Adobe Systems Inc. on Monday announced After Effects 6.5, a new version of its motion graphics and visual effects software. New features include G5 optimization, new Animation Presets, an advanced clone tool and more. The new release is expected to ship in the second quarter of 2004 and will be available in both Standard and Pro versions.
Animation Presets allow users to save any combination of layer properties and apply them to other layers. The software includes more than 250 text Animation Presets and 60 new effects to create visuals. The new Clone tool provides a visual overlay of the clone source and five user-definable presets to shift between clone settings. Three grain management tools have been added, and Color Finesse from Synthetic Aperture has been included to do 32-bit floating point color correction. Motion tracking has also been improved with better accuracy and flexibility.
Optimizations for Power Mac G5s have been made in this new release, and Adobe notes OpenGL preview and support performance and accuracy improvements in this new version. Disk caching provides a measure of performance improvement in real-time playback, also. Scripting support in the Pro version allows users to write scripts to automate their work.
Adobe expects to release After Effects 6.5 in the second calendar quarter of 2004. It will cost about US$700 for the Standard version and about $1000 for the Pro version; users can upgrade from previous Standard and Pro versions for about $100.