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DECEMBER 09, 2003 Processing Animations in Photoshop
Using the Filmstrip method The second method or rendering your After Effects composition for import into Photoshop is Filmstrip. Filmstrip is a compiling technique that places a series of frames (the frames set to render / work area) into one ".flm" file. This file can be opened in Photoshop and edited as one document. Opening the .flm file in Photoshop reveals tags that After Effects has placed in between each frame. The grey strip tells AE where to put the frames when you import the file back into AE. Warning: Do not crop or change the size of the .flm file. Do not blur the edge of the grey box into the image or delete/obliterate the grey bar. Note: These files can get really big. There is no compression on the image. Each .flm will render to be the size of a "none" quicktime of the same duration. With warnings in place, this is a truly excellent way to rotoscope an animation within Photoshop.[an error occurred while processing this directive]In AE's Output Module, select "Filmstrip" from the Format pulldown.  When you render the sequence, there is an easy way to preserve the gray bar. Render your composition with all layers turned off. Select "Filmstrip." Select "RGB+Alpha" in the Channels/Video Output portion of the Output Module.  This provides you with a clean sequence of black frames and grey reference bars. Additionally the .flm file contains the alpha channel for the grey bar. You can use it to cut and paste all of the bars over your effected/filtered image .flm. (Call this BAR.flm) Back in the composition, turn all of the active layers back on. Render .flm You can render either RGBA or simply RGB. (Call this FILL.flm) Open the two resulting files in Photoshop. Copy the FILL.flm into BAR.flm as a new layer. Apply your filter. (I've used Wind.) Using the alpha channel for the bar, copy and paste the Background (bars only) information to a new layer above the FILL image.  Important: Before saving it for use in After Effects, you'll need to flatten the image. If you want to come back to this project in its layered state, you should save a copy as a PSD. Now flatten and import into After Effects. Here is a movie of the resulting quicktime interpreted by AE from the .flm file: Of course you can also paint with Photoshop if you want to keep away from the Vector Paint and Paint features of AE. Remember to Save As a Copy. Once you create a .psd, you can never convert it back to a .flm by merely flattening it. If you fail to remember this, open an older version of the same .flm, paste the merged layers of your .psd into the file, flatten and save. It will maintain the .flm identity of the base file. Ko Maruyama is a freelance animator who can be found in the After Effects forum for more specific questions. Prev 1 2 Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Film and Video Magazine • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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