Re: how would one make the pink and white background in this link?

Very Old thread but still I thought I will add one more way to do this to the existing million ways :)

1. Draw a Star Shape layer (center it)
2. Increase Points > 20
3. Inner Radius = 0
4. Outer Radius = Large value to cover your solid
5. Adjust the inner and outer roundness to make it look flat
6. Lo! Sun Burst :-)

And since this is shape layer then probably you can do more magic.

PS: I think the initial question may not be valid as I am not sure if Shape layers were there in 2006 version of After effects. I started from CS3