by Ben Bardens
Adobe After Effects has long been one of the best and most widely used desktop compositing programs. With the recent release of version 5.5, it's now even better.
The new version builds on many of the features added in 5.0, and introduces several new ones. There are a handful of new effects and some welcome user interface enhancements. Unfortunately, many of the best features are available only with the more expensive Production Bundle, making the gulf between the Standard and Production versions wider than ever.
The program is now Mac OS X native, and in my limited testing, it appears to be stable and fast. The newly-released Photoshop 7 is also OS X compatible and the combination of AE 5.5 and Photoshop 7 will enable many Mac users to migrate to OS X.
The most significant new interface enhancement is the Effects palette, which greatly simplifies finding specific effects. Now, instead of hunting through the Effects menu and its sub-groups, all you have to do is open the Effects palette and start typing the name of the effect you wish to use in the "Contains" field. When the effect appears, simply drag it to a layer to apply it. You can also save effects into a favorites group for easy access.
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Figure 1.The New Composition From Selection dialog box. Select Multiple Compositions to make separate compositions from several sources simultaneously. |
Another great new feature is the "New Composition from Selection" dialog box (Figure 1). It lets you easily create a series of compositions from multiple footage items by dragging the clips onto the New Composition button in the Project window.
Several minor changes and enhancements speed up previewing and workflow. It is now easy to reset a layer's anchor point by simply double-clicking the Pan-Behind tool in the toolbox, and you can also undo changes made to your composition settings.
Another change to the Comp window is a little less helpful, however. The new "View Options" dialog box groups together all options for viewing layers in the Comp window (layer handles, wireframes, motion paths, etc.). While this simplifies the Comp window's popup menu, it creates one more keystroke or "OK" to click on when toggling certain items. For example, since version 5.0, layer masks are displayed in the Comp window. As a result, the Comp window can get cluttered, with a motion path, bezier handles, and mask lines all competing for the same pixels. I often find myself wanting to toggle layer masks on and off, especially when rotoscoping. In 5.0, this was easy to do through the Comp window's popup menu, but it now requires two additional steps. A button for layer masks in the Comp window would be very helpful.
Another enhancement that would be welcome would be an option to toggle between "Import Footage as Comp" or "Import Footage as File" when doing a drag and drop import from the desktop. Currently, this setting is buried in the Import Preferences. Drag and drop importing is a huge time saver, and it would be nice to toggle this option directly from the Project window, via either a button or an option in the Project window popup menu.
Version 5.5 introduces eight new effects filters: Levels (with individual control), Four-Color Gradient, Cell Pattern, Grid, Roughen Edges, Time Difference, Color Stabilizer and Advanced Lightning. These effects allow for some exciting new visual design and special effects possibilities. People using AE for color correction will appreciate individual control of Levels, while the Four-Color Gradient eliminates the need to jump to Photoshop to create custom gradients. Unfortunately, Standard version users will miss out on the awesome capabilities of the new Advanced Lightning filter, which is much more robust and powerful than the original Lightning filter. Also available only in the Production Bundle is Color Stabilizer, used for fixing exposure fluctuations in footage.
Rotoscoping has always been a tedious and often difficult task. With the new "Smart Mask Interpolation" palette, it is much easier to control the way AE in-betweens animated mask shapes. You select the mask shape keyframes you wish to in-between, then specify settings in the new palette, and AE will calculate in-between keyframes for you. This is definitely an improvement over AE's default method for calculating mask shape in-betweens, but it's available only with the Production Bundle. If you work with the Standard version and have lots of rotoscoping to do, you'll be better off using Pinnacle's Commotion, a specialized roto, paint and tracking application.
A new feature for working with masks, found in both versions of the AE software, is the ability to apply Motion Blur to individual masks on a layer. (Motion Blur previewing for masks must be enabled in the Timeline, just like any other type of motion blur.)
In version 5.0, AE added 3D capabilities to its original 2D foundations. This enabled it to stay competitive with its closest rival, Discreet Logic's Combustion.
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Figure 2. A single composition viewed from two angles. The right image is the POV of the animated camera visible in the foreground of the left image. The new Layer Wireframes button at the bottom of the window makes it possible to toggle instantly between wireframe and rendered view. |
Version 5.5 refines and expands upon many of the new 3D capabilities. Fundamental to working with 3D objects is the ability to view them from multiple angles, a feature that was absent in 5.0. In 5.5, you now have the ability to view a composition with 3D layers from multiple angles simultaneously by selecting New View from the View menu. In each new window, you can select a different view from the "3D View Popup" (Figure 2). This is a welcome addition that gives AE users an interface layout similar to those used by most 3D animation programs.
Other enhancements include the addition of some new Material properties for 3D layers. Light Transmission allows layers to cast colored shadows or to create effects like light shining through stained glass. Metal allows layers to have specular highlights from shiny metal to matte plastic.
The advanced 3D renderer now makes it possible to render compositions that contain intersecting 3D layers. It also calculates anti-aliasing and motion blur for 3D layers with greater accuracy. And a new "Layer Wireframes" button in the Comp window is a time saver for toggling between wireframe and rendered view.
The Production Bundle contains additional 3D enhancements not found in the Standard version, including the ability to import camera data from high-end 3D animation programs such as Alias|Wavefront Maya and 3D Studio Max.
While many of AE's 3D features are beyond the needs of those doing simple compositing, they will be welcomed by anyone using 3D elements created in other programs. For those not experienced with 3D animation, these capabilities open a new world of compositions involving perspective and camera.
AE is still the easiest and most full-featured desktop compositing program. Version 5.5 irons out and refines many of the great features introduced in 5.0, making it a worthwhile upgrade for 5.0 users. People still using 4.x should also upgrade, to take advantage of the easy 3D capabilities and numerous other enhancements. Despite a few minor bumps, and the lack of decent rotoscoping tools in the Standard version, the 5.5 upgrade builds on AE's solid foundations in a way most users will appreciate.
(The composition in Figure 2 is derived from a great Adobe tutorial on 3D layers and the use of a 3D camera. It's available at www.adobe.com/motion/tips/aft5orient. More tutorials can be found at www.adobe.com/motion/tips)
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