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CS3: After Effects puts shapes in motion

Tuesday 27 Mar 2007 - 05:03

After Effects gains new creative tools for motion graphics and animation, higher performance, the Brainstorm alternative system, and better integration with Photoshop and Flash Professional.

It’s lost the Standard Edition that’s currently available for AE 7, which Adobe says is because most users went for the Professional version.

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The new Shape layers (above) are designed to boost After Effects’ vector artwork and animation tools. Based on <a href=

Illustrator's vector tools, it enables you to quickly create preset shapes such as rectangles, rounded rectangles, ellipses, polygons and stars – or draw your own using the Pen tool.

All parts can be animated: including strokes, fills, dashes and gradients – as well as more niche functions such as Miter Limit, Line Cap and Line Join.

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Shape animation presets are included, and you can apply effects such as Twist, Zig Zag, Pucker, Bloat, trim paths and wiggle paths.
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Premiere Pro’s Clip Notes system for emailing clients a PDF containing the current state of your project and automatically receiving comments back, and integration with Photoshop and Device Central.

AE CS3 supports Photoshop’s Layer Styles, which can also be applied in AE, Video Layers from Photoshop CS3 Extended -- and 3D scene data created using Photoshop’s Vanishing Point tool.

Neil Bennett

For more information see the Kodak Web site.

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