Adobe debuts, ships After Effects 7.0
updated 01:25 am EST, Tue January 17, 2006
Adobe After Effects 7.0
Adobe Systems today announced , an upgrade to the industry standard tool for producing motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, DVD, and the web. Version 7 includes a re-designed, unified user interface, accelerated OpenGL 2.0 support, and comprehensive Flash Video (FLV) export capabilities. After Effects 7.0 is available as a stand-alone product or as part of Adobe Production Studio also announced today. The re-designed interface features dockable panels, allowing users to eliminate overlapping windows and palettes, re-arrange panels, save custom workspaces, and control UI brightness. It also features expanded support for OpenGL 2.0 by accelerating the on-screen rendering of 2D and 3D composites and delivering high-fidelity support for blending modes, motion blur on 2D layers, anti-aliasing, track mattes and shadows. It is available now for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later starting at $700.
“Adobe After Effects 7.0 meets the needs of the most demanding film and video professionals and allows creatives who are moving into time-based design to easily create compelling motion graphics and visual effects,” said Jim Guerard, vice president of product management, Web and Video Solutions for Adobe. “With this release, After Effects has extended its leadership role in motion graphics and visual effects, on both the Mac and Windows platforms.”
After Effects streamlines workflows and enhances overall productivity: users can quickly create great-looking animations with hundreds of fully-customizable Animation and Behavior presets for animating text, effects, transitions, and backgrounds that can be accessed through Adobe Bridge, a full-featured file browser that can be launched independently. When used as component of the Adobe Production Studio, After Effects 7.0 also provides access to Adobe Dynamic Link, a workflow enhancing technology that eliminates the need for the intermediate rendering of projects.
Professional Edition gains HDR color support
Professionals can produce eye-catching motion graphics and sophisticated visual effects for delivery to virtually any media using After Effects. The new Graph Editor can create precise animations across multiple layers, allowing complete visual control over keyframe editing and easy synchronization of effects. New 32-bit high dynamic range (HDR) color support in the Professional edition allows users to match the behavior of color and light to achieve a high degree of photo-realism by compositing in 32-bit-per channel floating-point color, according to Adobe.
In the Professional edition, Timewarp utilizes motion vectors to slow down or speed up footage with smooth, crisp results and minimal artifacts. Adobe After Effects 7.0 also introduces the availability to export Flash Video (FLV) files, offering new integration with Macromedia Flash for customers who produce video for use on the web.
Adobe After Effects 7.0 is available now for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or Mac OS X 10.4. Estimated street prices for the full version are $1000 for the Professional edition and $700 for the Standard edition. Upgrade pricing is $200, while users can upgrade from the Standard to Professional edition for $500.
Not Universal Application
01/17, 02:57am reply
I checked the System Requirements on Adobe's site - After Effects 7 is not a Universal Application. Totally unacceptable, considering they stood on stage and pledged their support for Intel-based Macs seven months ago.
Cory Bauer
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Jun 2001
That is reasonable
01/17, 03:28am reply
After Effects not being universal is not unreasonable. Most video pros are going to wait a while before upgrading to a Mactel. Seeing how a Mactel tower is not even available yet, and probably won't be available for another 6-12 months, I think that Adobe made a perfectly logical decision to wait for the universal binary.
jogdish
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
looks like a windows app
01/17, 06:16am reply
Did anyone watch the demo video they have on their site? It looks like the whole app opens in one window. A little too much like a windows app for my taste. Although, After Effects has always had a really bad interface.
chucke
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2000
not universal binary
01/17, 12:24pm reply
"After Effects 7 is not a Universal Application. Totally unacceptable, considering they stood on stage and pledged their support for Intel-based Macs seven months ago."
Ha ha ha, that's hilarious! Why don't you dump all of your Adobe applications and start using only Apple pro video editing software? Oh wait, Apple has no universal binary pro video editing software yet! Totally unacceptable, considering Apple stood on stage and declared how easy it was to produce universal binary software seven months ago.
Have you noticed that 95% of the currently available universal binary applications available today are either shareware or beta? What does that tell you?
corsair
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2005
Another Two Years
01/17, 01:07pm reply
Jogdish, any professionals who need a new computer this year are going to buy a new one this year, and while Apple doesn't have a professional Intel-based tower yet, they do have a professional notebook available now. In addition to that, many Pros get by with iMacs, so Apple actually has two systems available for professional use.
Corsair, Apple's Pro applications will be Universal in March. What makes Adobe's not universal release unacceptable is that if they do as they did with the move from Classic to OS X, it won't be a 'feature' you can get without buying the next version. And since AE gets updated about every two years, that means two more years without a Universal Binary of AE. And THAT is unacceptable.
Seven months should be more than enough time to make an application under development available for both platforms. Quark did it, and Apple did it too. No major application has shipped since the Intel announcement, and THAT is why all you see is shareware's and betas. Blizzard's releasing World of Warcraft for Intel Macs in a few weeks - AE should have been a cakewalk compared to that undertaking.
Cory Bauer
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Jun 2001
Rosetta
01/17, 01:12pm reply
Wasn't AE 5.5 the first Adobe app that went native for OS X? Maybe a 7.5 is in order. I'll probably get a Macbook Pro at some point but for now, I rely too much on pro not-Apple applications...
I wonder if this will be usable through Rosetta.
Jerome
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Oct 2001
not such a long wait
01/17, 06:16pm reply
I don't think we'd wait two years to get a UB of After Effects if we didn't get one now. I remember back when applications went PowerPC, there were some interim updates that covered the transition. Same with OS X...one day there was a free Acrobat (not Reader) updater, and my Acrobat 5 no longer had to boot in Classic. So it is not guaranteed that newly released non-UB apps = a long wait.
corsair
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2005
I hope you're right
01/19, 03:53am reply
Corsair, I hope you're right. I saw that Apple is stating a Universal Update to their Aperture application will be made available via Software Update. That makes me hopeful, as I assumed a Universal Application would be a CD's worth of content, and therefore unable to be made available for download.
Cory Bauer
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Jun 2001
leave adobe alone
01/19, 01:06pm reply
Like any company right now would buy the new machines to run pro type apps. If buying today, pick up a quad 2.5 or a dual 2.7. It has to work today, not later.
deadcpu
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2000
biggest download trial
04/12, 12:18pm reply
this has to be the biggest download trial I've seen in my life! 1.1GB! Tried it, works very well (G5 DP 2.0)
Madrag
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2004