Post Magazine

A dobe After Effects is still the indus- tr y standard for visual effects and motion graphics work. No matter what the medium, from 60-foot motion pic- ture screens to two-inch cell phone and PDA displays, from television to Websites. After Effects CS4 is stacked and packed to the rim with new features that can super- charge your productivity and break down creative barriers. This is the mother app of all apps, and I couldn't complete a single project without it. F I N D E R S K E E P E R S Working in After Effects can be intensely creative, while at the same time being mas- sively tedious as you try and wrangle all your layers. I know my comps quickly become a pile of layers on top of another pile of lay- ers, and it can be a trick to find a specific layer or other asset — especially on dead- line or when you're working on a project that was handed off to you. In CS4, Adobe came up with the brilliant idea of including live search functions directly inside the Timeline and Project panels. Now you can quickly conjure up project elements, keyframe-able proper ties, effects and more. This ability to directly target properties saves a bunch of time scrolling around and twirling open layers. Don't get me wrong, I like to twirl as much as the next guy, but why not save more time for the actual creative stuff. You can also search projects for specific footage items or footage properties, such as scanning by file type to find all the .psd files that have been imported. Search results are Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah-speedy and appear as soon as you start typing. Another great way to keep things orga- nized is by using nested comps inside After Effects as a way to break down complex projects into smaller, more manageable ele- ments.This allows both the creation of elab- orate animation chains and also the ability to make quick updates to a project where a change in one composition may be immedi- ately rippled out through other comps. To make these composition hierarchies easier to navigate, this new version sports a nifty composition navigator along the top of each Composition panel. These composi- tions can be opened to access the Mini- Flowchart, which reveals the nesting organi- zation of related comps. I found this to be a far better way to visualize and navigate the structure of my meatier projects: you just have to click on a comp's name in the Mini- Flowchart to instantly switch to it. A E I N 3 D Ready to get your 3D on? Wanna ani- mate Photoshop 3D layers in your compo- sition where they can be viewed as 3D ob- jects using cameras in After Effects? Well in CS4 you can! You can also apply effects to change the layers' appearance over time, composite 3D layers with other objects and render the result as you would any other project element. This feature alone cre- ates a game-changing new 3D workflow in which ar tists, instead of rendering a 3D scene from within a dedicated 3D application and treat- ing it as finished footage inside After Effects, can impor t and paint objects in Photoshop, impor t the .psd file with the 3D layer into After Effects, and fur- ther process and animate the objects without hav- ing to go back to a 3D application and re- render the result. Now if only Adobe had a 3D program of its own, it would be a one- stop shop for all your post needs. Hmmm… may I suggest a Maxon merger? T H E E F F E C T S O F C S 4 It's true — no upgrade to AE would be complete without a smorgasbord of new ef- fect offerings and CS4 is no exception. Mo- tion graphics professionals will be giddy as these additions simplify some common tasks, such as raw content creation and re- ducing the need to make multiple effects and masks on layers to achieve certain stylis- tic results. A huge addition that is now included with AE is Imagineer Systems' Mocha.You can use this powerful 2.5D planar tracking applica- tion to track the motion of elements — even in tough shots where subjects move off-screen or where there is motion blur or excessive grain. Other notable effect additions are the Cartoon Effect, which simulates the effect of a cel-painted car toon animation to your live-action video footage or animated com- positions; and the Turbulent Noise Effect, which simulates clouds, fog, smoke, fire, light rays, plasma and more. Using fractal-derived noise, it can create some stunning natural ef- fects beyond the more common particle ef- fects. This effect alone can replace several standard particle effects you may already be using, and will allow you to design your own background elements as well. A L L R E V V E D U P In CS4, Adobe has made significant im- provements to the controls for multi-core rendering. Apparently CS3 was a bit of a memor y hog and it would tr y to use all your system resources at once, and then go on to borrow some from your neigh- bor, too. Thank goodness, a new preference panel in CS4 allows you to throttle the amount of RAM and number of CPU cores in use. This prevents the computer from getting bogged down and allows you to re- ser ve some resources for other activities, like minute-by-minute Facebook updates and Red Tube screenings. 56 Post www.postmagazine.com V I T A L S T AT S R E V I E W Adobe After Effects CS4 PRODUCT: Adobe After Effects CS4 WEBSITE: www.adobe.com PRICE: After Effects CS4, $999; upgrade, $299 · Mocha from Imagineer included · Searchable timelines and projects · Import of 3D layers from Photoshop · Integrated workflow for mobile device authoring A host of new features help to make After Effects CS4 shine. By TOR JOHANSEN Director/Producer Los Angeles tor@torphoto.com

• Cover