News VFX

Last edit: May 3rd

[ EDIT ] You’ll find a much more up-to-date version on toolfarm website.

With the CS5 announcement getting closer and closer, several plugin developer / manufacturer announced their upgrade policy to 64bit. Remember, none of your 3rd party plugins will work in AE CS5 due to 64bit.

Scripts and Pixel blender plugins should work.

I decided to regroup all the news on this page to keep it simple for people to track any announcement.

Video Copilot

Twitch: 64b version announced / FREE upgrade (source)

Optical Flare: 64b version announced / FREE upgrade (source)

Red Giant Software

Individual plugins: 64b version announced / $29 Upgrade fee (source)

Magic Bullet Suite: 64b version announced / $99 Upgrade fee (source)

Trapcode Suite: 64b version announced / $99 Upgrade fee (source)

Cycore Effects

Cycore SD: Included in AE CS5 (source)

Cycore HD: 64b version announced / Upgrade fee TBA / FREE for new purchasers (source)

RE:Vision FX

Individual plugins: 64b version announced / Upgrade fee TBA / FREE for new purchasers (source)

DigiEffects

Individual plugins: 64b version announced for Camera Mapper, Fallof Lighting, Aged Film / FREE upgrade (source)

New plugins: 64b version announced for Freeform 3D Mesh Warp, Freeform 3D Displacer / No upgrade necessary / (source)

Damage 2.0: 64b version announced / $49 Upgrade fee from Damage 1 (source)

Freeform: Included in AE CS5 (source)

I emailed Robert Sharp from DigiEffects to have a status update on their other plugins:

Atmosphere, is already ported to 64b / Upgrade fee TBA

Delirium will be ported to 64b, but no specific timeframe.

Aurorix, Berserk, Simulate Illuma, Simulate Camera and Buena Depth Cue will NOT be ported to 64-bit.

Frischluft

Individual plugins: 64b announced / FREE Upgrade (souce: the AE ML)

Imagineer Systems

Mocha for AE: bundled with AE CS5 (source)

Mocha Shape for AE: bundled with AE CS5 (source)

Other plugs: unknown

Synthetic Aperture

Color Finesse LE: bundled with AE CS5 (source)

Color Finesse: 64b announced / Upgrade fee TBA / Free for new purchasers (source)

Gen Arts

Sapphire Suite: 64b announced for version 5 / $599 Upgrade fee from Sapphire 2 (source)

Automatic Duck

AD Pro Import AE: 64b announced for version 5 / Upgrade fee TBA

The Foundry

Keylight: Included with AE CS5 (source)

Boris FX

Boris Continuum Complete: 64b for version 7 (coming may 2010) / $295 upgrade fee from v6 / Free for new purchasers (source)

Zackwerks

Individual plugins: 64b version announced / Upgrade fee TBA (source)

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Thanks to Wes & Rob for the updates on Automatic Duck & Gen Arts !

Thanks to Joe for Zackwerks info !

Other plugs: unknown

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So your favorite plugin isn’t on that list ? I’ll be updating this page regularly and with NAB next week, news fill fall like autumn leaves, so be sure to come check it often.

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On my last article about the newly announced 64bit After Effects CS5, I stated that Win XP 64 bit won’t probably be supported by the new After Effects. In the comments, I’ve been pointed out that even if AE CS4 was not officially supported on Win XP 64bit, it was running perfectly fine on it.

2 days ago, Todd Kopriva, Adobe After Effects Documentation Lead, wrote on his blog about 64bit and detailed that AE CS5 will require OSX 10.5 or later for Macs, and Windows Vista 64 or Windows 7 64 for PCs. No mentions about Win XP 64.

So, to clear things up for good, I decided to wrote him an email to get the info straight from the horse mouth.

And the answer is: AE CS5 won’t run on Windows XP x64.

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Adobe just droped the news: you’ll be able to discover the new Adobe Creative Suite 5 on April 12 via a web seminar (April 12 is the first day of NAB 2010 by the way).

Be sure to register quick on Adobe website.

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As some of you may know, Adobe is introducing a new cool software to it’s lineup, called Adobe Story. To sum it up, it’s Adobe answer to Final Draft, with better online/on the cloud sharing/editing.

You can even test it right now in Adobe labs: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/story/

Story is made in Flash, and Flash won’t be anytime soon on the iPad or the iPhone. In fact, Flash runtime in a browser won’t be in the iPhone/iPad. But Adobe announced that Flash CS5 will be able to compile native iphone/ipad applications.

The truth is, i’m not a Mac fan (Windows is my personal favorite), but I got the iphone when it got released, and 2/3 of the apps I bought on it are pre-production tools (Cinemek Storyboard, Focalware, Artemis, pCam, Screenplay, Technicolor, Panascout…) or color tools (myPantone, Color Expert). And some of them are expensive for « mobile»  apps (some of them are free too). But they are totally worth it if you’re a hobbyist movie maker.

I’m even using Dropbox, which is just an online space storage to monitor my After effects renders. And I know i’m not the only one here I totally embrace Stu vision of the iPad by the way, and i can’t wait to use my Magic Bullet Looks with such an input device.

You can see how many apps are dedicated to movie making hobbyist/Pro on the wonderfull HandHeldHollywood website (a must have link for iphone lovers). And even FinalDraft is coming to iPad. I used FinalDraft a lot and now I’m switching over to Story, but if Story doesn’t support iPad, I may switch back to Final Draft, loosing all the great sharing features, but gaining the ability to read/edit my script wherever I am. And sadly, that last part, for now, is more important to me than the ease of share introduced in Story.

