[Thanks for today's post go to Tim Kurkoski, who did a lot of the hard parts.]

This post is about a big under-the-hood improvement in After Effects CS5. (All of the new and changed features are here.)

In After Effects CS4, you may have seen errors like this when rendering and exporting:

After Effects AEGP Plugin Media IO Plugin
There is a mismatch between Output Module settings. Please verify your settings and try again. Property Data Invalid!
Medial02 error: 0x400e0004
Frame dimensions out of bounds.

This type of “mismatch” error message indicates that you have a setting in the format-specific settings that is incompatible with the settings chosen in the Output Module Settings or Render Settings dialog box.

You see, some output types are constrained—some very strictly so. For example, the MPEG-2 DVD format output only allows parameters that fit the DVD specification; movies created outside of these constraints may not play in a DVD player that conforms to the DVD specification. In CS4, the encoder knew about these constraints, but After Effects didn’t, so After Effects would blithely feed the encoder things that didn’t make sense for a specific output type. The encoder would see these non-compliant frames and just throw up an error and refuse to continue. Your only hint was in a difficult-to-find Comment field in the format-specific export settings dialog box that the encoder created; these comment fields sometimes (but not always) told what the constraints were.

In After Effects CS5, things work much better. Now After Effects knows the details of the constraints. When you choose an output module and change settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box, the settings are checked against this set of constraints. If there’s a mismatch, a “Settings mismatch” alert and a yellow triangle icon appear at the bottom of the Output Module Settings dialog box. If you click the yellow triangle icon, a message explains what’s going on, like so:

"Warning: Frame rate of output file will be adjusted from 17 to 15 fps to meet format constraints. Audio may not synchronize."

In such a case, you have a choice: Either accept what After Effects is going to do automatically to try to fix the mismatch, or fix it yourself in the render settings, composition settings, or output module settings.

The constraints that are checked relate to frame dimensions (width and height), pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate.

Many formats are unconstrained. Many codecs used inside QuickTime and AVI containers are unconstrained, as are all of the image-sequence formats.

In After Effects CS5, there is a known issue that causes WMV and FLV output frame rates to be constrained unnecessarily. For information on working around this issue, see “Can’t set frame rate for WMV or FLV output from After Effects CS5 to custom value”.

There didn’t seem to be a lot of value in publishing the huge comprehensive matrix of constraints for every format, since now After Effects CS5 tells you in the Output Module Settings dialog box if you’re violating them and what the relevant values are for what you’re trying to do. But, if you do have a question about constraints for a specific format, let me know.

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UPDATE: Patricia Clausnitzer just translated this post in Byelorussian.

The new edition of Chris and Trish Meyer’s Creating Motion Graphics With After Effects is available for order.

To promote the book and whet your appetite, Chris and Trish have posted some excerpts from the book (in PDF) on their website:

• “Parallel worlds” provides a good overview of the various kinds of 3D layers and 3D objects that you can work with in After Effects.
• “Integrating with 3D applications” gives an overview of importing 3D information from Maya, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, and other 3D applications.
• “Shape layers” describes how to create shapes, and gives an introduction to path operations and other features of shape layers.

Here’s what Chris said about the update in a recent message:

“CMG5 includes the changes introduced in After Effects CS4 and CS5, including new chapters dedicated to the Roto Brush tool, Imagineer Systems’ mocha and mocha shape, a new chapter named Parallel Worlds which discusses how to integrate Photoshop 3D elements (including Repoussé) and 3D effects (such as the newly-bundled Digieffects FreeForm) with After Effects 3D layers, and major rewrites to other chapters such as 3D lights (including our own improved recipe for faux reflections), 3D cameras (completely reworked, including a discussion of camera rigs), Advanced Animation (including the new Separate XYZ feature in the Graph Editor), and more. Thanks to the folks at Crowd Control, Hollywood Camera Work, and Pixel Corps, we were able to include a few more HD and RED files for you to play with as well.”

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it for those who don’t already know about how great Chris and Trish’s books and tutorials are: These folks are the best at explaining how to use After Effects. They’re good for beginners, intermediate users, and experts. They teach me something new each time I see them or read something by them.

The Creating Motion Graphics With After Effects book is comprehensive. If you’re a novice, you may want to also get The After Effects Apprentice and start with it. I recommend that book in my post about resources for beginners: “Getting started with After Effects”.

I just posted an article on my Premiere Pro blog that is also relevant to After Effects users:

“workflow guides for several high-end cameras and formats in Premiere Pro CS5 and After Effects CS5″

It gives links to workflow guides for P2, RED, XDCAM, AVCCAM, and DSLR cameras and footage.

In a recent thread on the After Effects user-to-user forum, Lutz Albrecht shared a way to run After Effects CS5 in English, even if you’ve installed it in, say, German.

This should make it easier to do many things, including following instructional materials written in English.

The instructions were different for previous versions. Here they are for After Effects CS4:
“running After Effects CS4 in English, even if you’ve installed and activated it in another language”

[See the corresponding post for Premiere Pro, too.]

