Attached Link: http://www.creativecow.net

I've been using RayDream Studio to produce TV resolution animations for work for years. (We've ordered but not yet received C2.) Here's a bit of info. First check out the link for help with Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and the Adobe AfterEffects forum is really helpful, too. The folks who hang out there are pros, but usually very helpful for beginners, too. Resolution: it's a sticky question. Much of it depends on what format you're digitizing (or transfering) from and to. The nice thing about Premiere is that it automatically detects what resolution your original material is and converts it to whatever resolution you're working in. 640 x 480 is correct for square-pixel NTSC (the US standard) television. Square pixels are used in non-DV format video and are also output from packages like Photoshop and Paintshop pro. DV Resolution varies, as well. If you have a mini-DV camera or a Digital-8 camera, your pixel size is 720x480. DV Cam Pro is 720x486. These use rectangular pixels, resulting in the same aspect ratio as 640x480 (that is the screen or image is the same rectangular shape in both resolutions). If you're editing material that's come from DV, it's going to be in the 720 range. If it comes from Betacam or VHS, it'll be 640, depending on how your video card digitizes the material. Frame Rate: NTSC is 29.97 frames per second. You can output from Carrara or RDS or whatever at 30 FPS and Premiere (and I suspect FCP, though I can't say for certain) will convert the frame rate for you. When I output animations from RDS (or AfterEffects, for that matter), I do them at 640x480, 30 FPS. Premiere will convert them to the resolution of the project I'm working on. If my live material came from DV, it'll stretch the image appropriately to fit the screen. I've never seen any artifacting in the images as a result of this stretching. Likewise, when I'm producing animations for use in the Media 100 (which works at 640x480 resolution), the 640 resolution of my animations works perfectly. Both software packages will convert the frame rate from 30 FPS to 29.97. I just find it easier to calculate motions in 30 FPS. One other note; when doing the animations, I don't compress them at all. Yes, this makes for huge files, but compression will inherently degrade the image. When converting to DV, there's a compression that occurs, and when using the Media 100 (or FCP) there'll be a different compression. But the best bet in my opinion is to start with an uncompressed animation for the highest quality possible. Long winded answer. I hope it's helpful. If you have any other questions, I usually check in here every few days. - Dex