looks more like a dot release?

[Jamesc]

I kind of agree – I was hoping for better expressions etc – at least a decent editor etc Maybe they have improved it (wouldn’t be hard) and not telling me about it. The only thing I can see is that they’ve added masks and a few other bits that can now be controlled by expressions. And colourSampler()…

Most exciting thing I can see is multiprocessor support – which is really good because I’m running a quad xeon – but apart from that nothing much excites!

Oh – and you can stroke a mask – but probably won’t be as good as Trapcodes 3D Stroke

[Mike Procunier]

Universal binary is HUGE for me. Since switching to an Intel Mac, AE7 has been $#@*!. I’ll reserve judgement until I try it but if it does RAM previews without crashing every 10 minutes, lets me use all of my RAM, and actually runs faster like other Universal apps on Intel Macs (Final Cut flies on Intel) I’ll be a happy camper. Any other new features are gravy for me. Puppet Show? We’ll see….

[Matt Riley]

I read somewhere last night that the Mac version of AE8 allows for 3.5 GB of RAM *per processor/core* which sounds groovy to me. So, if you have a quad G5 or a quad-core Intel Mac Pro, After Effects would be able to address 14 GB of RAM.

I’m not sure of the specifics of this yet (or whether it is true – I’ll find the link where I read that) but that sounds like a Good Thing

[Sam Moulton]

puppet tool… huge to me
color management, also huge
complete integration with other apps like Photoshop layer styies … really huge
expressions to shape vertices, very huge
expanded 32 bit effects very huge
clip notes another biggie
3d for individual characters…way big
and I love the idea of Brainstorm, but then again, I also love Apple’s Motion. Never got so many ideas so quickly, also never used anything from motion just the way it comes in, like I’ve never used any of AE’s templates without some major editing, but I probably start with one about twice a week.
Better flash integration – really exciting

and these are just things that I’ve seen at https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/

I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

[Jamesc]

Last year I needed to buy a machine – I was all set to go Apple until I realised AE7 ran soooooooooooooo bad on it.

I was soooo glad I made that decision when I went to use AE on a quad intel thingy – awful! My duo core 1.66Ghz laptop out runs that thing! I can’t believe people even put up with it…

[Danny Princz]

definetely not a dot release.

sure i would have liked to see a few new features that have been in the request queue for a long long time, but there is a lot in there that has been shown so far.

But i dont think we have seen all the new stuff so far. wait a couple weeks to get the public beta (or hopefully before) and then we can see the rest of the little improvements that i hope will be in there that makes our loves that much easier and our work that much better

[Jeremy Smith]

I whole-heartedly agree with you here. I have AE7 running on a quad-core mac and it sucks…plain and simple. I’ve got 4gb of ram and an nvidia 6800gt and it has to be the slowest interacting piece of junk. I’ve really been disappointed. Hopefully this new update will straighten some of it out.

[Ron Lindeboom]

[aindreas] “this strikes me as a bloat release, huckstering me into the adobe universe.”

Wow, it’s your opinion and one you are entitled to, but I guess my telescope is looking at a different universe. :o)

Back last Summer, I had to come up with the concept of the second issue of Creative COW Magazine, I chose “workflow” as the concept and built most of the magazine articles around that topic. Why? Easy answer. It was because in a rapidly maturing market where manufacturers used to give us 600 more transitions that we’ll never use (because we didn’t use the first 600), the *real* power of the future will be seen in *truly seamless* integrations, wherein the best tool handles the functions that they are best at. The day of the Swiss Army Knife all-in-one software tool is over and the smart companies are moving as fast as they can to build a universe around their own tools. No one is better positioned to do that than Adobe.

Most people I know use After Effects as *part* of their workflow. There are few people I personally know and whose studios I have been to over the years, who use After Effects only. I know people who try to use After Effects to edit video, you see their questions pop up here on the forum. Wrong tool, wrong solution. Try that box of Premiere Pro in your suite, often comes the answer.

The greatest thing that Adobe has that is of value to its user base, is an interface that users have poured countless hours learning and using. They have built “equity” into this interface and it’s this interface equity that opens up the pantheon of Adobe tools to its users.

Over the years, I have taught business and even consulted with banks and other institutions, sitting on Chapter 11 panels and working directly with banks to save companies who looked like they were going to go under and cost the bank a lot of money. One of the stories I have often presented to companies in these circumstances is to first ask them: “What business are you in?” I often point them to the story of the railroads and how they thought they were in the railroad business. They weren’;t, they were in the transportation business. If they had known this, we would all be driving Union Pacific and Santa Fe cars and trucks.

The only other person I have heard that uses this analogy, was Steve Kilisky from Adobe. He just used the comment in our interview with him that is now in the Creative COW News podcast. He shocked me saying this as few people ever ask themselves what business are they really in.

I am not an After Effects artist or other software artist by trade. I am a communicator. It’s what I do. Helping me do this easily, across whatever circumstances I find myself in, is a real and measurable (and demonstrable) value to me. This is what a truly integrated product suite that leverages my “user interface equity” comes into play.

When I look at a future with tools like Photoshop CS3 Extended and what it opens up to me, with color palette and formatting controls that are becoming universal across the product suite, I see these kinds of things as being of far more benefit to me as a user than a new eye candy plug-in.

For one, I am not only excited about what I see coming, I am ecstatic to see that Adobe gets the true importance of creating a real and true workflow integration that maximizes my user equity with respect, and opens up a bunch of new options in the process.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Darby Edelen]

[JamesC] “I can’t believe people even put up with it…”

I’ve been running AE7 fine on my Mac Pro… under Windows (; I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to boot camp.

[Charles Pierce]

Adobe said NOT to use it on Intel Macs as it WASN’T WRITTEN for use on the Intel Macs and that the emulation WOULD slow it down to a crawl and what part of this didn’t you understand???

RTFM,

chuck