adobe lets us down

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I believe Adobe’s reasoning is that they biggest competitor is Apple and to get a leg up on Apple, Adobe had to spend a lot of effort on integrating their different software so as to provide a more complete and productive solution. If you use more than one Adobe product then chances are that you’ll love the upgrade. Otherwise, your feelings may be justified.

There is always the carrot waiting at the top of every ?.1 version of AE. Perhaps you’ll want to wait for that. Also keep in mind that AE7 may have gone to bat too early. Keep in mind that this is a bundle release and the decision to release it was very likely made by folks higher up the Adobe hierarchy.

If anything is at fault, it is how Adobe is marketing their bundled solutions. At this point in time, one has to purchase the bundle at one go.
This may have negative effects on product devlopment cycle and to-market schedules for certain products. In fact for all products. Just because one product is ready for the market in this cycle doesn’t mean that it will be ready for the next cycle.

Perhaps an opportunity to make piece-meal purchases and still take advantage of the price savings on a bundle deal, via discounts or rebates, is something they’d want to look at. Using discount/rebate coupons with a time limit may work best for Adobe and its users. This way, users have the option of making either single or upgrades, multiple upgrades, or suite deal upgrades at their discretion. And Adobe will only market products that deserve to be in the market on its own strengths rather than based on other pressures. The trick is in marking a level for the discounts for single, dual, multiple and suite purchases and upgrades. If they do it well, it could also be a good marketing gimmick and a win-win situation for all.

Cheers
RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After project files

[Chris Smith]

I agree. I will upgrade regardless though. But I’m not really excited about it. Really just for the all-in-one GUI and OpenGL 2D acceleration. Are these good? Yes. Is it what I expected after a Looooong time for Adobe to work on AE7? not close.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Justin Productions]

Totally agree with eric rosner…I mean, there could have been so many interesting features. It’s pretty sad.

Justin Productions
Tangerin01@hotmail.com
Adobe After Effects 6.0 Professional

[Barend Onneweer]

[Chris Smith] “Really just for the all-in-one GUI and OpenGL 2D acceleration.”

Well… there’s a little bit more to 7.0 than just that…

I guess most people don’t really have any clue how much effort it took to completely rework the UI and adding 32-bit float and linear blending – not to mention the supertight integration with Premiere Pro and Encore. Now some of you may not need this, but it’s very welcome in my shop.

Some of you may not see the value in 32-bit float, or linear blending. Or the graph editor. But I know people that got tears in their eyes because of float in AE. Maybe not the regular user here, but the high-end postproduction places that use After Effects on a daily basis for compositing FX on blockbuster movies.

Or how about being able to lay out a 4-up view, setting 3 views to OpenGL and one view to render on the CPU.

Then again, I don’t care for text animation presets. But did I say I was dissapointed by 6.5?

Sure, my list of christmass wishes was longer than the the new feature set in 7.0. But you can’t have it all in one update. I’m not lying when I say that I think 7.0 is a very exciting release. So much that I’m not ever touching 6.5 again.

I guess the new features aren’t too impressive on paper, but I’d like to discuss them after all of the people complaining have actually worked with it for a couple of weeks.

I work faster in 7.0 than I did in 6.5. Significantly faster. This makes me money. Good money. I’m happy.

Bar3nd

Forum COWmunity leader for:
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[Vince Becquiot]

Barend, you sold that one all right 😉

I think many people were expecting more 3d features.

But then we are probaly talking about a years of work here for the amount of changes that would be needed to actually make it worthwhile, and I don’ t think Adobe has any interest in that. I would however like to see better integration with popular 3d apps, although there has been some progress made, it just still seems tedious, c4d being the best option I’ve found for ae so far.

I would love to hear more from people who purchased it.

Vince

[Barend Onneweer]

[Vince Beck] ”
Barend, you sold that one all right ;)”

Oh, well… it’s just so easy to read half a feature list, and then complain about how you’re being ripped off… So I’m just trying to offer a perspective of someone who’s actually been using the tools everyone complains about.

Anyway, to answer your question, yes Cinema 4D offers the tightest integration with AE of all 3D apps. And arguably it offers the friendliest learning curve. And it’s available on both platforms. So it’s a great choice if you want to get into 3D. We’ve got a lively C4D forum here on the COW with a lot of AE users in it. The coolest thing is that it will actually save an AEP for you, and include the lights, bases on where your lights were in C4D… Nifty huh…

Bar3nd

Forum COWmunity leader for:
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[Erik Lindahl]

I’d say to 95% the new release certainly looks like a solid .5 upgrade.

Two really important things I’m missing though is:

1. Multiple projects open at the same time
2. Better layer management

Both should be very easy to fix I reckon. Just let me use tabs as in Final Cut Pro for my projects, and let me nest comps as layered folders in comps (or just let me sort layers in folders like in Motion and Photoshop).

These to things would make me an even happier camper 🙂

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

There are pluses and minuses to every release, but a lot of what;s happened here is under the hood and at the very top of it. While the UI may take some getting used to, I’m already annoyed when I go back to 6.5. A lot of issues have been solved with the new UI – you just have to start using it to get a feel for it.

The other aspect that’s really been improved is the open GL acceleration. if you’ve got the right card, life becomes a lot easier. And then there’s the 32 bit stuff i don’t work with but that will open doors for many people.

There are a lot of other features I like, such as slow motion, and a few features I wish they had updated – such as a better/faster motion tracker. Still overall as a tool that helps me work faster, it’s definately doing things for me.

Plus I use the entire suite, and the integration is a blessing, at least for me. Overall I’m pretty happy.

But as it was mentioned, adobe has been known to make major improvements in a .5 upgrade so we’ll see what happens.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Vince Becquiot]

Barend, While we are on the c4d integration subject, I was wondering… why is it was so hard to get a hold of that AE import plugin … or am I missing something ?

I am still working with a 5.5 plugin that I found on some guy’s website for download a year or so back. After some extensive googling I could only find a outdated Maxon page with nothing there.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Vince

[Barend Onneweer]

[Vince Beck] “why is it was so hard to get a hold of that AE import plugin … or am I missing something ?”

I’m not using C4D myself, but from what I know I don’t think you need a plugin for AE. You just export from C4D as an AE project. But if in doubt, I’m sure the peeps in the C4D Cow will be able to help you out.

Bar3nd

Forum COWmunity leader for:
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