Combustion V's After Effects?

[JamesTaylor]

Hope someone can help!

 

i've been using AE for a while and have a good grasp of the 2d stuff and am beginning to play more with the 3d elements, but i've also started looking at combustion too!

 

my question is:

 

having followed a few tutorials from the discreet site for combustion, i see its possible to render out .RPF files from max with material id, z depth etc. info and use it to quite simply to replace textures in animations etc., such as putting video on tv screens and a like.

 

is all this possible in AE aswell or is it more limited than combustion? since discreet make both max and combustion is the production pipeline better for these techniques than with AE?

 

i don't seem to able to find much info for using these techniques in AE but would be very interested in any tutorials / resources etc if anyone knows of any.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

James

[lambros]

you can render in .rla to get several elements. while combustion seems to be more hitech in design and being an (ex)discreet product is a serious advantage, I prefer sticking to AE for the time being. It has not posed any restrictions up to now.

[JamesTaylor]

Thanks Lambros,

 

i agree that AE hasn't caused any restrictions up until now, but i'd like to find out about any restrictions now rarther than later!

 

i like the AE interface very simple and intuative, but does it do the work as well and quickly as combustion? or will it become more restrictive as i start pushing more advanced operations?

 

do you know of any good reference sites for after effects 3d compositing? discreet has plenty of material on its site but Adobe seem some what lacking

 

Thanks again

 

James