Adobe After Effects Reference:
Production shortcuts, recommended render settings
( & Sharing advice on some problem solving issues I encountered as a After effects editor and user.)
by "Nightmare Kinetics" - updated 8/24/07

These are some keystroke production shortcuts and quick tips on working effectively in AE.

After Effects Keyframe shortcuts for production:

The Hold Key: (control+alt+click) on a keyframe to change to a “hold” frame
Mark Audio points? - select (wav) layer , tap (asterix) on the numeric keyboard
Replace image in a timeline? Select layer first, Grab new image from Project window , hold Alt and drop over layer
Scrub Values? Hold Shift or Cntrl
Snap to Keyframe? Hold Shift and drag timeline to keyframe
Add single Keyframes Shortcuts? Alt+Shift+Property Ex: (Alt+Shift+P = for position)
Flip or mirror image? - Drag one side (handle) and pull completely over the other side.
Trying out different compression schemes? Set up multiple renders and render all overnight.

Keyframe Rate should equal FPS
To increase size of output file reduce the Keyframe rate
Enable Frame blending for smoother avi files, (slower render though)

for Film look: try "Magic Bullet filters"

Renderings:
I've listed the settings I use for various render outputs based on need of the output.
Also these are for "out of the box" AE renders, there are other software packages such as Sorenson Squeeze, and related that do much more fine-tuned renders.

As a rule, I usually will render out a piece as uncompressed if I'm going to be re-rendering it. This means either as a re-import into AE, or as an asset into Encore DVD. This reduces the double render, and reduced the chance of artifacts.
Now, I mainly deal with pieces that are under 5 minutes, which renders out at 10 plus GB's. So if you are rendering a hour long .mov or .avi DONT RENDER THE WHOLE PIECE UNCOMPRESSED, unless you have server space to back it up
WHY? I've killed my hard drive by doing that by accident, What happens is your piece renders into this 100 GB piece and freezes or fills up the hard drive.
I've had to have my HD erased, and lost hours of work in the process.

Notes:
Quicktime (animation) codec setting (.mov)
Is the preferred output setting of high res
though because of size won't play well in Media player

If disk space is a issue?
Windows for Media (Microsoft Video comression) quality 100
at 720 x 480 at 4:15 minutes it saved as 2.55 GB’s

Encore DVD compatible? - Make sure to render at 29.9 FPS

After Effects: Best Text Rendering? - Text Tips
This was a process I was never quite sure of given all the ways you can import text.
So I asked around and then did a test to make sure.
Now, you can bring in your text as Photoshop layers, Illustrator files , as well as typing directly in AE.
Important: The thing to remember is if you bring in text on a Photoshop layer, even if it "wasn't" rasterized in Photoshop it will come in as a rasterized text in AE.

So how to get around this?
Easy... make sure you change "each text " layer to "Editable text"

Select the text in the "Project window" and go to: Layer--->Convert to Editable text

This will turn it into a font again and in result make it "scalable without pixelation".
That's what you want. The same sharp edges at 500% as at %100.
(ps... Remember though you should still render your file out as highres as well, see render settings)
Whatever text file system you use, this converting to "editable text" is highly recommended.

As editable text you can apply many "animation presets", tweak settings and make your like a whole lot easier. AND, retain clarity when upscaling the font. You also get back the ability to kern in AE for specialized effects
(keyboard shortcut --- Option plus <-- or -->)

What if you are altering the text to a custom design look?
Well then it isn't really a font anymore, so the best bet is a large Illustrator .eps or 600 dpi photoshop file. Though remember you will lose your ability to add "animation presets".


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Crashing alot - while rendering?
These are common area's I've flagged

1) Your sound files may be causing the crash, I tend to have trouble with .wav files in AFX, so I convert them all to .aiff and that seems to do the trick.

2) purge your cache or restart AFX

3) Your hard drive should be defragged on a nightly basis, I use "DiscKeeper" which runs on a script late in the night.

4) If an area if real effects heavy, sometimes it helps to render out that section as uncompressed, and bring it back in as a new .avi file. This is also a great time saver in being proactive on sections that render long. It creates more files on your hard drive, but saves time in editing as you don't have to wait for the heavy FX render

5) Turn on "caps lock" while rendering, This keeps the preview from refreshing and saves on system resources.

6) Pre-render effects heavy clips or sections as uncompressed and re-import the clip to replace in timeline.

7) Trick!! - Hold shift key as you select Edit-->preferences. Then chose "general". The preferences drop down menu will now contain an extra selection called "secret". Chose this.
enter in "20" under purge every________ frames.


Crashing on open?
So upon starting you receive a error message?
1- First note what the error message is?
2- Does it call out a specific .dll or plugin?
3- if so do a search on your computer and remove that offending file.
4- Does it error with an Apple message?
then you most likely have a problem with Quicktime
5-Did you recently install a new Quicktime version or un-install?
There's your answer.
After Effects wont run without Quicktime !!!


File crashes halfway thru its render?
Now i have noticed that when working with large files such as HD format or even a large animated .tif, jpg that the render will error out on certain occasions.
How did I solve this? Well if its erroring out on an image file (.tif, .jpg, etc) then you probably have the resolution too high (600?)
Just resave it as 300dpi and make adjustments in your timeline for the smaller size.

or

if you are using a color correction plugin such as Magic bullet which consumes alot of resources you may have to render your file twice. Once with no color correction and then using the rendered clip, reimport it and turn your color corrections back on.
Sure it takes up more space, but you'll get your clip rendered and finished. or you may need to save your file, then restart AFX and then start rendering.


