Adobe After Effects CS5.5

Adobe® After Effects® CS5.5 software is the industry-leading solution for creating sophisticated motion graphics and cinematic visual effects. Transform moving images for delivery to theaters, living rooms, personal computers, and mobile devices.

Animate and composite flexibly in 2D and 3D

Solve visual problems quickly and efficiently using Adobe® After Effects® CS5.5 software by drawing on a comprehensive set of tools designed to help you meet any creative or technical challenge.

2D and 3D element combination

Work in 2D or 3D, or freely combine 2D and 3D elements in the same composition without having to change modes or redo your work. Default cameras and lights mean you don't have to set up additional elements just to add dimension to a layer.

3D camera data import

Import 3D camera and other 3D data from any 3D tracking software that can export Alias Maya ASCII (MA) files. You can also extract camera information from an RLA/RPF sequence and export After Effects camera data via a number of third-party additions.

Multiple 3D cameras per composition

Cut between multiple cameras in the same composition. Define unique cameras by angle of view, lens length, image area size, aperture, depth-of-field blur, and a host of other keyframable parameters.

Light falloff

Control how light intensity falls off across 3D distances, just as it does in the real world.

Streamlined design of 3D compositions

Benefit from numerous features to use 3D space inside After Effects, including the ability to keyframe x, y, and z values separately.

Multiple 3D lights with shadows

Add multiple lights to a scene and animate them. Choose from different light types, set their color, and define their shadow darkness and diffusion individually.

Material options for each 3D layer

Define how each 3D layer in a scene responds to lights, including control over size and intensity of the specular highlight.

Parenting

Work with parent and child layers. A child layer inherits all transformations applied to the parent, including anchor point, while maintaining its own local animation.

Stencil, Silhouette, and Preserve Transparency

Define individual layers to cut out all the layers below. Or have layers above honor the transparency of layers underneath.

Adjustment lights

Set a 3D light to illuminate a subset of layers in a composition.

Projection layers and colored shadows

Project light through a layer to create colored shadows, stained-glass effects, and the look of projected slides.

Nested compositions

Use a complex composition as a single-layer source. Multiple compositions can feed into one, or a single source comp can be used multiple times, allowing upstream changes to ripple throughout a project. Easily navigate through nested comps.

Unified Camera tool

Take advantage of three-button mice for more intuitive, immediate 3D control with the Unified Camera tool. Keyboard shortcuts make it easy to look at all or selected layers.

Adjustment layers

Create adjustment layers, similar to those in Adobe Photoshop® software, to apply effects to any layers that appear below them.

Collapse Transformations

Combine the transform properties of nested compositions with higher-level comps to reduce the number of times the pixels of a layer are processed, preserving their fidelity.

Timeline editing tools

Easily add and extract content from the Timeline in your compositions using basic editing tools, such as Overlay and Ripple Insert Edit; Lift, Extract, and Trim Comp to Work Area.

Create and animate text and vector graphics

Work with text flexibly and creatively — edit it, add depth to it, animate it, convert it into editable paths to animate the vertices, or export animated text as vector-based SWF files. Use Shape Layers to animate vector graphics easily.

Intuitive text creation and animation

Type, edit, and fully customize characters, words, and paragraphs. Animate text along a path, randomize or wiggle text, and more in 2D or 3D space. Add depth to your text by making characters or an entire phrase move, rotate, blur, and cast shadows.

Shape Layers

Create and animate vector graphics easily with Shape Layers. Add properties such as stroke, stroke type, fill, and gradients to shapes and animate those properties. Also apply vector effects directly.

Web-ready text animations

Export animated text as vector-based SWF files to create innovative, web-friendly animations.

Text conversion to shapes or masks

Convert text into editable paths — either as Shape Layers or masks on solids — so you can animate the individual vertices of each character.

Continuous rasterization

Maintain sharpness at any scale by setting Adobe Illustrator® artwork, text, shapes, solid layers, and vector components of PDF and SWF files to be continuously rasterized.

Solid layers

Create simple solid shapes that can have effects applied and that can be masked and animated.

Shape path operators

Modify and animate hand-drawn or parametric shapes by applying a series of specialized shape effects, including Merge Paths, Offset Paths, Pucker & Bloat, Repeater, Round Corners, Trim Paths, Twist, Wiggle Paths, Wiggle Transform, and Zig Zag.

Creative text animation tools

Typeset text professionally and then set it in motion. Use more than 250 professional 2D and 3D text animation presets, or create custom text animations from scratch.

Choose among extensive visual effects

Explore the possibilities with the wide range of visual effects available in After Effects. Use effects to correct color, blur or sharpen images, distort footage, turn flat objects into 3D shapes, and perform many other creative feats.

Color-correction effects

Manipulate color data with a wide variety of effects, including Color Finesse LE 3 to create LUTs, color-correction and tinting tools standardized in Photoshop, access to broadcast colors and gamma/pedestal/gain, and tools to isolate/change hues.

