Jacquelin Vanderwood
May 2005
Adobe After Effects 6.5 is a significant and absolute WOW of an upgrade. Let's take a look at some of the new and improved features.
Let's review Cloning first. If you take a look at the new Tools palette you will see that there is a new clone stamp tool that has been added. Included in the palette is the Eraser tool and paint palettes options somewhat like you would find in Photoshop which makes learning and using the tools a familiar task.
Text production and animation is simpler now that new features have been introduced which include nearly 300 preset text animations that can be manipulated and formatted through layers and the new Expression selector. The text can be formatted with fills and strokes.
Other new options include non-rendering guide layers which can be used to guide you with references visually, also in audio timing, timecode reference, and for making and storing comments. There is the new Lock feature which gives you the opportunity to lock previews in windows, and to change the lock for any footage, composition view, and layers. When it comes to drawing with the pen tool, you can now adjust the vertices in RotoBezier masks.
Performance has been upgraded as well. You'll find viewing and rendering layers and frames enhanced by per-item and per-layer image caching which also, in turn, enjoys faster frame rendering which are cached layer by layer. There are different methods for viewing animation which include OpenGL, wireframe, and adaptive resolution options.
The new Motion Tracking options include horizontal and vertical coordinates, adjusting the tracking point more precisely, tracking scale by using two feature areas, magnification and zooming, and applying a select action when motion tracking goes outside of the boundaries.
There are new effects in this upgrade which include image adjustment, blur and grain effects, auto color, auto contrast and auto levels, photo filter and shadow/highlight. To create interesting effects, try using the new Box Blur, or try the new grain effects, and the new Scribble effect. Changes have been made so that now 16-bits per channel are supported in many effects.
Adobe has also insured that going from one Adobe product to another is easier and works much more smoothly. For instance, you can drag and drop files between After Effects and Premier or use the Copy/Paste commands, or use the Edit Original option which allows you to edit a piece in it's original application, or use layer-time markers to highlight chapters even when you output them to AVI and QuickTime, they remain resident. You'll also find new Adjust features and effects which are based off of Photoshop CS adjustment layers and commands. It is important to note that AAF and OMF files can be imported. If you are using Encore to design a DVD, you can create menus directly in After Effects 6.5. Explore exporting to Photoshop CS layering and nested layering.
The interface has been improved allowing you to change the brightness of the workspace, more control over layers and keyframes, new mouse wheel support for scrolling and zooming, and improved options for accessing more topics in the help menu.
New expression and scripting options include total read and write access from project to keyframe level, windows and palette scripting, bypassing the user interface using the command line, and conversion of time to timecode using new expression method.
My opinion is that After Effects 6.5 is a necessary and invaluable upgrade to any professional and is well worth investing in. Great job, Adobe!
www.adobe.com
Requirements:
Windows
• Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor (multiprocessor recommended)
• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with service pack 4 or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 Pro or Home Edition
• 128MB of RAM installed (256 MB or more of RAM recommended)
• 150MB of available hard disk space for installation (500MB or larger hard disk or disk array recommended for ongoing work; 1 gig to also copy the files from the Reviewer’s Guide CD).
• CD drive
• 24-bit display adapter
• QuickTime 6.5 software recommended
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0b software recommended
• For OpenGL support: Adobe After Effects supported OpenGL card. For a current list, please visit www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/opengl
Macintosh
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PowerPC® processor (multiprocessor G5 recommended)