Do any of you edit efficiently using After Effects only?

[cosmoho]

hey a-m-v dot org slash forum!

figured this was the right section to ask this as the video editing -> adobe section seems to deal with technical issues mostly. i'm just getting into editing amvs after around a year of bumping into some quite great videos and i'm wondering if there's any of you out there making use of after effects only (no premiere or any other program to aid it with). i've edited short films and videos with final cut pro for some festivals and shiet before, but macs suck in front of my shiny new windows seven and i really just want to try editing whole videos with after effects for my amvs. call me a masochist.

so, which ones of you (if any) have tried this before, how convenient do you find it and how do your results look? after trying that do you prefer only using after effects with aid or would you do it again? if you haven't done it yourself but know of some other amv which was made that way do go ahead and post it.

[mirkosp]

I haven't done it personally, but I know these two videos have been done only with AE:





So my guess is that it's actually doable if you want. I personally like premiere a lot more than ae, so I just limit my ae usage to the things that would really require it, but everybody has their own preferences, so yeah.

[BasharOfTheAges]

You'll have to have a specific kind of workflow to make it all work without becoming super-cumbersome. I'd recommend having clips smaller than a few minutes each and make use of multiple compositions nested together or you're going to be scrolling up and down a whole lot. Being able to preview large sections also can be an issue - you're RAM-limited there.

[cosmoho]

I haven't done it personally, but I know these two videos have been done only with AE:





So my guess is that it's actually doable if you want. I personally like premiere a lot more than ae, so I just limit my ae usage to the things that would really require it, but everybody has their own preferences, so yeah.

FANTASTIC videos, thanks for pointing these out! going to have to look more into the matter, you guys know your stuff.

7months

10months

oh dear. i'm reconsidering. slowly.

You'll have to have a specific kind of workflow to make it all work without becoming super-cumbersome. I'd recommend having clips smaller than a few minutes each and make use of multiple compositions nested together or you're going to be scrolling up and down a whole lot. Being able to preview large sections also can be an issue - you're RAM-limited there.

that's some pretty useful info, i was ready to attempt importing a whole movie in that bitch. does the lots of scrolling up-down refer to the fact each clip needs to have its own layer? yeah that's another issue. i knew about the ram preview at least, 4gb can't be too bad compared to the last time i tried after effects a bunch of years ago. had 512mb then. hur.

[Snowcrash]

I know Reznic who edited this video with AE only.

[Nya-chan Production]

If you edit with static sources only, or M@D style, it's better to do it in AE - did it twice, one of them is on Org already :3

[Qyot27]

If you edit with static sources only, or M@D style, it's better to do it in AE - did it twice, one of them is on Org already :3

This.

And, as far the RAM issue goes, this is why AE's Preview resolution setting is handy. I edited Fate Against Will (which in its final form is 720p60; although in AE I did the test rendering at 720p24) with only 256MBs of RAM, PC133 at that. I just set the Preview to 1/3 or 1/4 resolution.

My only problem when editing that video (or others in AE) was that the Quicktime portions would crash and I wouldn't be able to hear the audio unless I closed it down and started it back up again. This is what happens when the version of AE is several years old and Quicktime has to be more up to date so iTunes will work correctly. Anyone know if the CS versions of AE rely on Quicktime at all, or do they use their own audio renderer?

[mirkosp]

CS versions do still require quicktime for a few formats, not sure if audio is one of these though, I don't think.

[Vlad G Pohnert]

Most of my videos are done in AE... Although I do use Premiere for some of the basic timing sometimes and rough cuts, but maily to place markers on the audio track to assist in timing on AE

Vlad

[machina21]

I mainly do what Vlad does and do a rough cut in Premiere before turning on AE. It can be a pain working with Audio in AE so if you have a general idea of your audio cues before starting,its far easier.

And the effect I find to be really useful for AMVs (especially for beat or internal sync)is Time Re-mapping. Unlike in Premiere where its percentage based, in AE its keyframe based so its allows for far greater control, IMO.

Another nice feature if your RAM is getting gobbled up is the "Purge" feature. It will clear your video memory and helps in keeping your system from getting bogged down. Although I've had more memory issues related to Premiere than AE.