is a digital motion graphics and
Compositing software developed by
Adobe Systems . It is commonly used in movie post production, and in the creation of commercials, as well as other pieces which require digital effects to be integrated with live video or film.
After Effects uses a system of layers, objects and a timeline wherein objects or video files can be placed on a layer within a composition and the position, opacity, size and other variables can be animated along the timeline to control the visual effect seen by the audience. It has extensive plug-in support, and a broad range of plug-ins are available. These plug-ins are called "third-party plug-ins". They come in a variety of styles, such as particle systems for realistic effects for rain, snow, fire and so on. AE does not have a built-in particle system such as Combustion, so third-party plug-ins are required to make such effects.
AE can convert any basic 2D layer into 3D with its own 3D system, and with some third-party plug-ins, AE can create some stunning 3D effects. These sort of 3D plug-ins use basic 2D layer from AE.
Beside third party plug-ins, AE works perfectly with other Adobe software titles like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and Encore DVD - even Illustrator files or drawings can be loaded to render as 3D with the help of third-party plug-ins like Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Pro. Some of the most famous third-party plug-in vendors are,
The Foundry ,
DigiEffects ,
Zaxwerks ,
BorisFX ,
Red Giant Software and a
Sweden based firm called
Trapcode .
After Effects was originally created by the
Company of Science and Art in
Providence, RI , USA. Version 1.0 was released in January
1993 . CoSA along with After Effects was then acquired by
Aldus corporation in July
1993 ; this company was then in turn acquired by Adobe in
1994 , and with it
PageMaker and After Effects.
Competitors to After Effects include
Discreet Combustion ,
Apple Shake ,
Cinelerra ,
Digital Fusion ,
Boris RED and
Apple Motion .
Although After Effects can create images of its own, it is generally used to combine material from other sources to make moving graphics (also known as "motion graphics"). For example, in a picture of a space ship and a picture of a star background, After Effects could be used to place the ship in front of the background and animate it to move across the stars.
Each picture or movie is layered on a timeline, in a way similar to a video editing program. However, what differs between After Effects and video editors is that After Effects is layer-oriented, and video editors are generally track-oriented. This means that in After Effects, each individual media object (video clip, audio clip, still image, etc.) occupies its own track. However, video editors use a system where individual media objects can occupy the same track as long as they do not overlap in time. This track-oriented system is more suited for editing and can keep project files much more concise. However, the layer-oriented system that After Effects adopts is suited more for extensive effects and keyframing.
The timeline can get extremely complex very fast because a very large number of layers are required to hold a typical animation. For instance, a coral reef background might have a few corals in front of it and fish dancing around the corals. Each fish could then be animated separately, and they could even placed in front of or in back of different parts of the background. This can build up a very realistic effect.
After Effects is famous for very high output quality. It also is used for digital conversion between different frame rates such as the 29.97
Frames Per Second used in
NTSC material and the 25 fps used in
PAL video.
- Millimeter , by Steve Katz, July 1, 2004
- MacNETv2 , by Lisa Swanson, June 21, 2004
- PC World , by Anush Yegyazarian, April 22, 2004
- Digital Producer , by Stephen Schleicher, April 28, 2004
