Quote - F/X is a factor also if you want to add it I dont think you could add any of it to AVI files.

 

You should be ok with After Effects and AVI as long as you don't choose an unsupported compression codec, I can't find a page with the details but I would suggest one of the standard PAL or NTSC formats with no compression. The attached link suggests using DivX or XVid.

The shake manual says that it supports AVI and other video formats but it can't use temporary files if you do so it will require more memory and will take longer.

Combustion mentions that it supports AVI for audio but does not specifically mention what video format it supports but I'd presume from that it would support AVI for video too.

Coming from a TV background, I find that editing video "rushes" is simpler than editing a set of frames as I can simply drag to shorten or extend a clip. I've deliberately rendered longer clips than I expect to be need in the final version so I can make small adjustments to the timing. In the screenshot below, you can see how easy it is for me to hold the closeup for a little longer by simply dragging end of the clip.

When I did the stop motion film Ratobat, I converted each scene from frames to WMV (as that was what Movie Maker supported) and then edited together each of the scenes. I saw a talk at the BFI a year or so back where they were using Premiere Pro with one file per frame and this allowed them to edit on a low rez version. They then exited and by renaming folders, swapped the low rez files with high rez ones to allow them to open the project again and generate some output, so I can see how sometimes working with single frames might be better.

But to summarise and to backup aquiavic, you need to ensure that your entire pipeline, animation software, effects and video editing support formats that you can work with otherwise you will end up having to convert files all the time with potential for lost of quality. I've also found that trying to work with non standard sized caused me a problem and I switched to having all my video in 720x576.

All the best with your film.