Motion Boutique has announced the upcoming release of Newton, the first physics engine for After Effects:

Newton interprets each 2D layer as a rigid object in a real environment. Once the simulation is calculated, the corresponding animation is recreated in After Effects as keyframes.

Strengths:

. robust and fast
. simple and intuitive interface with OpenGL preview
. gravity, collisions, friction, etc..
. media and forms of masks
. management of static objects, dynamic, kinematic, etc…

It’s been a few years since Stu Maschwitz asked “some nerd” and we’ve seen Cinema 4D, SketchUp, and Adobe Director and Flash get physics, so this is good news (via Brad Chmielewski). Even if it’s not a native tool. By the way, Motion Boutique has other tools available though nab scripts and AE Scripts.

Update: there’s a nicely illustrated article by beta tester Bruno Quintin on a French website, Newton: plug-in After Effects de simulation physique. Google Chrome and Firefox 4 translate on the fly, so it’s quick read.

There’s also some demos on Vimeo, but the best one is only in French:

Newton for Adobe After Effects, first tech demo. from motionboutique on Vimeo.