Using the timeline in After Effects CS3

Hi everryone
does anyone know how to use the timeline in after effects, is it the same as flash, as it seems to be different (more complicated!) anyone got any tips or ideas which may help me,
thanks
I appreciate it
Helen

> They are different in their approach but are both keyframe-based timelines.
I use both programs daily.
I bow, Steve.
Just having the Flash icon on my Mac gives me the creeps.
It's an irrational emotional issue for me, much like my loathing of Photoshop.
About six years ago, ten of us attended a two day immersion Flash class. These are filmmakers and and Photoshop geeks. In 16 hours of instruction, exercises and tutorials, no one ever said "Cool." Not once. it was monstrous.
bogiesan

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PowerPC G5 crashing with After Effects CS3

I have been having "catastrophic" crashes, that is a crash in Mac OSX where the screen goes dark and I have to hold the power key to reset the system when using After Effects CS3 on my PowerPC G5. Also if I am listening to music in iTunes it just goes into a looping drone, (not a nice sound I can tell you).
I was wondering if anyone else has had similar problems. I have been simply editing text in an AE comp and bang the system hangs. This only seems to happen when I am using After Effects. I have Gridiron Nucleo installed but I don't have it switched on, since it hasn't been playing too well. I also have a Blackmagic card and an internal raid system.
I am running the latest version of Tiger on the G5 and have all software up to date. I might have to upgrade to Leopard as I just don't trust it anymore. This has happened enough times for me to now be totally on edge when I am using the system with After Effects CS3. I have a Mac Pro and this just works beautifully when running AE CS3
Any thoughts would be welcome
all the best
richard

Actually it has happened before and I don't think I was editing text. So I am not entirely sure that was the culprit. Put it this way I can run Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D, even After Effects 7 without these problems. However I have started to steer clear of the machine and use the Intel Mac solely as I don't really have time for crashes if you know what I mean. Also it is slow in comparison which isn't surprising but it really seems like treacle compared to the quad core mac.

Adobe After Effects CS3 Crash help on Vista

I've installed and re installed After Effects about 5 times now and it keeps crashing when the splash screen pops up. The message "Adobe After Effects CS3 has stopped working." I found that the message comes up when its initializing Media Core. Here is the report from vista about the App Crash.
Please help!
Product
Adobe After Effects CS3
Problem
Stopped working
Date
9/17/2008 1:39 AM
Status
Not Reported
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: AfterFX.exe
Application Version: 8.0.0.298
Application Timestamp: 465d3a47
Fault Module Name: StackHash_acaf
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000096
Exception Offset: 0ff62a3b
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: acaf
Additional Information 2: b76b3522689a083200114e083ecf3e98
Additional Information 3: 0c56
Additional Information 4: 4d8a5cc0ffe3e3a2cf058732c3c78aad
Thanks!

I used CS3 Clean script and followed all the instructions for "Bigger problem-solving tools" and "Other Tips & Tricks" on http://generalspecialist.com/2007/02/troubleshooting-after-effects-7.asp.
I'm still having the same problem but only StackHash_d742 is the problem none of the other extensions are showing up, after I attempt to run the program multiple times.
Is there a way to track this file down?
Here is the new problem report:
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: AfterFX.exe
Application Version: 8.0.0.298
Application Timestamp: 465d3a47
Fault Module Name: StackHash_d742
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000096
Exception Offset: 0ccb2a3b
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: d742
Additional Information 2: 8c0b39e9167d2af32cd5918c4e47ad30
Additional Information 3: 0bc6
Additional Information 4: b9a642c2fb7d280dedb83638cddb3589
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 933737916
-Logan

[discuss] Does anyone use the Timeline Effects?

Just curious. I don't, but I probably would if the effects
were better -- the system itself of applying and editing effects
works nice.

I've never used the Timeline Effects either, and after some
fooling around with them I think these are the main reasons:
1) There aren't very many effects. I don't expect to discover
much there.
2) The effects that are there aren't particularly useful.
I've never really needed to "explode" or "expand" something in my
animation. Some of the effects are so basic they don't seem to
really offer any benefit over normal tweening, such as Transform
and Transition. And what about Text effects? If there were
professional text effects, such as the quality found in After
Effects, I'd find that useful.
3) The effects that exist are not very high quality. They
aren't smooth and natural looking.
4) The preview framerate is not synchronized to your movie
framerate, so the preview is mostly useless.
5) UI visibility of the Timeline Effect is really low.
There's no indication in the timeline or Property panel that a
symbol is actually a timeline effect. The only way to edit or
create a timeline effect is through a menu. This makes for a very
awkward interface.
5) You can only have a single Timeline Effect at once.
6) A Symbol with a Timeline Effect can't be edited, you can't
even adjust the frame span in the timeline without the timeline
effect being "baked" and not editable anymore. This makes some of
the "helpers" particularly useless, since it basically locks down
your selection after being applied.
So in the end I think I'll avoid extending Timeline Effects
altogether and just create some Commands to help us in creating
tweens. Any suggestions as far as that goes?

