Various Questions about AE features...

[LordEdington]

Hi guys,

I've been using AE for over a year now and I like to think I've got a basic understanding of how everything works, I'm no Andrew Kramer, but I'm getting there!

However, there's a few things I've always wondered and I'd be really grateful if somebody could enlighten me!

1) What's the difference between RAM preview options and Shift+RAM preview options?

2) If I've gone all 'F9' on a keyframe then how do I 'un-F9' it later on without having to use undo over and over? I can't seem to find a way to change it back...

3) How come if I'm working with an animated camera then sometimes it seems to make up keyframes as it goes along. For example... I move the camera to a location, i set it to be stationary for 2 seconds and then move off to another view. However, during that 2 seconds it moves off to the side for a second and then back?!

4) I've only recently been doing quite a bit of 3D work so this one has only started to bother me recently... say I'm half way through my comp, I drag in a 2D layer, do a bit of masking then turn on 3D it disappears off to the location of the beginning of the comp. I then have to go back to the comp and steer it all around the shop to get it where I wanted it initially! I'm sure there's some magic keyboard shortcut, but unfortunately I don't know what it is! Is there a way to align a newly created 3D layer to the current location of the camera?

Last one...

5) What are the best settings to be using in my Memory and Multiprocessing preferences? This one always confuses me......

I'm on CS4 but I don't have a very good system at all... it's an Intel core 2 duo, Vista Premium 1.8Ghz laptop which originally had 2GB of RAM but I upgraded to 4GB.it's a 32bit system so AE is recognising me as having 2.99Gb. I hardly ever run any other software while in AE so I want to pump as much as I can in the direction of AE.

It's currently on the defaults, so 'Total AE memory usage: 1.2Gb', 'Ram to leave for other apps: 0.5Gb' and 'Render multiple frames simultaneously' is unchecked. Should I turn it on?!

Any help on any or all of these questions would be gratefully received!

Thanks.

Scott

[bellacose]

1) What's the difference between RAM preview options and Shift+RAM preview options?

The main difference is that a RAM preview will run in a full-size window; while, the SHIFT+RAM preview will run while still showing all the other panels. The advantage of SHIFT+RAM would be that you can see your timeline while watching the animation.

2) If I've gone all 'F9' on a keyframe then how do I 'un-F9' it later on without having to use undo over and over? I can't seem to find a way to change it back...

You can right-click on the keyframe and change it back to a linear keyframe from and easy ease, using the drop-down that will pop-up

3) How come if I'm working with an animated camera then sometimes it seems to make up keyframes as it goes along. For example... I move the camera to a location, i set it to be stationary for 2 seconds and then move off to another view. However, during that 2 seconds it moves off to the side for a second and then back?!

This is because of the way AE is interpolating the two keyframes. I don't have AE open at the moment, but, there is a way to change the interpolation to linear, and that will stop the random, un-wanted movement. I'm sure someone else could fill in the blanks that I have left here.

4) I've only recently been doing quite a bit of 3D work so this one has only started to bother me recently... say I'm half way through my comp, I drag in a 2D layer, do a bit of masking then turn on 3D it disappears off to the location of the beginning of the comp. I then have to go back to the comp and steer it all around the shop to get it where I wanted it initially! I'm sure there's some magic keyboard shortcut, but unfortunately I don't know what it is! Is there a way to align a newly created 3D layer to the current location of the camera?

The best way that I've found to deal with this issue, is to always use a null to control your camera; this way, if you need to move a new 3d layer into frame, all you have to do is ctrl+copy the position data for the null, then ctrl+paste it into the postion of your layer. You might still need to nudge it around a bit; but, at least you can see the layer.

I'm not sure what setting are best for your last question, perhaps someone else could shed more light on that for you. Hopefully I've helped you with the other questions, though! Take care, and good luck in the future.


Sincerely

~bellacose~

[LordEdington]

Thanks for taking the time to answer, much appreciated! I think I've found the setting for that 3D issue as well, I think it's under the same interpolation options as my issue with the F9 thing but under the 'spatial' options so you managed to help me kill 2 birds with one stone by showing me where to look!

Just need to try playing around with null objects now... never tried using them for camera control before, only for tracking data, even though Andrew seems to a lot. Not sure why,maybe I just like the camera tools and grew lazy when it came to experimenting!

Thanks again...

[bellacose]

You are welcome sir; I'm glad to be able to help!

Parenting the camera to a null gives you far better control. Try it and you will immediately see the difference. For instance, if you just rotate the camera, you get weird results because the camera actually has two points, the camera itself, and the anchor point. If you use a null, and rotate it, the anchor point stays fixed and the camera will orbit the null, which is nice.

Sincerely

~bellacose~

[SteveBlacker]

For 2)...

You can also ctrl-click (or command+click) on an eased keyframe to revert it back to linear. May take a couple of clicks to get back to linear. Just a bit quicker than using the drop-down menu, I find.

Cheers.