Originally Posted by MuFf1n

So, basically, when you want to get smoke out of footage that has a black background, you just need to make a black solid to get rid of it?

Or in Halo 3, you put matte on a clip without the HUD and on top of it with the HUD?

The smoke clip on the black background would be a pre-matted clip (it was already keyed), hence
you can undo the process by using itself as a matte. Scree also does wonders.

Idk why you would matte out the clip without HUD, because your not getting rid
of anything. The clip with the HUD could be matted, but you might as well mask or key.

Originally Posted by RoboSteeze

The smoke clip on the black background would be a pre-matted clip (it was already keyed), hence
you can undo the process by using itself as a matte. Scree also does wonders.

Idk why you would matte out the clip without HUD, because your not getting rid
of anything. The clip with the HUD could be matted, but you might as well mask or key.

I basically meant it like this



HUD layer
No HUD layer ... Trkmatte "HUD layer"

Can you rename effects? Parent effects to other effects entirely? (Opposed to parenting every value to to the matching value on the parent)

Or is there any way to merge masks or strokes?

Originally Posted by RoboSteeze

The smoke clip on the black background would be a pre-matted clip (it was already keyed), hence
you can undo the process by using itself as a matte. Scree also does wonders.

Idk why you would matte out the clip without HUD, because your not getting rid
of anything. The clip with the HUD could be matted, but you might as well mask or key.

so, does that mean it only works on pre-keyed elements? I guess that wouldn't make sense if the background is pure black..right?

Originally Posted by MuFf1n

I basically meant it like this
HUD layer
No HUD layer ... Trkmatte "HUD layer"

Still not following sorry. :/ If you set it up the way i understood this ^ it would
cut a hole in your NO_HUD layer where the HUD was on the HUD layer.

Originally Posted by briansoupy

Can you rename effects? Parent effects to other effects entirely? (Opposed to parenting every value to to the matching value on the parent)

Or is there any way to merge masks or strokes?

Ya, select the Effect and press return, just like renaming a layer. You can't parent effects to
eachother, but you can do it with a script. If you'd want to see it I'll try n cook it up.
The script would just run through the parameters adding expressions that refer to the
original effect, just like you mentioned.

Originally Posted by B ToThe R

so, does that mean it only works on pre-keyed elements? I guess that wouldn't make sense if the background is pure black..right?

Not necessarily, but you normally use a matte with an image that's already keyed because
it has transparency or is already matted onto a black/white background. Pure black/white
is ideal because it translates into an either fully opaque (white) or fully transparent (black)
alpha channel. Simply put, you create a mask by hand because you don't start with anything,
and you create a matte with an image because you have something to start with.

Originally Posted by RoboSteeze

Ya, select the Effect and press return, just like renaming a layer. You can't parent effects to
eachother, but you can do it with a script. If you'd want to see it I'll try n cook it up.
The script would just run through the parameters adding expressions that refer to the
original effect, just like you mentioned.

Cool, thank you. You don't need to make the script for me, but if you did it might be a cool thing to release with your other scripts because it's helpful if you have multiple strokes in one scene. Can't really think of another good use though.

After Effects warning: Audio conforming failed for the following file: clip.cfa. Perhaps due to disk space.

This window used to pop up asking if I wanted to use ffdshow codec just this once, always, never and I never knew what to hit. At one point I most of hit 'Always' because there's currently 4 instances of it in my little notification area. Where do I find the settings to change this to never? It doesn't really do anything it just slows things down and makes that bastard error message pop-up a lot.

Originally Posted by briansoupy

After Effects warning: Audio conforming failed for the following file: clip.cfa. Perhaps due to disk space.

This window used to pop up asking if I wanted to use ffdshow codec just this once, always, never and I never knew what to hit. At one point I most of hit 'Always' because there's currently 4 instances of it in my little notification area. Where do I find the settings to change this to never? It doesn't really do anything it just slows things down and makes that bastard error message pop-up a lot.

I've never even heard of that filetype, but AE would much prefer a WAV if possible.

I think i know what ffdshow message your talking about, but i havent dealt with it
in a long time. I'm sure if you reinstalled it the config files would reset.

Originally Posted by RoboSteeze

I've never even heard of that filetype, but AE would much prefer a WAV if possible.

I think i know what ffdshow message your talking about, but i havent dealt with it
in a long time. I'm sure if you reinstalled it the config files would reset.

How do I go about reinstalling the config files?

By the way it happens with uncompressed avi's. The extension has me baffled as well.

I have 2,

1: Shit I already forgot..

Seriously though, I'll edit this when I remember, which should be soon.

Haha

1: When you add effects and whatnot to clips, it adds lag. But if you rendered it, keeping the quality, etc, it's the same, but less lag. If I precomposed something, would that be the same thing as rendering something? Or would the render-time stay the same?

2: Still haven't remembered this one..