Prepress

After Effects CS4: Insight from Gurus Trish and Chris Meyer

Thursday 25. September 2008 - Feature set changes in After Effects CS4 that concern motion graphic artists are detailed in an article by Trish and Chris Meyer.

As is often the case with After Effects, the real news isn’t just in big new features, but in refinements to existing features, which help you get your work done faster.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, which includes visuals from CS4:

We’ll start with some instant gratification: new effects.


The one that will get all of the headlines is the new Cartoon effect, which creates the cartoon-from-live-action look that’s been popular in some commercials and even movies the past few years. What’s special about the After Effects CS4 version is that it’s very easy to use with few parameters to learn, plus is GPU-accelerated so that it’s much more responsive than the third-party effects we’ve used in the past.

Compared to a normal blur, the new Bilateral Blur effect has built-in edge detection. This means it blurs connected areas of an image that are similar, but keeps transitions sharp. This is useful for tricks such as blurring lines and wrinkles in a person’s face, or for more highly stylized looks. By default, it reduces the saturation in an image; enable the Colorize switch to get the color back. At higher Radius or Threshold settings, its GPU acceleration really kicks in; if you find yourself using lower settings to get more subtle results, it can slow down considerably … (read the complete article at www.cmg4cs4.com)

The complete article may be reposted or printed for free, with credit back to www.cmg4cs4.com.

The announcement of CS4 also means a special update for the Meyers cornerstone book, Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. “We want to make sure we … protect your investment in the current edition,” said author Chris Meyer, “So we are working on a bonus chapter that covers what’s changed between CS3 and CS4.”

This chapter will be available for free download at www.cmg4cs4.com later this year. Register on this site now to be notified when the new chapter is available.

With Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, 4e and the complementary web chapter on CS4, you’ll gain the tips, gotchas and sage advice needed to survive whatever your next motion graphics project throws at you.