After Effects CS4 is a lesson in technology convergence.
In the last few years we have seen huge changes in communications technology. The traditional separations between telephone, cable TV, networking, computing, and cell phones is blurring.
Only a few years ago, the distribution options available to filmmakers were: (1) DVD, (2) Broadcast TV, or (3) Film output. Today your film could play on any of a dozen video hosting sites (like YouTube), it could be available as a DVD download from CreateSpace.com, it can be output in MP4 format to load onto an iPod, burned to DVD or Blu-Ray, or play in streaming Flash from a website. Did you know that videos can even be embedded in PDF documents today?
Adobe has wisely realized that, as the technologies converge, the video producer is increasingly challenged to provide excellent quality video across a variety of media and devices. Continuing the “Bridge” strategy, Adobe is increasingly integrating its separate applications into a coordinated suite capable of reaching all media. The concept is that, if you know the required outputs, you should be able to develop your content in a way that ensures you will be able to reach those outputs without compromising quality.
Most microfilmmakers will relate to this issue from the 16:9 HD versus 4:3 SD drill. If you develop your project in 4:3, you’ll sacrifice the quality if you need to convert the result to 16:9. If you develop in 16:9, then the quality will be compromised if you later need to crop or letterbox to get to 4:3. You can’t develop for both. The tools haven’t supported it. You have to choose one format and then convert the final result to the other format. But in CS4, Adobe is doing everything possible to ensure that you can develop for multiple formats at the same time without sacrificing output quality.
You can see this thoughtfulness in design in one of the simplest new features of After Effects CS4, the 4:3 Center-cut Safe Area. (Figure 1)
This simple overlay has always provided the outer rectangle – the Action Safe area, and the inner rectangle – the Title Safe Area. But in CS4, you can see that additional vertical lines have been added to create a center 4:3 Safe Area.
As you are working you can check the framing of the scene for both 16:9 and 4:3 formats. It’s no longer an afterthought. This kind of attention to detail is evident throughout the CS4 release.
The main improvement in After Effects CS4 is a workflow overhaul. There are several changes in the interface and in how After Effects works internally as well as how After Effects integrates with other Adobe products. These changes make After Effects easier to use and improve the workflow for sophisticated applications. There are also a slew of other new features, including some impressive new effects and capabilities.
CS stands for “Creative Suite”. And Adobe is making it easier to buy a suite of programs rather than the individual programs. People who buy After Effects often buy Photoshop or Illustrator or both to use with After Effects. A lot of us upgrade one product at a time, over a period of months, because of the expense. But in CS4, Adobe is pitching very strongly that in this emerging multimedia world, a video producer needs all the tools to move in any output direction. And for that reason, we should buy a package solution rather than the individual programs. And they may be right.
Adobe has structured the CS4 suite so that there are additional features available when you buy the suite and install all the programs together. Some of these features cannot be added later. If you buy the programs separately and install them separately, some of the interoperation features simply won’t be there. The package means something.
As far as I can tell, this is a technological requirement and not a marketing gimmick. There are some interoperation functions that have dependencies on the partnering applications all being present and all being at the same release level in order to work together.
Let’s take a look at the CS4 interoperation features. Because understanding them will help you decide if it’s time for an After Effects CS4 upgrade, or whether it’s time to move to CS4 as a suite. (Click here to read Jeremy Hanke's full review of the CS4: Production Premium package.)
For reference, here is the comparison page for the Creative Suite packages: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/compare/
And here is a link to the upgrade page for Creative Suite:
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/upgrade/
At the time of this writing, a new stand-alone copy of After Effects CS4 sells for $999, the “Production Premium” package goes for $1699, and the “Master Collection” goes for $2499. HOWEVER, if you have AE CS3 Professional, AE 7.x, or AE 6.x upgrading to the “Production Premium” package is only $1099.
