What is Adobe After Effects?
Adobe After Effects is a software application for creating motion graphics, animation and special effects used in video, online content and presentations. After Effects is available on both Mac OS and Windows computers.
Adobe After Effects History
Adobe After Effects was invented in 1993 and originally came from the Company of Science and Art (COSA) in Rhode Island. It was only available for Mac-based computers and was limited in its capabilities, which included layered compositing with mask, effect, transforms and keyframes.
Adobe After Effects Version History
Adobe After Effects started its journey 30 years ago and still going on as the most popular user-friendly software in the whole world. But It’s not free you have to paid for subscription monthly or yearly to use it all time but in the subsequent you will get online adobe cloud storage library with adobe stock support and etc. Adobe After Effects start its journey with macOS software then year later Windows software came.
| Version | Release Date | Logo | Important Features Added |
| After Effects 1.0 | January 1993 |  | Layered compositing with mask, effect, transforms, keyframes; Mac only |
| After Effects 2.0 | January 1994 |  | Time Layout window, image sequence support, motion blur, multi-machine rendering, frame blending, proxies |
| After Effects 3.0 | October 1995 |  | Render queue, bezier masking, time remapping, keyframe assistants (wiggler, motion sketch, smoother), multiple effects per layer, advanced keying, velocity graph, 1/2/4 point motion tracking, motion math, first Japanese version, layer transfer modes, continuously rasterize Illustrator files, Photoshop as comp import with layer/transfer mode/alpha channel support, 3:2 pulldown, non-square pixel support |
| After Effects 4.0 | January 1999 |  | Tabbed windows, movable time layout columns, multiple masks per layer, warping effects, particle playground, audio effects, transform effect, adjustment layers, align palette, rulers and guides, RAM preview, glows/blurs no longer clip at layer edge, Premiere import, Illustrator layers support, label colors in timeline; first simultaneous Mac and Windows release |
| After Effects 5.0 | April 2001 |  | 3D layers, 3D lights, dynamic previews, parenting, vector paint, expressions, pick whip, draw/edit masks in comp window, integration of Atomic Power plug-ins (foam, wave world, card dance, shatter, vegas), 16 bits per channel color, Illustrator transparency support, SWF export, mask colors, mask motion blur, mask expansion, RAM Preview region of interest, Photoshop 6 vector mask import, PDF import, solo switch, scrubbable property values, custom workspaces, effect reordering, PAR correction, reveal file on disk, reduce project, trim comp to work area, >2GB movie output |
| After Effects 6.0 | August 2003 |  | Paint, scripting, text layers and animators, editable Photoshop text layers, OpenGL support, new motion tracker, Rotobezier, Keylight, Liquify, Scribble, Dust & Scratches, background rendering of RAM Previews |
| After Effects 7.0 | January 2006 |  | New unified window UI, timewarp, graph editor, OpenGL 2.0 support, 32 bpc HDR color, 32-bit audio, Adobe Bridge support, display color management, dynamic link with Premiere Pro, script editor, auto save, Photoshop file creation, smart blur, lens blur, per-character text blurring, first Spanish and Italian versions |
| After Effects CS3 | July 2007 |  | Shape layers, puppet tool, brainstorm, clip notes, Photoshop vanishing point import, adaptive motion blur, per character 3D text animation, real-time audio playback, simultaneous multi-frame rendering, SWF vector import, 32-bit linear blending, full color management; first Universal Binary Intel Mac version |
| After Effects CS4 | September 2008 |  | QuickSearch in the project and timeline, mini-flowchart, breadcrumbs, live PSD 3D layer import, separate XYZ, Imagineer Mocha bundled, cartoon effect, XFL export, XML export, XMP metadata, |
| After Effects CS5 | April 2010 |  | 64-bit native (mandatory) on OS X and Windows, Roto Brush tool, Refine Matte effect, mocha v2, LUT support, AVC-Intra import and improved RED (R3D) support, Align panel improvements, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 3, Digieffects FreeForm, auto-keyframe mode,[13] animated GIF export functionality removed. |
| After Effects CS6 | April 2012 |  | Global Performance Cache, 3D Camera Tracker, ray-traced and extruded text and shapes, variable-width mask feather, Automatic Duck Pro Import for importing projects from other applications, including Final Cut Pro and Avid software, new and improved GPU acceleration features, Rolling Shutter Repair effect, Mocha for After Effects CS6, new and updated effects. Live PSD 3D layer import was removed. |
| After Effects CC | June 2013 |  | Maxon Cinema 4D Lite and Cineware integration, Refine Edge tool, Refine Soft Matte, layer snapping, Warp Stabilizer VFX |
| After Effects CC 15 | June 2015 |  | Uninterrupted playback, new Adobe Character Animator (Preview 1), support for Creative Cloud libraries, face tracker, Maxon CINEWARE v2.0.16, smooth experience and interaction for the user even when rendering is in progress. |
| After Effects CC 17 | November 2016 |  | CINEMA 4D rendering engine for 3D compositions, Creative Cloud Team Projects (Beta), Real-time playback of unaltered source media, more GPU accelerated effects, Live Text Template improvements, Date & Time Tokens, Also includes: Better UI retina support, improved markers, scripting enhancements, Adobe Media Encoder export improvements. |
| After Effects 2020 | January of 2020 |  | Preview and playback performance improvements, enhanced EXR Workflows, faster shapes, graphics and text enhancements, expression improvements, expanded format and better playback support, new Cineware renderer and Cinema 4D Lite R21, content-Aware Fill for video improvements. |
| After Effects 2021 | March 2021 |  | Media Replacement in Motion Graphics templates and Essential Properties, Real-Time 3D Draft Preview, 3D Ground Plane, Improved Composition Toolbar, Team Projects performance improvements |
| After Effects 2022 | October 2021 | | Multi-Frame Rendering for previews, render queue export, and Adobe Media Encoder export; Render Queue UI improvements; Render Queue notifications; Composition Profiler; Speculative Preview; hardware-accelerated decoding for 10-bit 422 HEVC; tetrahedral LUT interpolation; version number unified with Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder. |
| After Effects 2023 | October 2022 | | Selectable track matte layers; native H.264 encoding; updated composition presets; 50+ new animation presets; new keyboard shortcuts for timeline navigation (Shift + J/K); installation of Maxon Cinema 4D is now optional. |
How Adobe After Effects Work?
