TECH TIPS
Making the Upgrade
After Effects CS3 Irons Out Some Wrinkles
by Ben Bardens
It seems these days that software companies update their products with ever-increasing frequency. Sometimes these upgrades are much needed, offering exciting new features and fixes; other times the reasons seem a little less obvious. So what type of upgrade is this latest Creative Suite 3 release of After Effects? After all, it wasn’t that long ago that After Effects 7.0 was released. Well, in this Tech Tip, I’ll outline several of the reasons why this is the upgrade that After Effects 7.0 needed.
7.0 Refined
Sometimes when a software company gives a program a major interface overhaul,
such as Adobe did with 7.0, it can take another update or version release
to really refine and iron out that new look––and CS3 does this.
Those who are familiar with 7.0 and its “application window” style
interface of highly customizable “panel” arrangements will find
that CS3 stays true to this model. Yet several little quirks have been worked
out, and other interface options have been further developed to make this
After Effects release probably the most solid ever in terms of its interface.
Welcome new colors! It’s a simple thing; why it took eight versions of the software for it to happen, I don’t know. But the addition of more label colors for your layers makes organizing complex projects easier than ever. Previously there were only seven color labels from which to choose; now there are 15. Label colors are still customizable by choosing Preferences -> Label Colors, and then clicking on the color swatch you wish to change (see Figure 1).
 Figure 1: A rainbow of colors! Eight new color labels, for a total of 15, make organizing complex projects easier than ever. |
The “Toggle Switches/Modes” button is back! This button has always been there, located at the bottom of the timeline panel, allowing users to switch between the “Switches” and “Modes” panels without having to eat up valuable screen space displaying both simultaneously. For some unknown reason, this button was unlabeled in version 7.0, although the functionality was still there. In CS3, the button is once again labeled for obvious use.
The overall interface refinement is solid, as evident in the way pop-up menus are treated, such as the font menu in the Character panel and the Presets menu in the Composition Settings dialogue. Also, value––such as the frame sizes in the Composition Settings––can now be both scrubbed and typed in manually, just like property values in the timeline. This is a nice touch. Refinements such as these lend to a greater level of consistency throughout the program.
Important new preference settings make After Effects even more interactive with your specific hardware set-up. You’ll find new preference settings for multi-processor support as well as audio hardware and audio output devices if you have specialized sound cards and output equipment.
Not only does CS3 refine and build upon the new interface and features introduced in 7.0, it also introduces some amazing new features of its own. Probably the biggest and most exciting new features are the Shape Tool and Shape Layers, as well as the new Puppet Pin Tool with its associated options.
Shape Tools and Shape Layers
Shape layers are familiar to Photoshop users, as vector layers that can be
created directly using the Shape tools. The advantage to Shape layers as opposed
to pixel-based image layers is their editable and fully scalable vector nature.
Shape layers can be used for a variety of purposes, such as creating graphic
elements, icons, logos, particles, etc. Shape layers can also be used as mattes
and animated matte shapes over other layers, such as video footage to create
sophisticated compositing effects.
In previous versions of After Effects, creating shapes directly within the program involved making solid layers and then applying masks on top of the solid layer to create the shapes. As the only Mask Shape tools were the Ellipse and Rectangle, if you needed a shape other than one of these, you either had to draw it using the Pen Tool, or copy and paste the shape from another program such as Photoshop or Illustrator. The Shape Tool eliminates these extra steps and introduces new shapes available directly inside After Effects, such as the Polygon, Star and Rounded Rectangle. This is a huge plus, and will eliminate the need for designers to go to Illustrator or Photoshop to create shapes on the fly (see Figure 2).
 Figure 2: The new shape and mask tools, much like those found in Illustrator, make it easier than ever to make complex shapes and masks directly in After Effects. |
Puppet Pin Tool
For those doing “cut-out style” animation––or
any kind of cartoon-like animation––using After Effects,
this tool will make the task significantly easier and even more lifelike.
The Puppet Pin Tool, and its associated modifiers, essentially allows
you to create a kinematics structure for a layer or group of layers.
For example, you could create a character and use the Puppet Pin Tool
to animate that character in a lifelike fashion, where if you pulled
on the hand, the rest of the body would follow (see Figure 3).
 Figure 3: The new Puppet Pin Tool and some of its associated options. This amazing new tool makes creating fluid and organic-looking animation in After Effects easier than ever. |
The Puppet Pin Tool is basically a special effect filter (sort of a souped-up mesh warp filter) that applies to your layer when the tool is used. This is not unlike the way the Paint and Clone Tools function; you first apply the tool, and then the properties appear below the layer in the Timeline. The main difference with the Puppet Pin Tool is that when you use it, it automatically creates keyframes for your layer. Usually, it is up to the user to click the “initialize keyframe” stop-watch and manually set the keyframes for an effect property.
To use this tool, you basically click and set “pin points” that anchor parts of a layer (such as a character’s hands and feet), and then drag the points to animate the movement of the layer. Pin points must be within the shape of the layer, not in the transparent areas outside of a layer’s actual pixels. You can animate the pin points manually, as you would any property, by moving the time indicator forward on the timeline and then moving the pin points to change their values.
 Figure 4: Jumping spaceman! An example of the Puppet Pin Tool in action, this still image is a blend of five frames from the timeline. The little yellow circles are the "pin points" that are creating the animation. Simply clicking and dragging them with the Puppet Pin Tool is all it takes. |
But rather than animating the pin points manually, Adobe has combined the functionality of “motion sketch” with the Puppet Pin Tool, so you can record the movement of the layer as you drag and create it. Simply hold the Apple (Mac) or Control key (PC) as you drag a pin point with the Puppet Pin Tool and the motion will be recorded, along with keyframes, at the speed you create it. If you click the “Record Options” in the Tool bar at the top of the screen, you’ll see a speed setting. Increasing the speed value will result in slower motion when played back in real time; decreasing it will result in faster motion (see Figure 4).
Amazing Integration with other Adobe Applications
As if all these refinements and new features alone don’t make this a
worthwhile upgrade, Adobe has done an amazing job integrating After Effects
into its entire Creative Suite of applications. You’ll find improved
render and/or export options for Premiere Pro, Flash and Encore. You’ll
also find improved integration with Photoshop, such as the ability to launch
the program and set up a new document from directly inside of an After Effects
composition, by choosing Layer -> New -> Adobe Photoshop File.
For those artists who rely on Photoshop, Illustrator and/or Flash as part of their workflow with After Effects, this entire CS3 group of applications are worth the upgrade. The entire suite has a slick and polished look and feel––right on down to the attractive and obvious icons.
But more importantly, the performance of the applications are impressive and stable. On my Quad PPC Mac and Intel iMac, After Effects has performed impressively fast. The only quirk I’ve managed to uncover––and I’m not sure if it’s a Mac OS thing or an Adobe thing––but sometimes (not always) After Effects refuses to “hide” when I choose “Hide Others” from the Finder. But that’s pretty insignificant, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the future updates that pops-up in the “Adobe Updater” (part of the Creative Suite installation) addresses this.
Final Word
I give it five stars! CS3 is one of the best, if not the best, After
Effects versions ever. I strongly recommend the upgrade for existing
users, and the full version as an introduction for new users.
Ben Bardens teaches After Effects at Glendale Community College and at Studio Arts (www.studioarts.tv) and has been using After Effects professionally since version 3.0. He can be reached by e-mail at bbardens@glendale.edu.
[ return to top ]