After Effects CS5.5
Lance Evans explores an incremental update with better stereo 3D tools and faster disk caching to boost performance
Price: £873 / $999 / €1,199 | Developer: Adobe | Platform: Windows / Mac
After Effects CS5.5’s new stereo 3D rig offers streamlined workflows and viewing options
- Warp Stabilizer tool
- Camera Lens Blur tool
- Stereoscopic tools & workflow
- Natural light fall-off in 2.5D work
Nuke, Fusion and Motion (the latter available only as part of Final Cut Studio) are all capable of turning in a great job, but it’s generally agreed that After Effects holds the title of industry leading compositor.
And with its Adobe CS integration, it is just as suited for use by 3D animators as it is by video pros, 2D animators and multimedia producers.
As with most incremental upgrades, After Effects CS5.5 does a lot to shore up the application as a whole, and thus limits the new features to a short list we’ll look at in a moment.
Under the hood, 5.5 builds on CS5’s transition to a true 64-bit workflow.
A vastly improved disk caching system ups the default from just 2GB to a whopping 20GB – more than capable
of dealing with today’s huge HD files.
We weren’t able to do a direct comparison test, but Adobe claims this provides significant playback gains.
After Effects CS5.5 also now displays each layer’s caching individually, enabling you to know just what content is in the cache.
The most-touted new feature is the Warp Stabilizer, an advanced stabilisation toolset that not only automates target creation, but also synthesises image content to avoid heavy cropping (stealing some technology from Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill).
It’s a genuinely useful tool for film and video work, but will be of less use to the 3D animator.
After Effects’s stereoscopic workflow now streamlines the entire process to make it a bit less complex and a lot more functional.
The stereoscopic process is still challenging, but is becoming more mainstream every year.
It’s also a natural opportunity for 3D animators who use software that likely already has stereoscopic-aware toolsets.
Lights in After Effects’ 2.5D world finally allow a natural fall-off. While it’s no replacement for 3D applications, 2.5D can save loads of production time, and Adobe keeps making it more and more usable.
The new
Camera Lens Blur here softens parts of a background plate using its masking techniques, and various other layers to create a simulated rack-focus technique
It also adds powerful rack focusing to 2.5D, and nice refinements like bokeh highlight parameters.
If your rendered animations are HD or if you now run a 64-bit workstation and would like to improve performance, the under-the-hood enhancements in After Effects CS5.5 may be well worth the upgrade.
Enhanced compatibility with RED and other video formats, plus the addition of the
Juddery helicopter footage puts Warp Stabilizer to the test. Apart from some initial smearing, it makes a brilliant job of generating smooth, usable footage
Verdict
PROS
• Nice new efficiencies
• Some useful new tools
• File compatible with CS5
CONS
• Not a feature-laden upgrade
• Some features of less use to 3D artists
While the new tools may not excite 3D artists, the stronger performance and better stereo workflow are still welcome
Related Articles
Posted on Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 3:50 pm under Applications, Reviews. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Adobe, After Effects, CS 5.5, Lens blur
