Following Adobe's announcement that the next version of its Production Studio suite of video applications will be released on the Mac, After Effects product manager Steve Kilisky has given more information about the decision in his blog.

The current version of the Production Studio is Windows-only. It includes Premiere Pro 2.0 for video editing, After Effects 7.0 for compositing and motion graphics work, Encore DVD 2.0 for DVD authoring, Audition 2.0 for audio editing, Photoshop CS2 for image editing, Bridge CS2 for asset management and -- in the Premium edition -- Illustrator CS2 for vector artwork creation. Of the core video applications, only After Effects is currently available for the Mac -- and it will not be updated for Intel-based Macs until this next release.

border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> "It was a very difficult business decision to go Windows only when we decided to start with a clean sheet of paper to develop Premiere Pro 1.0," writes Kilisky. "We also believed that if we were successful in developing a strong integrated workflow around After Effects, Premiere, Encore, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more recently Flash, that customers on both Mac & Win no matter which NLE they chose to use would hopefully see the value in the Adobe post production solution and we could make a strong business decision to return to being cross-platform." </p> <p> Kilisky notes that at a recent event, around half of the audience raised their hands in support for a cross-platform version of the Production Studio. He also hopes that the news will end speculation that the next version of After Effects would be Windows-only - though he is bound to start his own round of rumours by ending with the line: "Now what about Linux...". </p> <p> <b>Ready for Summer</b> </p> <p> According to Adobe, the next version of the Production Studio will launch in the middle of 2007. It will include Premiere Pro, After Effects, Encore DVD, Photoshop CS3, Bridge CS3, Illustrator CS3 -- probably only in whatever Adobe calls the higher-end bundle -- and the recently-released Soundbooth audio application. </p> <p> Soundbooth will replace the Audition application included in the current Production Studio, which Adobe says will it continue to develop for audio professionals on the Windows platform. Soundbooth is already available as a cross-platform beta version from the <a href=Adobe Labs Web site, and it's more focussed on the audio needs of video pros like Apple's Soundtrack tool.

The next versions of Premiere Pro, Encore DVD and Soundbooth will run on Intel Macs only. After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Bridge will be released as Universal Binaries for both Intel and PowerPC Macs. All will be available for Windows -- though whether Windows XP will be supported as well as Windows Vista has not been announced.