Anyone here using After Effects in their workflow?

Steve_Rhoden schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 19:03 Uhr

I highly recommend After Effects at every level, Hands down, Every serious editor
needs to have AE as part of their creative Process.
The first free resource i always point every newbie to, to first start getting familiar
properly with AE, is over at VideoCopilot's Basic Training page.

Marco. schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 19:21 Uhr

Though comparing After Effects with HitFilm is like comparing apples and oranges I'd recommend catching some previews onto HitFilm. Besides the given frameserver workflow between HitFilm and Vegas Pro 12 I find HitFilm is very powerful, e.g. you'd get a special version of mocha which also offers 3D camera solving. HitFilm's integrated 1-point and 2-point tracker are useful two for simpler match-moving tasks. Also the HitFilm chroma keyer is outstanding. You can import 3D models into HitFilm and work with them in 3D space and also particles act in 3D space.

HitFilm's level is lower than After Effect's one and same is for the price. So it might be worth a look.

Lovelight schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 20:08 Uhr

I render uncompressed HD avi to vegas from AE.

Arthur.S schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 20:27 Uhr

I use AE for the odd slideshow and intros. I'm only 'basic' trained with it.

Tech Diver schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 20:54 Uhr

@Marco
I already have HitFilm Ultimate and it is a nice tool as a particle engine with a camera solver (mocha HitFilm). It's other advantage is that it imports 3D models. However, it is not a true 3D compositor. All the effects are actually 2D within a 3D environment. For example, create a model of planet Earth on a 3D sphere and try giving it a blurry atmosphere. It cannot be done. Boris Red can do it, but it does not have a good particle modeler and it does not interface to a camera solver. Another diappointing part of HitFilm is its very limited character generator. Don't get me wrong, it's still a nice tool but with many limitations.

@Lovelight
Thanks for the workflow info. Do you also bring it back the same way?

I'm definitely leaning toward getting AE. But I would like to hear about some more workflows before I do.

Peter

Marco. schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 21:10 Uhr

I see you are well aware of the pros and cons of HitFilm. I totaly agree with your opinions. E.g. if you need 3D effects to be used in 3D space or professional titles it's not (yet) the way to go.

farss schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 22:40 Uhr

Another AE on and off user here.
Done the spinning Earth thing with AE, solved 3D by hand to add elements to a shot.
Render out as either uncompressed or DNxHD, oftenly do the final comp back in Vegas.
Bought only a few plugins such as Trapcode Form.
I enjoy using AE, good to just do something different in a different space every now and then. The interface in AE works very well, it easily eats having 100 layers of HD that chokes Vegas.

Bob.

Tech Diver schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 22:50 Uhr

Thank Bob - good information.

Peter

robwood schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 22:57 Uhr

"what is your typical workflow for transferring clips back and forth (from After Effects)?" - Tech Diver

i work in sRGB and use 8bit uncompressed AVI both ways (just before i render out of AE, the project setting is always set to16bit to avoid banding)

larry-peter schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 23:07 Uhr

+1 After Effects. It's a good tool for any editor to have basic knowledge of. I haven't tried in VP12 yet, but in prior versions (32 bit versions, at least) AAFimport worked for what I generally needed - simple import of an edited clip sequence. Sometimes I will render uncompressed avi, DNxHD or Lagarith from Vegas to AE and vice versa, but since AE started handling AVCHD well, I will generally use AAF to work with the original footage.
Hopefully AAF export will work in VP12, but in 11, 64bit version wouldn't do it.

winrockpost schrieb am 11.04.2013 um 23:44 Uhr

We use AE on just about every project... usually render out QT animation or uncompressed avi.. for adding to vegas 10 project.....by the way you can now buy
(rent) monthly from adobe

Lovelight schrieb am 12.04.2013 um 05:11 Uhr

Tech Diver, not sure what you mean bring it back. Things depends on the final output ( Bluray, web delivery, or dvd). That sets my workflow. I've always been very impressed in every way with AE. It is better than Boris & Hitfilm, but Boris & Hitfilm are easier & faster to use with Vegas.

I don't think you can go wrong with renting AE for a month unless you don't use it. The render quality is exceptional with vector graphics & the virtual cameras are sublime.

dimipapa schrieb am 12.04.2013 um 09:07 Uhr

I've had a hard enough time trying to learn hitfilm. Maybe if I ever get more sales on fiverr I might consider tinkering with after effects too.

emmo5611 schrieb am 12.04.2013 um 13:38 Uhr

I have recently attempted with great success, exporting the vegas file into after effects as a premiere pro file. Then I work on the pieces I need rendered it out to an AVI or .MOV uncompressed file and open it back in vegas. Works flawlessly.

