Michael Coleman, the After Effects product manager, has just invited people to call in and talk with the After Effects team this afternoon. Here’s his post.
We did this a couple of months ago, and it was quite interesting.
So, check out Michael’s post and give us a call.
Michael Coleman has just given a piece of news on his blog that I think will make a lot of people very happy:
“Today we are announcing that the next version of Adobe After Effects will be a native 64-bit application.”
Michael also goes into more detail about what “64-bit” means for After Effects users.
Simon Hayhurst has also given the news on the ProVideo Coalition website:
“CS4 will be the last version of Adobe’s leading video applications to support 32 bit operating systems.”
In this article, Simon also provides links to an FAQ list about the transition and a white paper about the benefits of using After Effects and other applications on 64-bit operating systems.
If you have questions about the future of After Effects and other Adobe digital video applications, leave a comment for Simon on the article on the ProVideo Coalition website or a comment for Michael on his blog post. Don’t ask me, since I’ll just direct you to Simon and Michael.
For a little more information on the benefits that you can get now using After Effects CS4 on 64-bit operating systems, see this post: “CS4 Production Premium on 64-bit operating systems”.
Adam Everett Miller has just posted an article on AETUTS+ that clarifies some crucial After Effects terminology.
He defines terms like script, expression, effect, plug-in, filter, and (animation) preset. Most important and useful is the fact that he distinguishes between these terms and steers people away from common confusions between them.
We try to define terms in context in After Effects Help, usually in the first or most prominent place that each term is used. For example, words like composition, render, and export are defined in the sections “About compositions” and “Rendering and exporting overview”, respectively. But it’s sometimes good to have someone bring it all together in one place to untangle some of the confusion and misusage.
I appreciate that Adam has taken my definitions and added to them. (That’s why we have the Creative Commons tag on the bottom of each page of Help on the Web—so that y’all can reuse the material as long as you attribute it and don’t sell it.)
Thanks, Adam!
For more information:
The first item linked to from the “Getting started with After Effects” article is a video that defines many important terms: “Basic workflow and terminology overview”.
Mathias Möhl has recently been offering his scripts on the After Effects Scripts website, as have many other luminaries in the realm of After Effects scripting.
Today, he also uploaded descriptions and links for these scripts to the After Effects Exchange website, where I set three of them as staff picks. Because they’re great.
I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was to see something get posted to the After Effects Exchange that wasn’t another commercially licensed project template. Though we do allow and even encourage people to post commercial items on the Exchange, it’s nice when people post freeware, donation-ware, or even try-and-buy items. I know that people want to be able to get compensation for their work, but I also like the fact that the After Effects community has historically been a remarkably open, sharing, and supportive community.
I think that the folks at After Effects Scripts (most centrally Lloyd Alvarez) have really hit on the right balance with their pay-what-you-want scheme. Each item has a suggested price, but you can modify that price up or down (even to zero) when you check out. There’s one exception that I know of, and that is the unbelievably useful Immigration script.
So, come to the After Effects Exchange, download some free stuff, maybe get some non-free stuff, and then head over to After Effects Scripts to get even more stuff that’s as free as you need it to be. But be nice. The system that Lloyd and associates have going on only works when we’re all nice—or when enough of us are nice, anyway.
Oh, and don’t forget that you can search the After Effects Help document to find links to individual scripts that I link to in context for specific tasks.