AFX starts fine, then gets slower the previews are shorter?
On really large files such as HDTV jobs, cache purging only seems to crash AFX so I'll work for a while, save and restart AFX again. The bottom line is you may need alot more ram installed

Ram preview options: (if problems - check these first)
Frame Rate: set to "auto" or number of desired frame rate
Skip: Enables you to skip frames for faster previews, though not recommended setting very high or you wont get a true preview. I usually leave at "0" or maybe "1"
Resolution: Again best to leave on "auto", so it recognizes your preview resolution setting in your monitor window.

Ram preview problem: Not rendering work area correctly?
From current time: leave unchecked or AFX will start rendering where ever your "Time marker" is at, and ignores work area markers.

Ram preview problem: audio out of sync with video clip
This had happened to me once, and it didnt seem to have anything to do with AFX. A re-install of AFX didnt change it. As of right now I couldnt find a fix, though the only thing that worked was to "restore system" to a earlier date prior where everything was working fine still (Windows XP) -Programs-->"Accessories"--> "System Tools" --> "System Restore"

What are Animation presets?
Oh, if you haven't checked these out your missing out.....
Animation presets are textual effects prewritten to provide an easy application of complex text effects.
( you know those complex looking effects you see in movies where letters come out 1 at a time)

They are located in your "Effects & Presets Tab"
The norm is to find one you like to use as a base, apply it to your text layer, and modify the settings to your desired effect. (Personally I believe this is a secret that many of the top Motion graphics agencies don't want you to know, but oh well)

Remember even with the help of presets, use your imagination to look "outside the box"
Experiment with glows, blurring, scaling....etc

Film look in After Effects: (Making your video look more like the movies)?
First off - what essentially your wanting to do is called "color timing" This is the process that high end agencies charge to make your film look like a movie and not like an amateur (Ref: such looks as "Saw", "the Grudge", "Gladiator"...etc)

Now from what I understand the norm for this type of process is about $15K for a 90 min film or higher depending on whats involved.

So what are your options?
Well most AFX artist typically will use a combination of plugins and general intuition. Meaning, that they may adjust curves, saturation and a number of other color specific regions in AFx .

Though really for a film look your talking about a few choice plugins, that also come with presets to get you started. These presets are a good base for quickly determining looks.

Such packages are:
Magic Bullet
and
Digital Film Tools

What they do essentially is a combination of tints, contrast and diffusion. The results are remarkable but plugin alone is only part of the process... Remember the type of camera - preferrably HD and its ability to shoot at 24 fps also contribute to a film look feel. this is combined with well shot footage that is lit properly. They all are part of the puzzle.

Remember also to render out your final clip at 24 fps to keep its integrity.

Preferred Compression Schemes:

For Best film quality I use the Quicktime setting - uncompressed (animation)
This is the format I send out to all my clients upon approval Your file size will be huge, but you use WinZip to compress it and get it on a DVD data disk if the clip is under 3 minutes.

Other than that have your client supply a large portable external drive that you can mail back to them. or a large FTP upload site (note a 6GB file I uploaded took about 2-3 days)

There are larger codes that use a 10-bit compression such as the AJA, but keep in mind the file sizes are tremendous For instance a 3 minute file I worked on saved out at 30GB's

Tip:
go to Edit--> Templates-->output modules
You can set up render settings in advance to save time re-doing it everytime
Then choose the saved setting in the Render Que window in the little dropdown arrow next to output modules.

Setting: Worked best for viewing and saving to burn DVD in Encore
Uncompressed - setting (Video for Windows)
4:15 minutes = 7.42 GB
720x480 / audio on
29.9 fps
DV compatible? - yes

Setting: Worked best for lowres proofing / and website demos
Quicktime Video - setting (Sorenson 3)
4:15 minutes = 46.6 MB’s
25% quality
Key frame: - unchecked
Limit data rate: - unchecked
360x240 / audio on
audio 11.025 / 16 bit / Mono
KeyFrame = 15 15 fps

Note: My preferred codec/setting for sending out proofs or website uploads the Quicktime-->Sorenson 3 The file size is small, and the quality is the best of the compressions I've seen. When rendering out clips for video upload sites such as YouTube - this is my recommendation.

Also I should mention while I used to render out uncompressed AVI's for the my final, I've found that the Quicktime uncompressed format displayed back the contrast and black levels better.

Codecs:
If your client supplies files and they have trouble playing or opening you will need them to send the codec that they used or it wont play in Quicktime, media player or After Effects.)

For instance recently we shot all HD using the panasonic digital camera (HVX200) Upon loading the files back home on my PC they displayed as either an all black screen or all white. This was a sure sign of not having a proper codec to translate. Upon researching I discovered that the camera saves the files in a DVCPROHD codec. Now of course I looked everywhere for some kind of free solution to get these dang things to play in Quicktime but no luck. MY saving grace?
The raylight decoder (note: you only need the decoder, and not the full package)
http://www.dvfilm.com/raylight/

so I purchased it online a and walla - we were up and running!
Special note: if you are on a MAC - macs seem to come with the codec you need out of the box, so this is primarily a PC/Windows issue.


Tips,Tricks, and render info written by Mike Bohatch / Nightmare Kinetics
Nightmare Kinetics specializes in "Title Designs", "trailers" &" impact segments" for horror films

This Info page brought to you by the nice folks at Nightmare Kinetics!