Adobe After Effects use to add a wide variety of visual effects (or VFX) to your videos by compositing multiple images to create a unique shot or by using the power of rotoscoping to isolate people or objects from a video and adding unique touches like a 3D motion graphic into a scene.
Who Uses Adobe After Effects?
Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effect, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Inc. It is used in the post-production process of film making, video games and television production. After Effects is used by visual artists, animators, advertising agencies, video artists, video editors, visual designers, social media professionals, video producers, motion graphics designers, UX professionals, and animators.
What Is Adobe After Effects Features?
After Effects is a part of Adobe Creative Cloud, and it is known for VFX and 3D artists, motion graphics, and animators’ workflows because it provides a wide range of tools which can be adjusted for a huge span of tasks from easy lower-thirds titles and texts to complete 3-dimensional stereo compositing for movies. As soon as you drag a video to the After Effects workspace or produce a composition, the tools in the tool panel present in the topmost part of the After Effects software window become accessible.
After Effects covers tools that permit you to alter elements of your composition, tools such as the Hand tool and the Selection tool will be recognizable to you if you have used other Adobe software like Photoshop. The tools panel comprises several clickable icons, enabling you to move between the tools and optically confirm which tool is presently chosen. In addition, many of these tools have menus that pop up and permit you to select among alternatives on that tool, such as distinct basic forms for shape and masks layers.
Here are some of the most common tools group
- Selection tool (V) Selection tool basically use to select and move any shape one area to another. For more using selection tool you will easily put keyframe on the timeline.
- Rotation Tool (Z) Using rotation tool you will rotate your shape or photo in 360 degree or rotate on any side. For more see below example for more understanding.
- Anchor Tool (Z) Anchor tool is really helpful tool in after effect. Anchor tool use on rotation time like in basic rotation when we rotate any shape or photo to another side photo or shape rotate from center point but what we can do if we need to rotate a shape on any starting point or ending point like see below image.
- Shape Tool (Q) Shape tool or Rectangle tool use for to add rectangle, circle, polygon or any basic shapes. Long press on Rectangle icon to open other shapes.
- Pen Tool (G) Pen tool is most usable tool in photoshop, aftereffect and illustrator. Pen tool is used for to make characters, shapes, logo even use for crop and selection. Pen tool most complete your 60% work of design. Every professional designer use pen tool to make application ui and character design. Here let’s see how pen tool work.
Click on any one area and remove your finger from mouse. Now just simply move your arrow on any another area and click again and you see one line. In after effect we use this pen tool for make path or any custom line shape. You will change height; width and you will make dotted line from properties.
- Text Tool (CMD+T) Text tool we used to add text in artboard. You will make text color changing animation in after effect by simple adding key frame and changing color properties.
- Clone Stamp Tool (CMD+B) Clone stamp tool basically use in VFX or movie making. To remove unusable stuff from background.
- Unified Camera Tool (C) Unified camera tool is used when we work on three dimensions which means 3D in most cases, we make our animation in 2D but let’s see how to use this. Unified camera tool use for to zoom in and zoom out same like our mobile camera zoom in and zoom out. We everyone see marvel movie first 15 min movie scene and after movie name but that time we see some animation like logo come from big size to small and come into center on screen this is nothing but It’s simple zoom in and zoom out.
- Puppet Pin Tool (CMD + P) Puppet pin tool used to give animation to any character like move eyes, hand, leg, head anything just add pins here see below image.
What Are the Benefits of Using After Effects?
A software program called Adobe After Effects is used to make computer animation and special effects for presentations, internet content, and video. Both Windows and Mac OS systems can run After Effects. In TV and movie post-production, After Effects is frequently used to create special effects, animation, and visual editing. After Effects projects can be utilized for broadcast TV, video, the web, kiosks, in-store displays, and more. A component of Creative Cloud from Adobe is After Effects.
1) Presentation of visuals
2) Effects of simulation
3) Making stuff for the web
4) Video, TV, and movie graphics
5) Creative Cloud for After Effects (CC)
6) Using expressions, accelerate the animation process
7) Editor for Visual Keyboard Shortcuts
8) Expressions For Mask & Shape Point Management
9) Team Projects and Automatic Saving Features
10) Animation Based on Data
To Download & Install Adobe After Effects
It’s too easy to installing Adobe After Effects for the first time in any device you just have to go Adobe website (https://www.adobe.com) and search for Adobe After Effects then download (https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/free-trial-download.html) After Effects. Then it will download Adobe Creative Cloud installer after installing it is will ask you to login or create an Adobe account if you already have an account then login or create an account then login. After that you can start 7 days free trial or get the Adobe subscription (Adobe After Effects Single App – US $20.99/mo – Get After Effects on desktop and iPad as part of Creative Cloud. [https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html]) there are many ways to purchase the subscription. After selecting your relevant subscription, you are ready to use Adobe After Effects.