How to continue drawing an interrupted Mask in After Effect

It's frustrating in AE  that if you interrupt the drawing of a Mask, the app makes a new Mask instead of continuing the first one.

First be aware of the interruption, then go back to the Pen Tool, select the Convert to Vertex Tool, and then click on the last point of your interrupted Mask.

Then go to and select Pen Tool again, and continue to draw the same Mask. Aaaah!

Software Frame Rate Conversion 23.976 to 25

There is a variety of ways to achieve frame rate conversion.  Using Hardware boxes like Terranex, Alchemist PhC, or... Software that's available to you.

And there are two ways to tackle it, you can either:

1) maintain the duration (= modify the number of frames) which has the effect that the footage will play at the same speed in the new 25 fps frame rate. This process is slower, takes more processing time,

or

2) reduce the duration (= maintain the same number of frames) which has the effect of speeding-up the footage in the new 25fps frame rate. This process is faster since no new frames are created.


Below are a few examples using different Software.  As a general rule, use the best settings possible and the best codec/export settings, knowing that highest quality equals longer render times. Run tests.


1) Maintain duration (plays at same speed) 

Compressor:
Use Apple Settings QT ProRes with pass through audio as a starting point.
Go to Inspector, Encoder, Video Format Select Frame Rate 25, make sure AR is correct. Verify your media source, check your Geometry tab, set Frame Size 1920x1080 and Pixel Aspect Square if necessary (Open Preview Window and look at the results)  Something is set wrong in the AR or Geometry if you are getting a squeezed or stretched image.
Go to Frame Control. turn Controls ON, select Rate Conversion: Best (You might see ghosting with the other settings, test on a short clip.)

After Effects:
import your footage, right-click / New comp from selection.
Go to: Composition / Settings, change Frame Rate to 25. Click OK.
In the Composition window, enable Frame Blending, set Layer / Frame Blending to Pixel Motion.
Optional: add Force Motion Blur to taste.

FCPX:
Import your footage.
File / New Project, set Frame Rate at 25
Drag your footage into the Project Timeline
Select the clip, Go to the Inspector /Video /Rate Conform, Select Frame Sampling = Optical Flow (best.)



2) Reduce duration (plays faster)

Cinema Tools
This one is probably the easiest of the bunch, but USE THIS ON A DUPLICATE FILE as it will modify the QT and not create a new one -- no rendering needed.  Open Clip, click Conform, Select Conform to 25, Click Conform. 

Compressor: 
Use Apple Settings QT ProRes with pass through audio as a starting point.
Go to Inspector, Encoder, Video Format Select Frame Rate 25, make sure AR is correct. Verify your media source, check you Geometry tab, set Frame Size 1920x1080 and Pixel Aspect Square if necessary (Open Preview Window and look at the results)  Something is set wrong in the AR or Geometry if you are getting a squeezed or stretched image.
Go to Frame Control. Click so Source Frames play at... Select 23.976 @ 25.

After Effects:
import your footage, right-click / interpret footage / Main
conform frame rate to 25, click OK, Export.

FCPX:
Import your footage.
File / New Project, set Frame Rate at 25
Drag your footage into the Project Timeline
Select the clip, Go to the Speed button, select Automatic Speed.

FCPX to Adobe After Effects roundtrip with Apple ProRes 4444XQ - Gamma is off

Update 12-16-14 from Adobe:

Media Encoder CC (2014.1) Bug Fixes

• Fixed: ProRes XQ sources decode with incorrect gamma setting

So I need to test again to see if this problem has been fixed with AE as well.

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A file (bars) is exported from FCPX, imported into AE, a Composition is rendered, the rendered file is imported into FCPX. We're using the same codec for FCPX Project settings, Export settings, Render settings.

It seems to be a Gamma issue. The highlights (100 IRE) are fine, the blacks (0 IRE) are fine, but everything in between is compressed = darker.

And it is visible as soon as the file is imported into AE, so it looks like AE misinterprets the ProRes4444XQ codec on import.

Scope trace of the ProRes4444XQ file in FCPX:

Scope trace of the ProRes4444XQ file from After Effects CC (shifted down = darker):

DaVinci Lite 11 on the other hand has a perfect roundtrip with no shift.

Scope trace of the ProRes4444XQ file from DaVinci Lite 11:

Hopefully we will get an update from Adobe that fixes this problem. From my tests, every other flavor of ProRes imports /roundtrips fine with AE CC, with no shift.

Note that only ProRes4444 and ProRes4444XQ have no Embedded Color Profiles in AE. All the other flavors of ProRes (422LT, 422, 422HQ) are in Rec709. But ProRes4444XQ is the only one that exhibits a shift

Below are the same before/after with ProRes4444, with no shift.

Scope trace of the ProRes4444 file in FCPX:

Scope trace of the ProRes4444 file from After Effects CC:

Are you experimenting the same shift / darker result on your system?

After Effects Layer disappears on Render or Pre-Compose

I was battling with this until I realized the Layer (Text Layer) had the option "Guide Layer" accidentally turned on. (Layer options are accessible with Right+Click.)


After I turned it off, the Layer rendered / Pre-Composed just fine.

Adobe After Effects - Replace Source in Layer

    This is so useful!  Replace layer sources with references to another footage item in After Effects:
- Select one or more layers in the Timeline panel
- Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a footage item from the Project panel onto the selected layer in the Timeline panel.
http://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/creating-layers.html