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AE 7 – Am I disappointed or…
am I confused?
Well, I was disappointed. When I saw that early product sheet last week I thought “this can’t be all there is”. But, yes this is all there is. Now every release doesn’t have to be earth shattering and I suppose Adobe can’t charge much less for an update – can they? My disappointment isn’t with AE, it works well for what I do most and it will keep working well for what I do most (with or without the update). My biggest disappointment is the fact that it isn’t going to work better for what I do and what I’d like to do more of.
You see I’ve always seen the majority of AE users to be generalists, people who need a little motion graphic design, a little visual effects, a little color timing, a little of this a little of that and they need to do it all themselves. I felt that AE was doing a good job at answering a lot of peoples need for a fair price.
This update brings “riches” (well maybe not that strong of a word) to those people who are working in the film industry. Maybe you get a couple of shots or an opening title sequence each year and now AE has HDR, OpenEXR, 32-bit Float so you say “cool”. Well this is great to add to the generalist tool but is helping the majority?
If you want to improve on integration great I’m all for it, but don’t try and sell me a product (claiming a new feature) that now works with other products from the same software company – that is something I expect in the first place. An update to AE, as far as integration goes, would be that it now can share metadata with more third party applications. Now that would be a new feature. Also I don’t need another finder. I have an OS that has a built-in finder. Now some may like it more than others but I surely don’t need to learn yet another interface and hierarchal system – I can find and organize my own files thank you.
The new interface. Well I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t really say but the mere mention of application window makes me think of that other OS.
So what’s left for the generalist. Graphic Path Editor and Timewarp.
The GPE looks nice and I can see it helping in those times when ease in and ease out just isn’t cutting it.
Timewarp, well the name certainly is. Really must come up with better names for these improvements (read bought out or borrowed ideas). This is one thing I personally could really use. I was going to see if Motion uses optical-flow and see if it can give me clean smooth slow-mo but this “new feature” sounds like it will be a welcome “improvement” over time remapping. Yes AE already does time remapping so Timewarp isn’t a new feature it’s an improvement over what it already does.
My grave disappointment is with the direction of the company’s over all attitude of continuing to follow a closing ranks movement. I’m a generalist. I need my swiss army knife to work with my boy scout cook set and my first aid fire starting poncho kit. Don’t try and sell me one product buy saying it works great with one of your other products. Tell me it works great for what I will use it for and that it works with all other products.
Will I buy it … maybe, the timewarp might be worth it. I could just by Silhouette Roto and wait for the next update then I could end up with two roto applications. My problem is I’ve lost faith.
TonyTony
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14 Replies
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This, I’m afraid is war.
https://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1472
Is cooperation between the giants ending?
TonyTony
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They never really cooperated, did they? The treated each other with respect and had an interest that their softwares were compatible, but if Apple thinks they can live without a certain clientel, it’s their thing. Not trying to start a war here, but I feel that Apple is clearly becoming the next Microsoft (in a negative sense) – its monopolistic behaviors in some areas are just a start. They still have cool stuff and great ideas, but are no longer “the good guys”.
Mylenium
[Pour Myl
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I think my point is that’s getting to be more and more one camp or the other. Not having used Motion much its hard to tell but, If I’m just doing Motion Graphics I think I’m fine with just Motion. It’s the VFX that pose a problem.
TonyTony
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[TonyTony] ”
The new interface. Well I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t really say but the mere mention of application window makes me think of that other OS.”Yes, that was the first response of other Mac users. But I think most people will love the new interface and never want to go back to the way it was. I’d say give the demo a try once it’s up next week and see for yourself. There really is a lot more to the new UI than just a different look.
For one thing: you can now have two different comp windows open, and edit in a nested comp while watching the results in the final comp. May seem like a small thing in writing, but I find it a huge help in efficiency.
The Lens blur in Photoshop CS has been ported to AE. Very welcome.
And floating point is interesting for anyone who doesn’t want to worry about clipping their highlights.