Camera Lens Blur

Create soft-focus effects with Camera Lens Blur. Set iris shape, blade curvature, and diffraction fringe characteristics for beautiful bokeh, and use these same settings for fantastic depth-of-field control with the After Effects 3D camera.

Digieffects FreeForm

Turn flat objects into virtually any 3D shape using this popular 3D mesh warp plug-in.

Stereoscopic 3D workflow improvements

Animate and composite stereoscopic projects more easily. Quickly set up stereo camera rigs. Save time with simplified rendering of multiple cameras, and work with an updated 3D Glasses effect.

Blur and Sharpen effects, including new Camera Lens Blur

Create blur effects customized to the needs of the shot, including compound and edge-preserving "smart" blurs, as well as standard sharpening effects and the new Camera Lens Blur.

Distortion effects

Warp and distort footage in specific, realistic ways with effects like Liquify, Bezier Warp, Wave Warp, Corner Pin, Reshape, and Displacement Map and with the unique Puppet tool and Digieffects FreeForm. Precisely simulate real camera lens distortion.

Generation effects

Generate imagery from simple fills and gradients to realistic lightning bolts and electricity, as well as lens flares, strokes, grids, circles, scribbled lines, and animated graphics based on audio.

Cycore effects

Add fast particle simulations, light sweeps and bursts, elaborate distortions, and stylized time-based effects and solve visual problems with basic utilities using this extensive package of more than 60 bundled effects from Cycore.

Stylized effects

Enhance existing imagery, ranging from subtle textures and hot-looking glows to stylized edges, brush strokes, and other effects. A dedicated Cartoon effect gives live footage the look of cel animation quickly and easily.

Simulation effects

Use advanced plug-ins to generate realistic wave reflection and caustic effects as well as to break up 2D layers into 3D pieces, which can then be exploded or further manipulated.

3D channel effects

Perform 3D post-processing of RLA and RPF files, extracting Object and ID Matte channels and normals and adding Depth Matte, Depth of Field, and Fog 3D effects.

Channel effects

Manipulate the individual color and alpha channel information of your images, including borrowing channels from other layers and performing advanced operations to combine channels or create grayscale images.

Perspective effects

Add shadows, bevel the outline of a layer, and even create a single 3D image by combining a left and right 3D view.

Noise and grain management effects

Match camera grain perfectly, automatically, and with full manual control, or remove it from footage entirely. Add or eliminate dust and scratches.

Time effects

Process footage based on other layers or adjacent frames using Time Difference, Displacement, and Echo effects. Timewarp offers extra control over the built-in Pixel Motion for precise retiming of footage.

Text effects

Generate numbers and timecode with text effects that supplement the powerful text engine already built into After Effects.

Utility effects

Customize Cineon log color conversion, alter assigned color profiles, manage high dynamic range (HDR) images to prevent clipping, and artificially grow images beyond their normal boundaries.

Transition effects

Use classic video-style transitions without the need to re-create them step by step.

Placeholders for missing effects

Preserve information about the settings used by each missing effect.

Effects & Presets panel

Sort, search for, and apply effects and animation presets quickly and easily. Save and share your own presets with the effects, settings, and animated properties you choose.

Support for Adobe Pixel Bender

Use Adobe Pixel Bender® to create unique filters, blends, and fills — portable to multiple applications — to produce compelling, on-demand visual effects for the Adobe Flash® Player runtime environment.

Turbulent Noise

Create natural phenomena such as clouds, lava, glowing water, and gas using the fast and efficient Turbulent Noise effect. Create looping animations of similar elements using the Fractal Noise effect.

Fluidly key, mask, rotoscope, and paint composites

Work efficiently with an unlimited number of masks, imported or created in After Effects. Animate masks and their parameters over time. Take advantage of Academy Award–winning Keylight from The Foundry, Roto Brush, and other compositing tools.

Roto Brush

Isolate foreground elements from backgrounds in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take using this revolutionary tool.

Unlimited masks

Control which parts of a 2D or 3D layer are visible by adding and animating an unlimited number of masks on any layer. Individually control their feather and transparency.

Keylight

Use Academy Award–winning Keylight from The Foundry to create subtle, elegant mattes of reflections; semitransparent areas; and hair. Spill suppression, color correction, and edge refinement tools help perfect the result.

Mask animations

Animate the shape of masks over time as well as their parameters, such as feather and opacity.

Imported masks

Copy paths in Photoshop and Illustrator and paste them as masks in After Effects. Import masks tracked in mocha for After Effects CS5.5 with the Shape effect.

RotoBezier masks

Create RotoBezier masks from scratch or convert them from Bezier masks.

Track mattes

Use any layer's pixel data (alpha channel or luminance) to determine the visibility of an adjacent layer.

