on your...
Re: Sorting of numbers in the project panel
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 17, 2009 at 9:15:24 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Rename the files: 01, 02, 03... 09, 10, 11, etc. They will then fall into proper order. Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA...
Re: Render comp to replace old file by default...
by Dave LaRonde on Jan 16, 2009 at 9:56:53 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Tim Johnston] "s there a way to set up your "Output To:" settings so that it will replace (overwrite) the old movie by default?... I do this so that Final Cut will replace the footage automatically instead of...
Re: Rotoscoping Redrawing?
by Dave LaRonde on Jan 2, 2009 at 1:54:34 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
There's no two ways about it: rotoscoping is a Right Royal Pain in the crucial body part of your choice. I hope you don't have to do more than a few seconds of it.
But in your case, you can...
Re: HD Footage in After Effects CS4 -> problem!
by Dave LaRonde on Dec 12, 2008 at 8:32:07 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Dave's Stock Answer #1 :
If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following -- Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 -- you need to convert...
Re: Camera Control
by Dave LaRonde on Nov 27, 2008 at 1:01:33 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
The larger dots on the motion path are the visual representation of your KEYFRAMES. That's why they have handles. Want more of 'em? Make more keyframes. But beware: the smoothest motion paths occur using the minimum amount...
Re: baby walk cycle
by Dave LaRonde on Oct 10, 2008 at 9:15:11 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
I really like that idea of concealing transition point of the walk cycle with a foreground object. It's a great workaround if you can't re-shoot! Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA...
Re: Audio Sync Problems with Video recorded in QT Pro (iSight)
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 26, 2008 at 10:53:52 am
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
H.264 is more of a final delivery codec rather than an editing codec. You're going to want to capture that video using something else... and NOT mp4 or mpeg2, either.
When dealing with video -- and you want that video...
Re: DVCPro 50 24p @ 29.97 - Pulldown?
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 20, 2008 at 6:07:46 pm
in the Apple Final Cut Pro Forum
If you insist on shooting 24p, there are certain circumstances under which you absolutely, positively HAVE to remove pulldown. Here they are:...
Re: audio synching, sound keys, render issues
by Dave LaRonde on Aug 14, 2008 at 10:58:32 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Daniel Potthast] "no shift in timing and once converted to DV, timing is still good...
any ideas why this shift happens in the first place? I have noticed a few other posts with similar issues using quicktime... "...
Re: Urgent need! Problems with render!
by Dave LaRonde on Jul 17, 2008 at 12:37:13 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Because it it such a common problem -- especially since you mentioned the magic number "1080" -- I think it's the footage you're using. Read on:
Dave's Stock Answer #1 :
If the footage you imported into...
Re: Rendering Problems
by Dave LaRonde on Jun 20, 2008 at 10:48:08 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
[Hugo Espinel] "It does not matter what kind of files it is dealing with. Same problem occurs with MPEGs or WMV files. "
It may very well matter what kinds of files AE is dealing with, especially those...
Re: key light grainy key..?
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 27, 2008 at 11:40:57 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
You say you've looked at the Keylight Status viewer, and you're convinced the key ought to work? The Status view shows white all over the subject and gray at the edges?
You've got a good key. The...
Re: Movie clips not rendering
by Dave LaRonde on Mar 3, 2008 at 11:21:25 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
This kind of dilemma is showing up more and more frequently these days, and it is almost always due to type of file imported into AE. If your files are any of the following:...
Re: Lost Codec
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
You might have to tweak Quicktime Pro. I've read something about having to activate Legacy Codecs in preferences.
Legacy codecs! Please. What, just because they're not m4v or h.264, they're no longer worthy or something? Dave...
Re: How to preview sound too?
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Adobe After Effects basics Forum
[Kamil Kowalczyk] "When I'm trying to render my work by clicking "RAM Preview" (it looks like |||> ) button then AE renders only picture without sound. "
Hmmmmmm... I don't know about that button. For all I...
Re: AE and Cycore FX
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Adobe After Effects basics Forum
The Cycore Effects with AE 7 are NOT a demo. Go tell those IT guys they're full of prunes. Yes, there are indeed demo plugins on AE installations disks, but the Cycore effects are the real, fully-functioning deal.
The...
Re: masks?
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Adobe After Effects basics Forum
No problem! You're just not considering all the ways AE can create transparency. I speak of the ever-useful Track Matte.
If your subject's head is motionless, it's a piece of cake.
Start by making a mask. Make...
Re: Very common/popular graphic streamers?
by Dave LaRonde on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:31:24 pm
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
Check this out:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hansen_jaysen/growing.php Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV...
| COW Posts I've Tagged
Re: Why can't AE users just buy the FCP ProRes Codec?!
by Kevin Camp on Sep 30, 2009 at 11:21:51 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
it really shouldn't be any trouble to choose a different codec when they export an mov from fcp... if they are already choosing export, they just need to choose the codec you ask them for. or they could provide...
I guesss it's just me
by Gene Hoffman on May 26, 2009 at 8:54:58 am
in the Adobe After Effects Forum
For many years The Cow was my Home Page, however it just seems that the forums now are loaded with questions I learned in the help docs, reading books, and video tutorials. Then there are ones that just make...
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