I also have Hitfilm Ultimate 2 and if I could get the vegas to hitfilm workflow to work in and out of vegas, I would use it all the time. I just have not had much success with it to date.

For now I am going to stick with AE, much stronger program and strangley enough, cheaper to rent the whole CS6 suite each month than pay for the full Hitfilm Ultimate 2

vtxrocketeer schrieb am 12.04.2013 um 14:24 Uhr

I use AE heavily in my workflow, mainly for compositing 3D animations and titling that I bring in from Cinema4D. I work with PSD (TIFF) sequences at 32-bit color depth rendered out of C4D, in AE, and then into Vegas. (If a render chokes, then I just resume rendering at a particular frame (PSD file); can't do that with video files, generally.)

I sat down and got basic training in AE. Consequently, I often find it easier (for me) to composite projects in AE than in Vegas. An example was a commercial animation that I didn't buy but it inspired me to make a unique project from whole cloth. In AE, it was a snap. I would have been pulling out my hair attempting that in Vegas. Right tool for the job...

Tech Diver schrieb am 13.04.2013 um 04:51 Uhr

@Lovelight: By "bring it back", I was presuming that you want to bring it back into Vegas for further editing but that you might want the media in something other than an uncompressed form. I personally only use uncompressed media as a temporary intermediate data format, as these files can be quite large. Once I am done with my non-Vegas tools (e.g. object tracking and removal in mocha Pro), I will usually render the results as a XDCAM EX MP4 file (like my camera footage) to save space.

Peter

Lovelight schrieb am 13.04.2013 um 17:51 Uhr

Thanks, I see. I render mostly to AVCHD out of Vegas from the uncompressed avi from AE.

Tech Diver schrieb am 14.04.2013 um 16:33 Uhr

I thank you all for your excellent responses/feedback, as they were extremely helpful. I am now convinced of the virtues of AE and will be purchasing a copy of Creative Suite next month.

Best to all,
Peter

Mikeof7 schrieb am 14.04.2013 um 20:20 Uhr

Now that you've made your decision, you'll find that the "eco system" for AE is huge. There are a vast number of templates you can download free or buy that can definitely inspire or assist immediately. One such resource is videohive.net. You'll also find a healthy assortment of plug-ins that provide powerful and fast results. VideoCopilot has a bunch of those to include Element 3D. It's a ton o' fun.

JohnnyRoy schrieb am 15.04.2013 um 02:47 Uhr

I usually render to Cineform to go back and forth between Vegas Pro and After Effects. Cineform edits smoothly in both and it's a visually loss-less transfer.

~jr

Bryant schrieb am 16.11.2013 um 04:28 Uhr

I am one of two editors who work as part of a five-person global communications department. We rely on both Vegas Pro 12 and After Effects (latest version) for our workflow.

All our editing (content directory, cuts, fades, noise reduction, soundtrack) happens in Vegas. I don't think there is a better NLE out there that allows us to start editing and getting down to the real "creative" part of the process faster than Vegas does. It beats everything hands down.

When we're happy with the edit, first, we render out a wav file with just the audio of our entire production (I'll explain why later). Then, from inside Vegas we export to an Adobe Premiere project file. When asked to export the media pool, uncheck the box--you don't need for a new content directory to be created.

Now, from within After Effects, we import the Premiere file. You don't even need to have Adobe Premiere installed--we just use the .prproj file exported from Vegas as the middle-man to transfer our project to After Effects. At this point, we haven't rendered, or finalized anything yet.

When importing the Premiere file, uncheck the "inlcude audio" box. That's why we rendered out the wav file of our project from Vegas: now we just have a single event for the sound to deal with. So now on the timeline, you'll drop Sequence1 (or whatever it was renamed to in After Effects) and the the wav file (make sure to drag it into the After Effects composition) underneath it, and you should have the project you had in Vegas.

We use After Effects for all other effects other than fades (which we did in Vegas), for coloring (using the Sythentic Aperture plugin), green screen work, and to render out the final. The render engine in After Effects is much better than that in Vegas. We never use Vegas to render out anything except the wav file that was used.

Usually, we render out an uncompressed quicktime file (.mov) with no codec selected. Then we use Media Encoder (It comes with After Effects) to recompress the final video into the various formats we need. Since we already rendered out the uncompressed file, all the re-renders don't take as long.

One more thing: the only problem we've encountered using this workflow was that sometimes the cuts get shifted a little once you get into After Effects. We've discovered it's a frame-rate issue. For some reason, even if your project in Vegas was 24 fps and you select 24 fps in AE also, the cuts are always off. But it seems that when the composition setting in AE is 23.976, instead of 24, then it's okay. So recently, we've been making sure the Vegas projects are all 23.976 or 29.970 instead of 24 and 30 before we export the .prproj file.

So, that's the workflow!