The Graph Editor? Have you ever wanted to syncronize animation of two properties, one in a bottom layer and the other in the top layer, when you have around 20 layers? You’d have to scroll up and down to the layers and play around and adjust the curves. Now you can actually select those properties, overlay them on top of eachother in the graph editor and edit like you would edit a spline in Illustrator. Including selecting multiple vertices and scaling them…
But yes, some of the big new features in this release are more aimed at the film VFX people. The previous couple of releases seemed more tailored towards motiongraphics people. I don’t need text animators. And what’s with animation presets?
But some of the best stuff in this release is in efficiency and workflow. Not something that may seem very glamorous. But seriously, give the demo a try for a couple of days and then see how you like it. I haven’t touched 6.5 since august.
Bar3nd
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[Barend Onneweer] ” For one thing: you can now have two different comp windows open, and edit in a nested comp while watching the results in the final comp. May seem like a small thing in writing, but I find it a huge help in efficiency.”
You can do that now in 6.5
[Barend Onneweer] “And floating point is interesting for anyone who doesn’t want to worry about clipping their highlights.”
Yes. I’ve been using the 16-bit settings but of course many plug-ins are only 8-bit (some of them Adobe’s)
[Barend Onneweer] “The Graph Editor? Have you ever wanted to syncronize animation of two properties”
I’d probably do this with an expression then the changes in one, would show in the other. I do think that more control over the animating parameters is a good thing thought.
What I find odd is the fact that this time around I actually feel I need to demo the upgrade instead of immediately buying it.
TonyTony
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Like Barend – I haven’t needed to go back to 6.5 since August either… It’s a thing that, I think, might only be experienced. Once you get used to the interface it’s mad brilliant and works in a way that will make you dread AE 6.5 and previous.
The reason they don’t often upgrade the interface is that this took a TON of work – it took a long time to make all that stuff flow smoothly and not completely crash out systems. In other words – time away from other requests and wish list items.
But in my opinion – thank GOD they did. It was WELL worth it.
Take a look at other releases – full version jumps and not half of what this .5 update has. This one is less bells and whistles – more core workflow enhancements that really help your bottom line.
For me it’s a ‘about time!’ type of update. Great stuff – not just the TimeWarp. 😉
// jayse
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I’m not sure I understand the post about Apple’s pricing here. Personally, I own Motion, and would be ecstatic to upgrade to FCP studio for $199. There may be a minority who end up paying more, but I’m betting that they were selling very few individual copies of motion, soundtrack, and dvd studio pro.
As for Adobe, I think their upgrades have been extremely fair in the past, and this one is not great, but the workflow efficiencies are worth it to me. Comparing AE to shake/df/c*, the ui is the first thing that usually comes up. I’m glad they finally approached it – I’m sick of the palette window shuffle
If you don’t want to upgrade, wait for 8. Do what works for you and your business.
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Having used AE7 also for more than 6 months, the workflow enhancements alone are worth the upgrade. AE biggest issue has been solved–the constant need to rearrange windows instead of getting your work done.
Now for the other stuff. Send your suggestions to Adobe. Be a squeaky wheel!
Mine are: better masking, integrated color correction, and better scaling algorithms.
cheers
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i’m happy they reworked the interface (long overdue), and i’ll upgrade, but i would be ecstatic if they had reworked the audio and the necessity to render and rerender the audio everytime you change and preview some minor video adjustment. the current audio scheme easily wastes as much time as the clunky interface. the audio has always seemed makeshift and is a real weak spot in an otherwise amazing application. some of the new features seem geared to particular user groups but everyone would benefit from an audio fixup.
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can someone just clarify this – as a mac user, none of adobe’s video-based bundles are available for my OS since adobe no longer port Premier to the mac.
So if I want to use AE I need to buy it separately, but I sometimes need to edit straight video so i’ll have to get FC studio too (seeing as I can no longer get final cut separately), meaning that I end up with both AE and motion.
Is this correct? Can anyone offer any advice on my best option here – I can’t believe I’m the only one in this position.
Regards,
Tom
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