But why makes me think Adobe won’t release Story on iPad ? Nothing really, but the little war between Apple & Adobe. And the Flash team hand in hand with HP slate demoing Flash Support. All this makes me feel like Adobe won’t support that much iPhone & iPad. I hope I’m wrong.

Concidering the potential iPad is for hobbyist/Pro movie makers, and how the iPhone is a real help when budget is short, i can’t think of Adobe not supporting it.

So please Adobe, make Story an iPad App.

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[update] See here for updated information regarding Windows XP 64bit [/update]

So, as you know, Michael Coleman, project manager of AE, announced on his blog that the next version of After Effects will be 64bit.

But you might wonder to what extend this will impact your workflow, or the plugins you already own.

First of all, if you’re on Windows XP or prior, it means no luck. You’ll have to upgrade to Vista or 7. If you’re on a Mac OS prior to Snow Leopard, you’ll be in the cold too.

[Edit] MacOs 10.5 is also 64bit capable, so you’ll be able to run AE 64 on Leopard & Snow Leo.

Why is that ? it’s because these are 32bit OSes (and Win XP 64bit was not not supported in CS4 so it won’t probably be suported by AE next). In order to AE 64 to run, you need a 64bit OS. Snow Leopard is 64bit. On Windows, you will need the 64bit version of Vista or 7. If you have windows 7, all the versions came with both 32bit and 64bit installers, so chance is that you are already running a 64bit system.

But what is 64bit anyway ? 64bit is way more than 2×32bit. To keep it simple, 32bit systems couldn’t use more than 4gb of ram. When AE was a 32bit app it could never use more than 4gb of Ram on a single process. With 64bit, this limitation is gone, and I assume you know how much AE loves Ram.

More Ram equals to longer Ram previews, to bigger compositions, and less « Memory buffer errors»  assuming you have more than 4gb of Ram on your computer.

So it’s all good news right ? Wrong.

The flipping side of the coin is that AE 64bit will only run 64bit plugins. Photoshop users have already gone to that in CS4 on Windows with Photoshop CS4 64bit, but PS was still available in 32bit. It won’t be the case for AE. As Michael Coleman pointed out, they made the hard choice to only go 64bit and not support 32bit anymore because of time constraints. They could have done a 32/64bit version but they choose not to. So if AE 64 was out today, none of your plugs would work.

If you’re like me, you probably won’t be able to make serious work without some Trapcode plugs, and some « insert your favorite plug here»  plugs. The good news is that plugin developers are working on 64bit version of their plugs, and Michael Coleman assures us that a lot will be available during the AE 64 launch window.

This raises 2 questions: will the plug upgrades be free ? will all the plugs be converted to 64 bit ?

Simple answer: probably no and definitly no.

Some plugin developers will offer free upgrade, but not everyone as porting complex plugs from 32bit to 64bit requires more than a simple clic of a button. My personnal feeling is that most upgrades will be free, but that’s just assumption. Some plugin developers already announced that they won’t be porting their whole library to 64bit, and that oldest plugs will probably be ported on a case per case basis. On the other hand, Andrew Kramer announced on his blog that free updates to Twitch and Optical Flares will be available when AE 64 launchs.

So, to sum things up, chance is high that you will have to upgrade your OS, then AE, and then your plugs. That’s not an easy step, a cheap step, but it’s sure a good start to finally use all the power 64bit is giving us.

A last word about the Mercury engine from Adobe Premiere Pro 64. I’ve read here and there that the Mercury Engine (which uses Cuda acceleration to do realtime wonders) will be used in AE 64 and pointing to the AE 64 press release as a source. Well sorry to disappoint people wanting RT in AE 64, but it is clear in the press releases and tech demos that Mercury Engine is only announced for Premiere Pro 64. So unless they keep it under wraps for AE 64, it won’t be in AE 64.

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Today i’m proud to finaly say that sParticular v1 is done and released. It has been ready for a few days now, but I was waiting for the new aescripts.com version that Lloyd was preparing behind curtains.

The new aescript.com will be an online ressource for scripts, but not only from Lloyd anymore. He has opened his website to script developers, and I’m sure it will become an even more important place for scripts addicts.

So be sure to check aescripts.com/sparticular and sParticular homeland. Hope you’ll enjoy it !

Read More (+ inclus une version française)

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Ever wondered who hides behind Zorro’s mask ? Well i can now tell you: it’s Lloyd Alvarez. Only him could create 2 scripts in a row to help lost AE users. Oh yes !

His new script allows you to add a parented null to each of the selected layers, and you can even customize the name. If you need parented nulls, go check it.

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Just check it out here !

The best Particule plugin just got better. Also be sure to check my friend Maltaannon’s tutorial on Particular v2.

The plugin cost 399$ and 99$ for upgrade.

For thoses of you who are beta testing my sParticular script, the latest version is already fully compatible with Particular 2, so fear not to use it on the brand new version.

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• Quickie: Killer tip to go move project CS4 to CS3 (Maltaannon inside)

My good friend Maltaannon just released a quick tutorial on how to smooth things when recreating a CS4 project inside CS3. Go check it here right now.

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As promised, i’m gonna give more and more free stuff around here, timelapse videos, textures, scripts, and so on. That’s why you’ll notice a new link on the top left corner: Scripts & Stock footage.

On this page, that i’ll update regularly, you’ll find everystuff i give for free. Today, it includes 3 new timelapse videos, available in crystal clear h264 in HD and 4K, and in glorious PNG sequence in 4K. All for free.

So be sure to have a look and tell me what you think. And by the way, my script sParticular is nearly finished, and might be released before the end of the month. Stay tuned.

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