After effects won't download, but premiere pro does. You can't use this version of the application "Adobe After Effects CS6" with this version of OS X.

after effects won't download, but premiere pro does.
error: You can’t use this version of the application “Adobe After Effects CS6” with this version of OS X.
i have macbook pro 10.10 osX yosemite??

CS6 is 3 years old... long before Yosemite
Mac Yosemite causes problems for some people, especially for OLDER programs
-http://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/creative-cloud-and-yosemite/
-https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/mac-os-yosemite-compatability.html

Using Photoshop CS3 & After Effects CS3

Hey All,
I just created an animation in After Effects CS3. I am working from a 2D PSD file with a lot of layers. I am working on a PPC Mac, Quad G5 with 4.5GB RAM. I am running OS X 10.4.11.
When I add the comp to the render queue it cannot render due to the image size of the PSD is too large. When I reduce the image size in Photoshop and then switch back to after effects, the animation is thrown off. I have certain layers that are parented to other layers and it seems that when I change the image size and switch back AE pays no mind to them, and they are scattered all over the place.
Make sense?
Can anyone help please?
Thanks,
Sean

Thanks Mylenium. The anchor point is centered on my parent layer in this animation and it still throws everything off when I change the image size. So taking your suggestion of creating a null layer:
My Original Image is (in pixels WxH) 8741 x 5831. And I am working in a 720x480 project. I know, I should have created a 720x480 new file to begin with and conform everything to that then I wouldn't have this problem, but I didn't want to sacrifice image quality.
Would I create a Null object 8741 x 5831? or Would it be 720x480?
What do you mean by copy the animation? Duplicate the layers? Or Copy & Paste?
Then after I am done with that should I go back into Photoshop and change the size?
Sorry if this seems silly but I have not run into this problem yet. I think next time I will change the image size before I start animating.

Why is it when I use light leaks in after effects why does it stop When I'm in the middle of a ram preview?

Why is it when I use light leaks in after effects why does it stop when I'm in the middle of a ram preview? also any idea on how render as well and and how to increase ram?
Please answer me back when you can
tthanks

FAQ: Why does RAM preview only play part of my composition?
Getting started with After Effects (CS4, CS5, CS5.5, CS6, & CC) | After Effects region of interest
Mylenium

Adobe After Effects CS3 horrible export quality

I made an intro for my Youtube channel using Adobe After Effects CS3, in the preview and whilst I was rendering the video quality was remarkable, no flaw in it. But after it rendered and I exported it as a .flv file the quality was horrible and grainy. Since I'm starting a serious channel my videos have to be high quality, including the intro. Is there any way to make it better quality, perhaps a free program that converts it into a better quality extension, or anything. I appreciate any feedback since I really need this intro in high quality.
Here's the video link as you can see it's grainy as hell, even when put at 720p(HD):
As I mentioned before in the preview and whilst rendering the quality was one of the best I've ever seen, no grain or anything, it was flawless, but when I exported, the quality turned to s***. Please help.

Well, straight to the point: Read YouTube's requirements! FLV? They don't even recomemnd it themselves and in the last 3 years nobody serious has used it. There are enough free H.264 encoders based on ffmpeg. Download one and render an uncompressed movie from AE to be used for final output.
Mylenium

Premiere CS3 vs After Effect CS3 !

Ok friends hopping someone gives a detailed or a brief feedback on this !
I used to use Sony Vegas, but later on i discovered that Adobe Premiere CS3 was much better software, so i started to use Premiere CS3 few month ago and so far have been very very happy with the Chroma , garbage remover and few more ...
i also installed Adobe After Effect CS3, but my question for you is how do you compare AE with Premiere ! I noticed plug in manufactures mostly make plug ins for AE, at the same time there are many plug ins for Premiere as well , but not as many as i can find for AE.
for example RedGiant makes plug ins for AE and they also have 60% for Premiere ..
please give me your brief or detailed idea about why would you use AE or why would you use Premiere !
So far i have using Premiere for evertyhing (Adding fx and etc)

As Shooterz says, "Have a play" - meaning, you are going to have to use each program to see for yourself how they differ.
So, for example, do this tutorial for premiere (or any other):
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/premiere/articles/preppictinpict.html
And do this for After Effects.
http://www.toolfarm.com/tutorials/gleam1.html
I've picked one for each that shows its most relevant strengths - video for Premiere and motion graphics for AE.

