One-To-One

I've just had a quick one-to-one with one of the computer technician about After Effects, helping me out with a few things I wanted to work out but couldn't fathom out how..
It helped such a lot getting advice straight from someone who knows what they're doing, rather than faffing around on a few things for a few hours then realising you've done it the longest way possible. 
I spoke to him about... 

• Using a JPEG sequence rather than adding in lots of layers for a stop motion animation. Can then 'interpret footage' to alter fps & loop sequence if needed. can directly add effects to whole of sequence rather than applying to each layer.
• Time reversing layers... need to pre-comp first - doesn't really work on loads of layers together
• How to make a shaky effect on stills - introduced to interpolation of layers, (from auto beziar to linear), introduced to expressions, ('wiggle' & 'cycles')
• The null object - basically, don't worry about it til you come across a time when you need to use it - (it seems hard to get to grips with and explain so that can be cast aside for now)
• Repeating cycles - stop frame; pre-comps, using keyframes - speed graphs are really useful for creating a more realistic effect, eg. ball bouncing/pendulum of a clock, movements vary in speed & speed graphs are good at managing this.
• The best way to make a 3D environment - either stop motion way - take photos in front of a green screen 360° around object. Or create a series of shapes together, then pre-comp so accessable for a camera to move around, but house stays 'locked' in position.
• Collapse Transform a pre-comp in a new comp to make it a 3D piece, within a 3D space, (i think that's the best way to describe it...)
• Using a mask to cut out green screen images, and then other uses of the mask tool.

I'll post some clips up once I've had a good play around! Excited!!