Adobe Systems Inc. has begun shipping Adobe After Effects 7.0 software. Professionals can streamline their workflows to produce compelling content for any media with the new features packed in Adobe After Effects 7.0, including a re-designed, unified user interface, accelerated high-fidelity OpenGL 2.0 support and the most comprehensive Flash Video (FLV) export capabilities. Adobe After Effects 7.0 is available as a stand-alone product or as part of the newly launched Adobe Production Studio.
"Adobe After Effects 7.0 meets the needs of the most demanding film and video professionals and allows creatives who are moving into time-based design to easily create compelling motion graphics and visual effects," said Jim Guerard, vp of product management, Web and Video Solutions for Adobe. "With this release, After Effects has extended its leadership role in motion graphics and visual effects, on both the Mac and Windows platforms."
Adobe After Effects streamlines workflows and enhances overall productivity with a re-designed, unified user interface, featuring dockable panels. Users can eliminate overlapping windows and palettes, re-arrange panels, save custom workspaces, and control UI brightness. After Effects users can quickly create great-looking animations with hundreds of fully-customizable Animation and Behavior presets for animating text, effects, transitions and backgrounds that can be accessed through Adobe Bridge, a full-featured file browser that can be launched independently. When used as component of the Adobe Production Studio, Adobe After Effects 7.0 provides access to Adobe Dynamic Link, a workflow enhancing technology that eliminates the need for the intermediate rendering of projects.
Expanded support for OpenGL 2.0 speeds production time by accelerating the on-screen rendering of 2D and 3D composites and delivering high fidelity support for blending modes, motion blur on 2D layers, anti-aliasing, track mattes and shadows.
Adobe After Effects 7.0 also enables industry professionals to produce eye-catching motion graphics and sophisticated visual effects for delivery to virtually any media. The new Graph Editor makes it easy to create precise animations across multiple layers, allowing complete visual control over keyframe editing and easy synchronization of effects. New 32-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) color support in the Professional edition allows users to match the behavior of color and light to achieve a high degree of photo-realism by compositing in 32-bit-per channel floating-point color. In the Professional edition, Timewarp utilizes motion vectors to slow down or speed up footage with smooth, crisp results and minimal artifacts. Adobe After Effects 7.0 also introduces the availability to export Flash Video (FLV) files, offering new integration with Macromedia Flash for customers who produce video for use on the web.
Adobe After Effects 7.0 for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or 10.4, and Microsoft Windows XP is available immediately through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store. Estimated street prices for the full version are $999 for the Professional edition and $699 for the Standard edition. Upgrade pricing is estimated at $199, and $499 to upgrade from Standard to Professional edition.
Founded in 1982, Adobe is one of the world's largest software companies, generating annual revenues exceeding $1.2 billion. More than 3,700 employees across the world share Adobe's commitment to helping people communicate better. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Adobe is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol ADBE. For more information, visit www.abode.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