Export to After Effects CS3 in FCE 4 workflow.

I set up my FCE 4 prefs to edit video in After Effects CS3. After I rendered the clip in FCE 4, I right clicked to >edit video in editor, After Effects CS3 opened and low and behold sat my clip with the same settings that my FCE 4 project had. After some AE title work, to get it back into FCE 4 I used Render Queue in AE set at the same settings. I then took the .mov and overwrote the clip in FCE 4. The composite looked like the original ( with the new compositing work of course ). The audio even worked perfect.
I tried to do the same thing in Motion 2 ... um .... no luck. Motion would not open any files... period.
This may work as a nice round trip compositing workflow that was taken away with the export features that were in FCE 3.5 HD.
Since Motion is not available as a separate app any longer, this may be a great alternative for FCE 4 users who what to do some compositing in their projects.
Ed

Curious, what does Apple want you to do with open video in editor feature in FCE 4?
I think it works with Livetype 2, but it's not a video editor in my opinion.
Can't round trip with Motion and FCP with the edit in video option. I think I saw a tutorial once where after you have done an initial round trip, you can use this feature to go back and forth?
I know that you can open Motion projects in AE by changing the extension. I do not think I would open LiveType in AE, doesn't make sense to me.
At least us FCE users who want to do some compositing work have some options. I still wish I could round trip with Motion though.
Ed

Adobe After Effects CS3 won't install

I have windows XP, and I used to have my version of Adobe After Effects CS3 installed. Then I uninstalled it because it kept crashing, but I forgot to deactivate it before I uninstalled it. Now every time I've tried reinstalling it, the installation goes completely fine until the last step, when it says:
Summary:
Successfully installed: 3 component(s):
Adobe After Effects CS3 Template Projects and Footage
Adobe After Effects CS3 Third Party Content
Shared Components
Errors: 2 component(s):
Adobe After Effects CS3
Component install failed
Shared components
component install failed
I don't know how to fix this! I've tried multiple times at reinstalling it but each time without success. I've also ran the installation as administrator, and I've restarted my computer. Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks a lot!

Did you correctly uninstall the software? Are there other Adobe programs on the system? Sounds like there are other, newer versions that throw off the install. You need to uninstall those and reinstall them after you have installed CS3. Also simply delete the caps.db in C:\Program Files\Common Fiels\Adobe\caps. And for further diagnosis it might help to have a look at the install logs.
Mylenium

ExternalObject undefined in After Effects CS3

Hi, we have After Effects CS3 and have developed an external library that we would like to use from Extend Script.
When I launch Extend Script Toolkit and target itself, I can create the ExternalObject.
However, whenever the script runs targetting After Effects, we get the error message that "ExternalObject is undefined".
The Javascript CS3 guide clearly says that the ExternalObject javascript object is supported by all CS3 applications.
Is there some special configuration that needs to be done to enable this in After Effects?
Thanks,
Matt

Here's the response from a bug report I made on the issue. Turns out that it is not supported, and the manual is incorrect. Boo!!
It appears that AE CS3 does not support ExternalObject. After Effects CS4 supports it and you can create a ExternalObject with any framework, but you can't do anything useful with that object (even version always returns zero).
Aslo, the syntax should be:
Exporter.tgaInfoLib = new ExternalObject("lib:TGAInfo");
Steve
-the After Effects Team
On 9/21/09 1:22 AM, "matt connolly"> wrote:
The following information was submitted on the Software Feature Request and Bug Report Form for After Effects
Name                       : Matt Connolly
Email Address              : <deleted>
Company/Institution        : THQ Studio Australia
Feature Request/Bug Report : Bug Report
Product                    : After Effects
Product Version            : CS3 8.0.2
Browser                    : Safari
Web Server                 :
Application Server         :
Database                   :
Operating System           : Windows XP
OS version                 : SP3
HTTPREFERRER               : https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
Feedback Report            : ******BUG******
ExternalObjects not available in ExtendScriptToolkit when Adobe After Effects is the exedcution target. ExternalObject objects can be created when the ExtendScript Toolkit application is the execution target.
Steps to reproduce bug:
1. run this script with target = ExtendScript Toolkit:
ExternalObject.searchFolders = g_tgaInfoDLLDir;
   Exporter.tgaInfoLib = new ExternalObject("lib:TGAInfo.dll");
works.
2. Change target to Adobe After Effects CS3.
3. run same script. fails with error: "ExternalObject undefined"
Results:
ExternalObject is accessible in ExtendScript Toolkit, but not in Adobe After Effects CS3 (v8.0.2.27)
Expected results:
Expected to work in both, as per page 185 of Javascript Tools Guide:
"All Creative Suite 3 applications support this feature."

