The most recent update of AE is August 2024 release (version 24.6), which polished the cinema 3D toolset (with other fixes) that were the focus of the last year or so.

After Effects 25 is available in the beta program; you might expect the usual official announcement along with the rest of Creative Cloud 2025 at Adobe Max, October 10 or so. We expect UI refinements and 3D and expressions improvements.

Adobe reviewed recent feature upgrades for IBC in September, which was noted in After Effects Roundup September 2024. Here’s Film Riot’s summary video, What’s New in After Effects?

Also at IBC in September, Premiere Pro saw a number of important announcements on color and AI. For more see, Adobe previews upcoming Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year. Note that After Effects was NOT mentioned in connection to Firefly AI video development. Adobe have some new videos pondering the future, Sneak Peek at Adobe Firefly Video Model — Beta Coming Soon and Implications of AI for Video Editors.

flomotion says TEXT TO VIDEO in Adobe Firefly is CRAZY.

Premiere Gal pumps up the beta program in New After Effects Features That Will Blow Your Mind.

Nostalgia for a past obsession solved by expensive plug-ins, no! Texturelabs posted Detailed Analog Film Damage in After Effects – no stock footage or plugins! He creates a vintage film treatment in After Effects using analog-ish effects like Light Leaks, vignettes, Color Correction, Flicker, Dust, Damage, Blobs, Scratches, Grain, and Gate Weave.

Stephan Zammit continues his releases with 3 Advanced 3D Animations After Effects Tutorial. He spills the secrets of The Orb, or rather, how to create realistic 3D spheres with these 3 advanced 3D techniques.

Premiere Gal posted MIND-BLOWING 3D Title Transitions in After Effects Revealed! She showed CC Force Motion Blur but also used the tutorial to advertise a Premiere Pro tool to faster results.

And in case you needed another basic 3D text tutorial, Adobe posted Create Dynamic 3D Text in After Effects | Adobe Video x @filmriot.

Eran Stern compares tools almost essential for After Effects in Physim vs Newton: Pick the Right Simulation Plugin for Your Workflow.

In Real 3D Phone Mockup in After Effects | Tutorial, Manuel does Motion shows you how to create a real 3D phone model in After Effects with realistic reflections.

Previously, AEP mentioned the irrealix plug-in for import, manipulation and rendering 3D Gaussian Splatting (.ply) files inside After Effects, in real-time with GPU.

School of Motion recently mentioned a Black Mixture demo of Gaussian Splatting with an AE Postshot plug-in. Postshot is a 3D gaussian splatting tool that can track multiple cameras across a scene and render photorealistic results in Blender and After Effects. Olli Huttunen also posted something, as did Alex Villabon with Train Your First Gaussian Splat With Postshot.

Creative Tech Digest also shared 3D Gaussian Splatting in After Effects (4-min Tutorial). He used Luma AI to train the splat and export the .ply, and you can import with realix, Postshot, Scaniverse or NeRF Studio. For an overview of Gaussian Splatting, see Irrealix and Creative Tech Digest’s substantial 3D Gaussian Splatting – Explained!

Adobe Video & Motion hosted After Effects Lightsaber Tutorial — No Plugin Required | Adobe Video x @filmriot. Adobe ignores the free Video Copilot plug-in SABER for perhaps a “no-CGI” move featuring a dowel and light strip. Just kidding, you get tips for both ways in case Andrew stops developing plug-ins.

Michael Ponch helps with a not uncommon problem in How I removed Reflection from Glasses | After Effects Tutorial.

Michael Sturgill says that I Left After Effects For This, meaning Cavalry who provides a FREE alternative to After Effects, with a focus on motion rather than compositing.

See also School of Motion on How Cavalry is Changing the Game for Motion Designers. They say it’s a beast when it comes to motion design, data visualization, character animation, generative art, and even UX design. The free version changes the equation if you’re desperate to avoid Adobe.

MotionXP shared How to steal like a Motion Designer (leveraging a book by Austin Kleon) and Stop making BORING Motion Design with 3 Pro Tips, on Colorama, Fractal noise and Displacement map.

Nicholas Blowey has several AE and Blender tutorials, sort of design exercise things with free assets. See Easiest Way to Animate Geometric Posters: After Effects and Create Stunning Volumetric Video Effect, which reminds me of Bill Viola ‘The Veiling‘.

Flat Pack FX explores Stylized Timeline Animation in Adobe After Effects.

RE:Vision Effects announced Color Genius, an automatic color enhancement tool driven by AI; it comes as a plug-in and standalone app.

A frequent topic, but these are The Best Plugins for After Effects! for Mango Street.

Eran Stern had a quick tip on the free Quick Chromatic Aberration from Plugin Everything (vid).

Puget Systems posted some reviews on recent hardware, for example Adobe After Effects: AMD Ryzen 9000 Series vs Intel Core 14th Gen.

Captioneer for Premiere Pro, new from Mograph Mindset, provides an easy way to create animated subtitles in Premiere Pro. You can edit captions phrase by phrase, but that can get tedious quick. See the demo below, and also (for older tools) The Best Video Caption Plugins for Premiere Pro from Premiere Gal.

For some fanboy on fanboy action, see Adobe Speaks Out About DaVinci Resolve by Patrick Stirling. If you’re in a for a penny, here’s an Intro to VFX for Short Films in Fusion [FULL COURSE – Resolve 19] by Casey Faris, on the perpetual license effects companion to DaVinci Resolve.

Adobe is pushing hard on AI for video, and DaVinci Resolve will have to partner or buy, or get bought, to compete.

There’s been more chatter on this tool, so Kaleb Gonyea asked Is This the FUTURE of 3D Design? Adobe Project Neo Beta Revealed! We could find out more soon at Adobe Max.

For who have been more tentative about 3D, there’s Everything Blender can do in one video by blendereverything. A counter to Adobe Project Neo popped up from Eitan Rieger.design, Project Neo on Blender? Start Designing Now With this Template.

See last week’s Friday AI news from Curious Refuge in You’ve GOT to See These AI Video Updates!

ThrillSeeker says that Meta Just Had its iPhone Moment. He cover a few other AR/VR things too.

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