After Effects CS4

Adobe has announced their Creative Suite 4, in which they have aligned the schedules of virtually all of their products to be updated at the same time. One of these programs is, of course, After Effects, which we have based our business around since its release in 1992. As a result, we obviously go over each new release with a fine-tooth comb, looking for which new features will make our lives easier, will give us new looks, and which may open up new avenues of business for us. That last point has become particularly interesting in light of Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia, plus their focus on integrating functionality across the various programs in the Creative Suite.

In this article, we will give a brief overview of many of those new features. Then in the coming weeks and months, we’ll focus on some of these features individually, relating what we found interesting about each one, with tips on how to use them (and what might trip you up). These additional articles will be posted on our CMG Keyframes channel on PVC.

In addition to articles up here on ProVideoCoalition, there are several other places where you can glean additional information:

• Later Tuesday afternoon (the 23rd), Adobe will be placing the"live help” file for After Effects CS4 online. When it is up, you can access the entire Help file by clicking here, and search for features of specific interest. Click here to jump straight to the New Features page; click here to jump straight to the page that describes changes in the User Interface between CS3 and CS4.

• We’ve created an hour of video training on using the new features in AE CS4 for Lynda.com’s Online Training Library. The course is called After Effects CS4: New Creative Techniques; when it goes live, it can be found here. Two of the movies are scheduled to go online at the same time as the CS4 announcement; the remaining ten will go live once CS4 ships. Lynda.com will also be posting New Feature previews for Illustrator CS4, Flash CS4, and Photoshop CS4, plus plus full courses for the new features in Fireworks CS4, Soundbooth CS4, and Dreamweaver CS4 (these last three are available as public betas from the Adobe Labs web site.) If you don’t already have a Lynda.com subscription, you can get a free all-access 7-day trial on us by clicking here.

• We’ve also written an article about the new features in AE CS4 for Focal Press, which appears at www.CMG4CS4.com. That article also outlines our plans for our books in relation to CS4.

On to our hit list of interesting new features in AE CS4:

Photoshop CS4 – User Interface Changes

Learn about important changes to the Photoshop CS4 user interface. - Refined workspaces – Freely rotatable canvas – Greater zoom levels - Enhanced controls with panels - Tabbed documents

Want the videos in HD?  Then check out our iTunes version.

Motion Graphics & Visual Effects

We’re very proud of the line-up of users and experts we have writing for PVC. However, not all potential writers have the time to fill an entire channel of their own. Therefore, in the coming weeks we’ll be launching a series of “themed” channels, each containing a rotating cast of several additional writers.

The first such new channel is Motion Graphics & Visual Effects. Among the writers we have slated to share their expertise are:

John Dickinson of Motionworks

Jonas Hummelstrand of General Specialist

Alan Shisko of Motion Graphics ‘n Such

Mark Spencer of All About Motion

David Torno of AE I Owe You

All of these guys are well-known users in the community, and as witnessed by the above sites, have already been sharing information with others. We’re happy to have them sharing information with you up here on PVC.

Additional channels we have planned include Editing & Post Production, Cameras, Lights, Action, and Web Video & Beyond.

If you are interested in writing for PVC, please contact me at cmeyer @ this site’s domain. Tell me your expertise, what you’re interested in writing about, and show me a few examples of your writing. If you’re accepted, you’ll share in the ad revenue generated by PVC based on your traffic. Help us make PVC an even better resource for all who visit.

Best Regards -
Chris Meyer
PVC Editorial Director

TED Talk: The Truly Soft Side of Software

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. I’ve been going through their online archive of talks for my own amusement and education, and sharing with you ones I found to be particularly interesting.

Back in June, I highlighted Jakob Trollback’s talk on Rethinking the Music Video. This time around, I want to highlight a “music video” that’s considerably in the more abstract domain. In this presentation, Golan Levin discusses the custom performance software he writes which allows him to improvise music with accompanying visuals. We’re strictly in the experimental realm here (the soundtrack is 60s-era avant-garde electronic music - listen with your speakers on to annoy your cubemates), but sometimes, great inspiration comes from the very fringes of an art. Note: The visuals are initially very simplistic (the piece is titled “Scribble"), but become much more complex about 4:40 into the video.

Aside from Levin’s TED Talk, I strongly recommend you check out the Flong Interactive Art site (pictured above) which contains a number of interesting audiovisual works by Levin and his friends - there’s lots of cool interactive visual pieces on there.

On Artbeats.com: Article on Type Basics

Every month, we write a Tips N Tricks article for our friends at Artbeats.com. This month we wrote a basic introduction to using text - including a few simple rules of typography that many miss, plus a more subjective discussion about choosing the right fonts for a job. (This is obviously a companion for the piece on Font Resources that we just posted here on PVC.)

Click here to download a PDF of “Type Basics” from Artbeats.com.

Adobe CS4 Just Around the Corner

Want to find out everything new in Adobe Creative Suite 4? Trust me… there’s some really cool things coming. Adobe has an invitation out to view their Web broadcast on September 23rd. But you do need to go to the sign-up page at www.adobe.com/go/somethingbrilliant.

By the way… I am going to be releasing something very special on the 23rd as well as a “thank you” to all my viewers. Be sure to stick around and keep an eye out. 

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