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When was the last time you counted up how many programs you keep in your digital flight plan? If it's anything like mine, there are probably a half dozen of applications that you visit for any particular project. Some of them may be collecting dust on the shelf, while a choice few are indispensable.
Adobe After Effects is becoming a regular non-stop flight for me. It fits any size project from the web and multimedia to video and film. And when it comes time to bring together audio, video, and still images, there are many choices. But when you add robust support for 3D formats, including camera data, built-in 3D rendering capabilities, and an awesome effects palette, it's a whole new sky.
You and I both know that time is of the essence when a project deadline is looming, and one of my favorite lines is, "Real artists ship." Finishing a job quickly and professionally without compromising artistic integrity is what After Effects 5.5 is all about. It allows a more streamlined workflow because it handles editing, 31), visual effects, and powerful compositing and reduces the need for extra stopovers to get to where you want to go.
Fire Up The After Burners
Once I'm through chiseling the bezier curves in Illustrator, lovingly refining the hues of each pixel in Photoshop, and cropping each frame in Premiere, it comes time to put all these well-crafted parts together into that highly polished masterpiece. And when it comes to motion, few programs I've encountered can match its dexterity with so many mediums as After Effects 5.5.
The latest features in After Effects 5.5 include full Mac OS X and Windows XP support. Adobe has been diligent about system optimization, and on both OS 9 and OS X, I was very pleased with how quickly I was able to render graphic intensive files. The OS X version will also take advantage of dual processor G4s allowing After Effects to pull some very heavy G-forces.
After Effects 5.5 comes in two versions, the Standard version for $649 and the Production Bundle for $1,499. While either version...