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English

Adobe and its partners provide a basic set of video tutorials on the Adobe website (CS5+CS5.5 and CS3+CS4), in addition to excellent tutorials provided by other members of the community.

Because most features don’t change substantially from one version to the next, most materials created for After Effects CS3 are still valid and useful for After Effects CS5 and CS5.5. I find that many of the tutorials created for CS3 are still very much worth watching.

Many sections of After Effects Help refer to additional video tutorials in context to provide information about specific features. If you know of an excellent video tutorial or other resource about After Effects, please leave a comment at the bottom of the relevant page of After Effects Help on the Web to tell others about it.

From the Community Help page, you can also search for community resources not on the Adobe website.

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日本語
アドビ システムズ社で、ビデオチュートリアルの基本セットを提供しています(CS5+CS5.5 & CS3+CS4)。他にも、コミュニティのメンバーから提供された優れたチュートリアルも提供しています。

After Effects のヘルプでは、特定の機能に関する情報を提供するために、文中で様々なビデオチュートリアルを参照しています。 After Effects の日本語チュートリアルや、日本語で説明された制作例などをご存知でしたら、After Effects オンラインヘルプの該当するページのコメント欄にてご紹介ください。コメント欄は、各ページの一番下にあります。

コミュニティヘルプページでは、アドビ システムズ社の Web サイト以外のコミュニティリソースも検索することができます。

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Deutsch
Adobe und seine Partner stellen der Adobe-Website einige grundlegende Video-Lehrgänge bereit (CS5+CS5.5 & CS3+CS4). Sie werden ergänzt durch hervorragende Lehrgänge von anderen Community-Mitgliedern.

In vielen Abschnitten der After Effects-Hilfe wird auf weitere, kontextbezogene Video-Lehrgänge verwiesen, die über spezifische Funktionen informieren. Wenn Sie interessante und hochwertige Tutorials oder andere Quellen kennen, die sich mit After Effects beschäftigen oder artverwandte Themen behandeln, hinterlassen Sie bitte einen Kommentar auf der jeweiligen zugehörigen Seite der Adobe After Effects Onlinehilfe, so dass andere Anwender diese auch finden können.

Auf der Seite Community Help können Sie auch nach Community-Ressourcen suchen, die nicht Teil der Adobe-Website sind.

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Français
Adobe et ses partenaires proposent un ensemble basique de tutoriels vidéo sur le site Web d’Adobe (CS5+CS5.5 & CS3+CS4); ils s’ajoutent aux excellents didacticiels d’autres membres de la communauté.

De nombreuses sections de l’aide After Effects renvoient à d’autres didacticiels vidéo en contexte pour fournir des informations sur certaines fonctionnalités spécifiques. Si vous avez un bon tutoriel vidéo ou d’autres ressources en français à recommander pour After Effects, partagez-les avec d’autres utilisateurs en écrivant un commentaire en bas de la page concernée sur l’aide en ligne d’Adobe After Effects.

Sur la page de l’Aide communautaire, vous pouvez également rechercher des ressources communautaires qui ne figurent pas sur le site Web d’Adobe.

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Italiano
Adobe e i suoi partner offrono un set di base di esercitazioni video sul sito Web di Adobe, oltre alle ottime esercitazioni fornite da altri membri della comunità di utenti.

In molte sezioni della guida di After Effects potete trovare riferimenti a esercitazioni video rilevanti per specifiche funzioni. Se Lei sa di un esercitazione video eccellente o altra risorsa circa After Effects in italiano, La preghiamo di lasciare un commento in fondo alla pagina relativa di After Effects Aiuto per il Web per dire ad altri di esso.

Dalla pagina Community Help, potete inoltre effettuare ricerche nelle risorse della comunità che non si trovano nel sito Web di Adobe.

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Español
Adobe y sus socios ofrecen un conjunto básico de tutoriales en vídeo en del sitio Web de Adobe, además de los excelentes tutoriales ofrecidos por otros miembros de la comunidad.

Muchas secciones de la Ayuda de After Effects se refieren a tutoriales en vídeo adicionales en contexto para proporcionar información sobre funciones específicas. Si sabes de un tutorial en video excelente, o de otros recursos sobre After Effects en Español, por favor deja un comentario al pie de la página relevante de la Ayuda de After Effects en la Web para compartirlo con otros.

Desde la página de Ayuda de la comunidad, también puede buscar recursos de la comunidad que no estén en el sitio Web de Adobe.

I just took over the “Premiere Pro work area” blog, where I will try to do for Premiere Pro what I’ve been doing for After Effects.

If you’re interested in Premiere Pro, consider subscribing to the “Premiere Pro work area” blog.

I’m asking for some help getting oriented to the huge world of Premiere Pro resources. So come on over.

Of course, I am always asking for exactly the same kind of submissions, suggestions, and feedback about After Effects materials. So keep those coming, too.