When Adobe released After Effects 5.0 some two years ago, it was a major breakthrough in compositing technology – 3D layers, vector painting, speed and workflow improvements were all major advantages to this application. With the near-release of After Effects 6.0, Adobe has done it again by adding and improving upon an already-great animation and compositing package.
Where to begin? There are so many “little” improvements to the application that I am still finding new elements that make me say, “Cool”. So I’ll start off by discussing some of the very first things you will see when you launch the program this August.[an error occurred while processing this directive]One item you may or may not like is that horizontal and vertical scroll bars are gone in the Comp Window. In order to move around the window, you’ll need to use the Hand Tool (keyboard shortcut holding down the Spacebar) to move your view around. The plus is you now have more work area available.
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| No more scroll handles gives those of us stuck at smaller resolution more screen real estate to work with |
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| New ways to work with the Comp Window include pixel aspect correction, the ability to turn masks visibility on and off, dynamic preview options, and more. |
After Effects 6.0 now deals with Solid layers differently. In the past, Solids were created in the Timeline only. Now in 6.0, Solids are created as an actual file in the Project Window with unique names (actually the color of the Solid). This makes it easy to reuse Solids in other compositions without having to constantly create those new solids yourself.
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