A so-called “dot upgrade” of a major software product like Adobe After Effects may imply that it’s not significant enough for you to jump on board until the next full version is released. If you think that, you are dreadfully wrong. After Effects CS5.5 boasts enough major new features and productivity enhancements to rival any full version software release.
But, After Effects CS5 cannot open any Project file created using CS5.5 and other latest versions. In simple words, newer versions of After Effects can read old versions project files. But old version of After Effects cannot open newer versions Project Files.
Many of its new features and tools bring After Effects up to date with the demands of HD video DSLR post-production workflows. And for the first time, you can save your project as a previous (CS5) version for compatibility with clients and colleagues who have not upgraded.
Adobe After Effects CS5.5 (v. 10.5) - media overview and full product specs on CNET. Aug 09, 2011 Overview of New Features in After Effects CS5.5 Some of those features included the impressive new Warp Stabilizer, enhanced 3D cameras, lights, and effects (including light falloff plus vastly improved depth of field blur), improved stereoscopic production tools, and other appreciated tweaks. Adobe After Effects CS5.5 requires a 64-bit operating system. After Effects CS4 is bundled with the CS5 suites for use when a 64-bit operating system isn’t available. (See how to tell if your PC is running a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of Windows, or how to tell if your Intel-based Mac has a 32-bit or 64-bit processor.). Adobe After Effects Cs5.5 free download - Adobe After Effects CS6, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, and many more programs.
Video production enhancements
One of After Effects CS5.5’s most high-profile new features is the Warp Stabilizer, an effect that works to steady shaky footage. What seems like magic is actually some impressive technology that analyses frames in both directions while processing in the background, allowing you to continue working. The effect works great on handheld video that you want to give the appearance of being shot on a tripod or on a smooth dolly or Steadycam rig. It even has built-in lens distortion/aberration correction.
Accessing the new feature is simple: Selecting the footage layer in your comp; open the Tracking panel; and click the Stabilize button to begin processing.
Missing from After Effects CS5.5 (but present in previous versions) is the ability to select a point in the frame to stabilize around. As an automated process, the new Warp Stabilizer does not give you control over the scale or rotation from selected points.
While I missed the ability to define stabilization points at first, I quickly forgot about it once I dug into the parameters of the Warp Stabilizer effect. Yes, that’s right—the Warp Stabilizer is an effect, which means you can turn it on or off just like any other effect on a footage layer.
Stabilization also results in some automatic cropping of your footage by default, as would be expected, and it does save the step of having to rescale and manually crop your layer. But you can also select the Stabilize, Synthesize Edges option, in which the effect will attempt to use image data from previous and subsequent frames to fill in the blanks around the edges that would normally appear with the old Stabilize feature.
The warp part comes into play when trying to compensate for lens aberration and foreground object movement, which can make even a stabilized shot look odd. The Subspace Warp really tackles this problem well, which is great for lower-quality cameras and wide-angle lenses.
Another feature that will give the Indie filmmaker a lot of post-production Depth of Field (DOF) control is the Camera Lens Blur effect. This effect replaces the previous Lens Blur effect and also allows you to use a Blur Map to control the DOF. You can use the Roto Brush tool (introduced in After Effects CS5) to select your foreground images and create a matte. Then you can apply the Camera Lens Blur to your shot to create a simulated rack-focus effect. Changing the shape of your simulated Iris can create some beautiful in-lens effects on the highlights in your footage as well as realistic bokeh.
Imported footage now includes source timecode, which is extremely important for editors and VFX groups where people need to share footage file data and keep everything in sync. The source timecode data is displayed in the project panel and allows you to pinpoint specific frames, or to search and sort your footage files in a project. You can also use the Timecode effect to graphically display the timecode in compositions.
3D jumps in your lap
Stereo 3D camera rigs (paired cameras used to create stereographic 3D animations) are literally a click away in After Effects CS5.5. This isn’t just an enhancement of the 3D Glasses plug-in but a true 3D twin-camera rig that generates stereo pairs. You can do your work onscreen with your red/blue glasses and export the left/right eye movies for a professional editing process.
When selecting the Create Stereo 3D Rig option from the Camera layer in your 3D composition, it will generate three new comps and two new cameras for you automatically. And since it’s expression-driven, you can still make any changes you want in your original 3D comp’s camera, lights, and objects, and everything will stay in alignment in your stereo comp.
You can control the convergence of the cameras with the new enhanced 3D Glasses effect and even animate it over time. This is helpful for maintaining the stereo window when doing extreme zooms or moving objects in the frame.
After Effects CS5.5’s Light Faloff option allows better control of light in 3D compositions. Just like in the real world, not all light is a strong, constant beam that travels indefinitely and lands on everything in its path. Light falloff can be adjusted on any light (except ambient) so lighting your scene now has a much richer and realistic result.
