I finally was able to get a copy of After Effects 7.0 for my Mac from school, but I'm just starting to learn how to use it.
One question I have is that I imported a 30 second clip and when I play it back it stutters and isn't in real time. I figured it needed to be rendered but I could not find an option to render.

So I guess I know nothing about After Effects, so my question is if anyone could request some free tutorials so that I could learn how to use it, that would be awsome.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Harrison,

You have to add your composition to the render queue, which can be accessed via menu.

Someone who uses a Mac can give you a better idea about performance, which will depend not only on the computer itself, but the format of your video (eg DV or HD) and the complexity of the compositing work you're doing. I find it rare even on a very fast PC that compositions with any complexity at all will run in real time.

The Help has most or all of the info from the product manual in it, so that's always a good starting point. Adobe has some tutorials online:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/tutorials/

and if you search around you'll find quite a few other tutorials on the web, many of them mentioned in threads here on DVi. AE is definitely a complex program and it'll take some effort and time to learn.

Wow thanks Pete. I definetly would like to learn it, especially with Magic Bullet to add some better looks to my films. Thanks again.

Wow thanks Pete. I definetly would like to learn it, especially with Magic Bullet to add some better looks to my films. Thanks again.

or you can also try the ram preview option to preview your timeline at full speed.