setting-up for HDTV/PAL in AE

Hello there,

I've got a lot of technical experience working with graphics but I'm new to After Effects/Motion Graphics and I'm having some trouble getting my head around how to set-up with a view to the final output.

What I want to get to is a position where I can work on a project to go on DVD that could also be broadcast. I want to make sure I don't do something at the outset that creates big problems technically later and I want to try and build in room for manuvere at a facilities/post-production house.

This has to be better than SDTV. Having reviewed the options it looks like 720p is a good balance between what my system can handle, origination workloads and my desire for some quality. Does that seem like the right choice?

Crucially, I can't seem to nail what frame rate to use. Because I'm in Europe (London) I was think of using 25 because it matches with PAL - but then I thought if I use 24 I could open up an option to have the work transferred to film.

I'm also not 100% there yet on the issue of square pixels.

The raw material for this project will come from Photoshop and AI - but I will want to import Quicktime footage of some 3D stuff from Cinema 4D.

Any assistance that points in the right direction would very greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot for taking time out to read this post...

Best regards,

Graham Proctor