I was playing with the timewarp filter this weekend (which is very cool btw) but there is one thing I don't understand. When you apply timewarp and set the speed to say 50% the footage layer remains at it's original length and cuts off the last half... How do you apply this filter and get the entire original footage?

TIA

With After Effects CS3, you can extend the duration of a layer very easily. Just apply time remapping to the layer (select the layer and press Ctrl+Alt+T or Command+Option+T) and then drag the right edge of the layer to extend the layer to whatever duration you want.

For more information on extending layers, see the "Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer" section of After Effects CS3 Help:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7e70.html

duh. Thanks!

another question: when I'm working with timelapse is there a technique that will smooth out the footage (similar to timewarp) without changing the speed?