Summary
Adobe has justified a full number release by cramming an assortment of new tools and features into one of the most popular motion graphics and compositing applications.
Target Apps
Motion graphics, special effects and compositing for Web, video, and film
What It Costs You
$999; upgrade from previous version, $299
What's Cool
The introduction of Shapes gives you the ability to create and animate highly complex forms with just a few clicks, while Brainstorm lets you experiment without moving a slew of sliders.
What's Missing
I would still like to be able to animate individual vertices in Masks and Shapes, as opposed to keyframing the entire mask or path. Heck, even being able to move vertex points in 3D space would be useful in creating dynamic and organic paths. It would have also been great to have better scaling algorithms for those converting older projects, or SD footage to HD, instead of relying on third-party plug-ins. As much fun as the Puppet Tool is, having the option to create IK chains would further enhance this feature.
Smart Advice
There are a lot of great plug-ins out there that can already animate individual text characters in 3D space, namely those from Boris FX. But having this feature inside of After Effects will open the door to a lot more on-the-fly experimentation.
If you want to figure out how fast AE CS3 Pro goes on your own PC or Mac, try using the TotalBenchmark project created by Total Training’s Brian Maffitt. You can find it here: www.media-motion.tv/aebenchmarks.html.
Ratings: Products are rated for features, performance, ease of use and overall value.
When version 7 of Adobe After Effects was released, there were more tools and features than you could shake a stick at, and it seemed we wouldn’t need a new release for quite some time. But the introduction of the Intel Mac, as well as user demand for tighter integration between other Adobe apps, necessitated dropping the traditional dot-x (.x) release and unleashing Adobe After Effects CS3 (aka version 8) on the world. I reviewed the beta version, but the final release should be available by late summer.
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Performance Specs
After Effects CS3 simply screams as a Universal Binary application, cutting render times by 50 percent or more. I tested the app on a MacBook Pro and HP Pavilion with Brian Maffit’s TotalBenchmark, rendering once with AE7, then again with CS3.
Shape Layers
These complex shapes originally started out as two circle paths that were then deformed with merge paths, pucker and bloat, and twist.
Brainstorm
A myriad of new designs are at the user’s fingertips with this feature. The forward and backward buttons let you go back to previous variations without losing those freshly minted ideas.
3D FX
No longer are you forced to fake movement in 3D space. Complex text animations can be created using the Per-Character 3D effects.
Puppet Tool
This nifty feature allows for fluid, realistic movement with very little effort.
Comments (6) for "Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional"
1.
I realize you are benching AE 7 to AE CS3, but your benchmark is quite misleading. It appears that CS3 on a Mac out performs the PC by nearly twice as much. However you are comparing a multithreaded application on a dualcore processor aginst a singlecore processor. Don't you think this should at least get mentioned?
Posted by Charley Carlat on Friday, June 15, 2007 @ 11:36 AM
2.
I wonder why you can\'t import an Illustrator file as a shape layer. It seems like a logical step...
Posted by Prod on Saturday, June 23, 2007 @ 10:57 AM
3.
can pro cs3 capture 1080p24 footage from sony hvr v1u by removing 2:3 pulldown automatically like sony vegas does
Posted by nischal on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 @ 10:30 AM
4.
Prod: you can copy vector art out of Illustrator and paste it into After Effects (at least as a Mask if not an actual shape layer)
Posted by Nick on Saturday, December 15, 2007 @ 11:13 PM
5.
are you crazy? you can't compare XEON processors to mobile AMD processors. They are not even remotely in the same leauge.
Posted by NICK on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 @ 04:40 PM
6.
possible to use complex and high definition video and composition of sound .... and it require a big space of Ram ?
Posted by vhin on Friday, December 12, 2008 @ 10:51 AM
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