The current version of Adobe After Effects is May 2024 release (version 24.4). Beta features are listed in Adobe Help.

Apparently OpenPBR Surface is now 1.0, and a big step toward material standardization and interoperability in the 3D ecosystem.

In Beta Beat | A Sneak Peek at What’s Next in Premiere Pro and After Effects – May News, Adobe’s Karl Soule and Victoria Nece shared a look at the current features, fixes, and workflows under development in Premiere Pro (Beta) and After Effects (Beta). In this video you also hear how feedback from the community is the future of the apps you use every day.

Eran Stern posted Quick Physics Simulations in After Effects on using Particle Playground to simulate 2D physics in After Effects. He also shared How to Replace 3D Materials in After Effects, and the 45-minute crash course, Easy Motion Graphics for Beginners in After Effects.

Adobe Live hosted Motion Design Hotline: Particle Party. In this episode, Evan and Kyle make it rain and smoke with the built-in particle systems in After Effects. Evan starts with the old confetti cannon loaded with tumbling money, shiny metallic flakes, and a deck of playing cards. And so on and so forth as patience allows.

Jake In Motion has some new videos, including AE Genius \\\ Animation Presets and Essential Properties and Text Animators. Awhile back Jakes posted The LAST graph editor tutorial you’ll ever need, and now has another take, AE Genius \\\ Buttery Smooth Curves.

Motion By Scott has 20 After Effects Secrets Everyone Should Know.

MotionXP shared The only 4 After Effects Expressions you need to know, not absolutes but as baselines.

Boone Loves Video (and maps) shared How to Find (and Animate) Any Country Flag | After Effects Tutorial 2024.

Ben Marriott has ideas on Perfect Shape Morphs in After Effects. Ben shows every step used to create super smooth shape morph transitions using shape layers, exploring different techniques and tools you can use to break down the process into smaller steps, mirror shapes, find appealing shapes to use between the morphs, parent elements together for more control and plan ahead to create a cohesive and impactful transition.

Evan Abrams on Adobe Live shared starter files in his tutorial, Morph Between Objects | Video Animation Challenge.

In Line Art Animation in After Effects | No Plugins, AnF Graphics creates Shapes from vector layer and animates a Trim Path layer control.

Manuel does Motion showed how he animated an Illustration in After Effects in Animating Artworks from Artists I like: Sebastian Schwamm.

Quick actions in the Creative Cloud app can save time and provide basic editing tools for daily creative work. Examples of quick actions include merging and trimming videos, removing backgrounds, resizing images and videos, converting videos to gifs, and editing PDFs. Watch flomotion explain in Quick Actions: Remove Background in ONE SECOND and much more!!

Maxon Studio is a new After Effects template engine and interface available to Red Giant and Maxon One subscribers. Studio’s collection of Capsules are not exactly prefab templates, which can be hard to customize. Powered by Red Giant tools, Studio Capsules can be browsed, selected, and fine-tuned with a user-friendly editing interface so you can create with the click of a button. Maxon One includes Maxon Capsules, Maxon Cinema 4D, Maxon Forger, Maxon Red Giant, Maxon Redshift, Maxon Universe and Maxon ZBrush. You can buy bundles with other tools included as well, but check your math.

Chad Perkins explains this interesting development in Getting Started with Maxon Studio.

Premiere Gal considers Better Color Grading with these Pro Tips! It includes mention of the orange and teal look. If you haven’t, see the classic 15-year old tutorial by Stu Maschwitz, Red Giant TV Episode 22: Creating a Summer Blockbuster Film Look. You might consider another old post by Stu, Hue are you?

3D Object and HDRI Lighting in After Effects – How good is it? Premiere Gal looks at how much you can accomplish with 3D objects and models in After Effects with their new advanced 3d workspace. She tests the import of .glb objects and the use of HDR Images for environmental lights to create a cool UFO scene.

CapCut has some decent ‘Pro’ filters that use AI for audio clean up. Controls are limited, but I redid a fix on 10 1990-era cassette transfers and it saved hours on each tape. I only wanted 1 month, so it cost $10 for pro access. It worked better than last year’s Adobe audio solutions (I didn’t try the updates).

If you’re not sold, here’s some fun, Pro Editor Uses CAPCUT For A Day…

Artem / furphy @FurphyRL said:
Hey, if you use Adobe/Creative Cloud, make sure to turn off the Content Analysis option in settings, otherwise they’ll automatically feed your work into their Al they are working on.
It’s on by default :/

This eventually caused quite a firestorm, with people looking at alternatives or finalizing a switch! Here’s a mild but cautionary take from Brad Colbow. Check out Louis Rossman if you want the downside of Adobe’s response. Adobe offers no clear opt-out option; opt-in is automatic for cloud storage and beta use.

School of Motion has some headlines in Adobe’s TOS Turmoil, Maxon’s New Tool, & Cara Breaks the Internet | Motion Mondays.

Ryan Summers asked:
“{ motion design } Is the obsessive reporting of every incremental update on AI within Motion Design Twitter & email newsletters contributing to the doomsdaying and overall feeling of gloom in the industry?

Are we all waiting for it to kneecap the industry or is it already here?”

Crafthive had extra perspective in VFX r u ok? Why It Feels Like the End of VFX:

Udio, the AI music generator, has been out for a few months, and has 3 tiers of pricing (1 free). Theoretically Media shares an update in Udio’s New Feature is a Gamechanger for AI Music. Maybe more interesting than that video is the response of Rick Beato, Told You This Was Going To Happen.

Here’s are 3 AI video reports: Matt Wolfe’s AI News: AI Video Better than Sora?!, This FREE AI Video Generator is Unbelievable! by Curious Refuge, and 5 Mindblowing AI Video & Lipsync Tools Just Dropped!

There’s always a new best AI whatever app. For now, Theoretically Media says Luma Labs Dream Factory is The BEST AI Video Model Is Out & FREE!