One thing I’ve noticed with the Stereo 3D Rig option is that all the lights and shadows seem to be lost in the final stereo comp. However a workaround is to copy and paste the lights from your original 3D comp to both the left and right eye camera comps so your final stereo comp has the correct lighting and shadows. Hopefully Adobe will automatically include the lights to move along with the camera in future versions.
Plays well with others
Although After Effects CS5.5 is not completely backward-compatible, it is able to save a copy of your project as an After Effects CS5 project file. You can now share your projects with other colleagues or clients who haven’t upgraded yet.
And while the effects (such as the Warp Stabilizer) will be disabled in After Effects CS5, the data is still retained. This will allow you to open a project modified in After Effects CS5 and the effects will still work in CS5.5. This is a great benefit for workgroups and teams working on multiple workstations that aren’t all updated.
Improved compatibility with today’s popular pro file formats makes the workflow for editors and VFX artists exist in harmony—with the ability to export RAW digital video from RED footage in CinemaDNG and XDCAM HD formats.
Other enhancements under the hood make After Effects CS5.5 work more efficiently, with better rendering and improved disk caching. Enhanced search and sorting functions within large projects help you better organize your media and comps.
Bottom line
After Effects Cs5 5 Serial Number
I’m really pleased that Adobe didn’t try to force out another full version of After Effects CS5.5 on a rushed schedule, as the enhancements in this dot upgrade are important, as well as very solid and stable. After Effects CS5.5 is a must-have for HD DSLR shooters and editors who have recently switched to Premiere Pro CS5.5, if only for the Warp Stabilizer on their hand-held shots.
[Jeff Foster has written and contributed to several books and magazines, and has been producing award-winning motion graphics, photography, and creative design for major corporations, television, and film for more than 20 years.]
Note: With the release of Lion, Adobe posted a tech noteoutlining some issues users may encounter with some of its Creative Suite applications. After Effects is not mentioned in this document. However, be sure to check the tech note on Adobe’s websitefor updated information on how Adobe Creative Suite products interact with Lion.
I see evidence that a lot of people just dive into the deep end with After Effects (and other creative software). I understand the temptation to get straight to doing the cool stuff, but I always find myself guiding people back to learning the basics first because–well, to stick with my metaphor–I want people to swim, not flail and drown in the deep end. Hence this post, which I hope will give beginners a good idea of how to start learning After Effects.
After Effects Cs5.5 Tutorials For Beginners
1. Overview
Watch this brief video overview of the basic workflow, fundamental concepts, and most used parts of the user interface.
Then read this brief introduction to the basic workflow and fundamental concepts in After Effects. This page covers much of the same information as the video, but it also gives links to additional resources for more information.
2. Hello, world.
Take a few minutes to follow the step-by-step instructions in this tutorial. It’s just a quick warm-up that takes you from nothing to creating a simple movie. You won’t learn many details, but you’ll break the ice and get a sense that this After Effects thing isn’t going to be so hard, after all.
Next, follow along with this very simple set of three videos, which show you the basics of importing media, trimming footage, animating with keyframes, adding effects, and exporting to Vimeo, YouTube, and other common formats using Adobe Media Encoder.
3. Quick tours introducing the fundamentals
You’ll see that on this page there are a few links to other resources that give a general overview of what After Effects is and the basics of how it works. I especially recommend the excerpt from Chris and Trish Meyer’s After Effects Apprentice and the excerpt from the After Effects Classroom in a Book, both of which guide you by the hand through creating some simple animations, explaining things along the way. Actually, I recommend those books in their entirety for beginners.
If you prefer video training, then I recommend the Classroom: After Effects CS5 video series by Adam Shaening-Pokrasso.
4. Extensive courses that get into some details
Once you’ve gotten a general sense of where things are and how the software works, you can really dig into a set of video tutorials that walk you through the basics.
I recommend starting with this set of video tutorials provided by Adobe, Andrew Devis’s After Effects Basics series, or Andrew Kramer’s Video Copilot Basic Training series, all of which are free.
Adobe After Effects Serial Number
There are also many free video tutorials from the After Effects CS6: Learn By Video series and After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series by Angie Taylor and me, a DVD and book series created specifically to teach the basics of After Effects.
This overview page also serves as a good starting point, and this set of tutorials is continually being updated by folks here at Adobe.
5. Real exploration and creativity begin, now that you have the tools
After you’ve gotten a good grounding in the fundamentals, I encourage you to just play and create, frequently consulting After Effects Help to learn about more and more features and possibilities. Whenever you have a question, try searching for an answer using the After Effects Community Help search. If you can’t find an answer yourself, come on over to the After Effects user-to-user forum.
6. Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Even after you’ve learned the basics, there are still some things that might be confusing. I recommend that everyone read through this set of frequently asked questions and answers, or at least watch these short FAQ videos.