[problem]Error "sfntread library error (83::4)" when you start After Effects CS3 (Windows)

Hello,
I am experiencing the above stated problem in the subject. I downloaded the trial version off the website. But when starting the program, i got the error:
Error "sfntread library error (83::4)" when I start After Effects CS3
I tried looking at resolving it through the help posted in the support site.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402858&sliceId=2
Apparently, the value which was asked to change, it was already set to "0"
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Well, I have no more detailed info for you, but if this error (and other, similar ones) pops up, it is usually a good idea to take a look at your shared Adobe components and other Adobe programs. The error itself seems related to the Adobe font system and/or generic vector rasterization engine such as it is also used by Acrobat and various import/ export filters. Therefore a good place to start is to remove any fonts on the system that you don't need. The engine may simply be trying to load them and then fails because they are damged or have some otehr ominous info. If that fails, look into what otehr apps you have on the system. Run the Adobe Updater to make sure you have all the latest versions. If it still does not work think about uninstalling the products. I know it's a pain, but it may get AE to function. As a helper, use the CS3 Clean scripts from the support pages. These will work a little faste and really kill everything (compared to a normal uninstall), Just make sure to deactivate before uninstalling, or you may run into trouble when trying to reactivate.
Mylenium

After Effects CS3 - error: could not create 8935 x 9152 image buffer + slow

Hello. I am receiving this error message every time i try render my 3min composition. it gets about 1/5 way through which takes about an hour. i have read the General Specialist troubleshooting guide and it has not helped yet.
i am now rendering with Image Cache: Maximum RAM Cache Size at 10% and purging after every 20 frames (in secret prefs) - even if this works, the 3min render is estimated to finish in 9hrs. Does this sound normal, or acceptable? Is it possible i have a hardware deficiency? or something else lacking.
My PC specs are: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.40GHz; 4GB RAM; Geforce 8800 GTS. Running XP 32bit SP3; After Effects CS3 (fully updated). I have updated my graphics card driver (180.48) and my mainboard chipset driver. My memory settings are as they appear in the http://generalspecialist.com/2006/11/avoiding-after-effects-error-could-not.asp guide, & I've dropped max RAM cache to 10%. My disk cache size is 10000MB and set to an empty 75GB 10000RPM Raptor HDD.
The composition has 30 layers - mainly layers imported from PSDs and then animated with basic transform tools and some distortion effects (wave warp) to create 2D character animation. There are 6 pre-composed layers containing the same kind of PSD layers and animation. I try to render out to an uncompressed .avi in 720x576 with 15fps.
Even before I noticed this rendering problem, After Effects runs painfully slowly. the composition monitor takes ages to refresh, even in the Quarter quality view mode i am forced to work in. and over the course of the day, on 3 occasions - the PC lagged after scrubbing through the timeline, froze, then Blue Screen of Death'ed before rebooting before i could even read the blue screen error.
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Thanks,
Nick.

>Does this sound normal, or acceptable?
It sounds normal within the realm of AE, but how acceptable it really is, is another matter entirely. ;-) As suggested, scaling the sources in PS would be one way, another one would be to chop up the large documents into manual tiles and parent them together. Based on how AE works, only tiles visible within the comp frame will be loaded, which should make the whole process more streamlined. That's assuming they are not 3D layers that need to be fully visible at any given point, of course. Even then, rendering to an image sequence is still advisable in case of crashes... Depending on what you actually do, you may also want to find a different way of dealing with your distortion effects. They considerably expand/ dilate image buffers for processing, complicating the matter further.
Mylenium

Adobe After Effects CS3 Crashes

When I try to run the program I get the following error:
After Effects can't continue: sorry, After Effects has crashed. See http://www.adobe.com/support/products/aftereffects.html for know issues. If you still can't resolve the issue, please contant Adobe Technical Support (2).
( 0 :: 42)
I've been searching ages around the net to find a solution, thought I haven't came across one. I really hope someone can help me with this problem.
It's very strange, because when I run the program as Administrator, the error doesn't occur. But when I import a video, open a project or something the same error pops up. Any idea's?

I have a 512MB graphics card, 4 GB of RAM. My computer should be able to handle it. It can handle the thoughest games, so.
Next to that, I also have Premiere Pro CS3, which used to work but doesn't anymore. When I start that up, it says Program doesn't work anymore and it shuts down automaticly.
And about the last status message, the only thing I see it the square after effects splash thing. Saying it uses 1% of my 4GB, then the error pops up and nothing happends.
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Using the timeline in After Effects CS3

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