Product Reviews

Adobe is making steady progress in turning its key programs into Mac OS X applications. The latest to be Carbonized is After Effects. In addition to the OS X treatment, version 5.5 has a bunch of new features and improvements.

After Effects 5.5 is the second of the top digital video editing/compositing software packages to become OS X native (Apple's Final Cut Pro 3.0 being the first). It's good to note that After Effects is a fraction faster in OS X than in Mac OS 9, but Carbonization is really the only big development in the upgrade.

One useful new feature that will save time in compositing, especially when working in 3D, is the multiple views function. Inspired by the similar feature in InDesign, multiple views allows users to set up different views to see an object or a project from all angles and in all forms (wireframe, RAM preview, whole project space, title-safe zones, contrasting 3D views and so on).

After Effects 5.5 now has more than 90 effects as standard, and users with third-party effects can add hundreds more. With this in mind, version 5.5 now streamlines the process of locating and applying effects via the new Effects palette, which offers a faster way of working than the old effects lists. Effects can be dragged from the palette to the Timeline or a layer's Effect Controls window and positioned in the order that they are to be applied.

Level best

There are eight new effects in After Effects 5.5, with a further four migrating from the previous Production Bundle (Basic Lightning, Twirl, Wave Warp and Ripple). Of these, Levels is perhaps the most significant. It can be used to colour-correct clips by setting keyframes on gamma levels, input and output colour levels, rather than globally on a channel's histogram. Another new effect, Time Difference, can also be used for colour correction. This calculates colour differences between two layers over time.

It's disappointing that two of the most significant improvements are only available in the Production Bundle. The new Smart Mask Interpolation Keyframe Assistant is so

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useful that it really should be part of the basic package. It interpolates between masks in keyframes to give smooth intermediate-frame masking automatically. The Production Bundle upgrade can also import camera data from Maya and 3ds max. This means it's easier to use After Effects to create the things it's good at while keeping Maya/3ds max project attributes, such as null layers, camera transformations and keyframes.

The Colour Stabiliser feature is also a useful feature: it minimises any flickering caused by exposure fluctuations by imposing a selected frame's colour values on others in a defined range. However, this tool is only in the Production Bundle.

After Effects' output options have been extended, particularly the support for RealMedia formats direct from the Export menu. Multiple data rate RM files can also be created simultaneously. This goes a long way to make up for the lack of any integrated output to Cleaner 5.0, but RM isn't the whole output story: Web authors wanting to create files in other formats will still have to output raw After Effects files for import into Cleaner. After Effects now also supports the import of Flash SWFs, MPEG-1 and RPF files.

The new Light Transmission and Casts Shadows layer properties are clever additions. Casts Shadows can be used with a layer containing a shape to create a spotlight in that shape. Light Transmission allows a layer to become transparent to a predefined percentage to cast coloured shadows from the spotlight.

Tweak at the knees

There are many tiny tweaks in After Effects 5.5. There's a new keyboard shortcut to paste layers at the current Timeline time, as well as five new transfer modes, including Vivid Light, Pin Light and Linear Light. There's also a new link switch in the Timeline to scale a layer's x, y and z values proportionally, and option-dragging a new project item on to an existing item replaces all instances of the original with the dragged item. And the Standard 3D Renderer at last includes an antialiasing control that can be balanced between speed and quality.

It's not to say that After Effects 5.5 isn't worth having, but despite some useful improvements and a handful of new features, the combined weight of the new elements seems barely persuasive. For many users this mid-integer upgrade will be a borderline decision.

Price: Standard version £525 (£616.88 inc VAT), upgrade from 5.0 £79 (£92.83 inc VAT), full Production Bundle £1225 (£1439.38 inc VAT), upgrade from 5.0 £79 (£92.83 inc VAT)

Needs: PowerPC (multiprocessor G4 recommended), Mac OS 9.1, 9.2.1 or OS X 10.1, 128Mb application RAM (256Mb or more recommended), QuickTime 5.0