Combined masks

Combine masks using Add, Subtract, Intersect, and Difference modes.

Numerous other specialized keying effects

Employ Difference, Color Range, Color Key, Linear Color Key, Extract, and Luma Key effects as needed for a specific job.

Mask interpolation

Control mask transitions when mask points don't transition properly to replicate natural motion.

Spill Suppressor

Remove unwanted color spill from any footage quickly and easily.

Color Difference Key

Replicate the method used to key color footage on many landmark films with the Color Difference Key. The dominant color being keyed is weighted against the other two primary colors.

Matte Choker and Simple Choker

Spread or choke the selection area of any alpha channel with a subpixel level of control.

Inner/Outer Key

Derive a key from border pixels that you select by creating a rough mask around the edges of an object.

Refine matte effect

Apply intelligent edge tracking, dechattering, and motion blurring capabilities to any layer with a problematic alpha channel, such as keyed footage.

Auto-trace

Produce animated vector masks automatically from any layer's pixel data, including alpha channels.

Take control of motion and keyframes

Control keyframe values and the timing of motion with precision using tools such as mocha for After Effects CS5.5 planar tracking, the Keyframe Graph Editor, Timewarp, and roving keyframes.

Warp Stabilizer

Smooth a bumpy camera move, or lock a shot automatically. Warp Stabilizer removes jitter and compensates for motion-related irregularities.

mocha for After Effects planar tracking

Track and mask footage with this powerful planar motion tracker from Imagineer Systems. Masks created in mocha for After Effects can contain variable-width feather and can be applied directly to layers in After Effects using the mocha shape plug-in.

Keyframe Graph Editor

Gain precise graphical control over keyframe values, interpolation speed, and how properties and keyframes relate to each other over time.

Timewarp

Slow down and speed up footage with smooth, crisp results and minimal artifacts. Timewarp analyzes pixel motion to create more accurate in-between frames with user-adjustable parameters.

Roving keyframes

Separate the Position path from the time it takes to move from one point to another.

Subpixel positioning

Enable the position of each object to be calculated to finer than 1/65,536th of a pixel for extremely smooth motion.

Frame blending modes

Choose between traditional Frame Mix and intelligent Pixel Motion modes to create new intermediate frames in speed-shifted footage.

Time displacement

Use the luminance of one layer to control the timing of individual pixels in another layer.

Motion Sketch and Smoother

Quickly draw an animation path for any layer and set its velocity with Motion Sketch. Then fine-tune the shape and speed of the path with the Smoother. These functions are also built into the Puppet tool.

Auto-orientation

Specify an auto-orientation option for each layer. Layers and cameras can easily auto-orient along 2D or 3D motion paths. 3D layers can also auto-orient toward the camera.

Puppet tool

Use the Puppet tool to animate naturally with organic, pin-based deformations. Set as few as three pins and move one of them, and your character animation begins to take on life, whether you begin with text or a still image.

Independent x, y, and z keyframe values

Separate bundled x, y, and z value keyframes into their own curves that can be edited individually. Also recombine these streams back into standard bundled keyframes.

JavaScript-based expressions

Animate procedurally. Use the pick whip to link the behavior of a property to that of virtually any other property to simulate realistic physical behavior or complex interactions. Use standard JavaScript commands and a built-in Expression Language menu.

Multiple keyframe interpolation types

Animate motion or properties quickly and easily for sudden, stepped motion; linear paths; or smooth and elegant eases. Hand-enter the initial velocity and amount of ease per keyframe, or edit it interactively in the Graph Editor.

Exponential Scale

Create natural-looking zoom effects by making linear changes of scale exponential.

Adaptive motion blur

Adjust motion blur on a layer-by-layer basis to produce more realistic animations. You control how the motion blur is calculated to customize its look and enhance its smoothness.

Time remapping

Keyframe time itself — produce effects such as variable slow motion, freeze frames, and backward playback.

Motion Tracker

Track or stabilize with as many individual points as you like, or use standard one-, two-, and four-point settings to track x and y value, rotation, and scale and to create corner pins.

Wiggler

Introduce organic randomness to static or smooth animated properties. Apply smooth or jagged changes to color, motion, and most any property with keyframes.

Work with pristine color

Correct and optimize color in your compositions, and produce work that is film and HDTV ready using the broader range of colors available in 16- and 32-bit color modes. Work with HDR color images. Use color management to keep color consistent.

Flexible 8-, 16-, and 32-bit color modes

Start a composition in 8-bit color mode, and then finalize and output it to 16-bit or 32-bit color for optimal quality. Produce work that is film and HDTV ready using the broader range of colors available in 16- and 32-bit color modes.

Support for HDR image formats

Import and export HDR color images in Photoshop, OpenEXR, ProEXR, Camera Raw, Digital Negative, and TIFF formats. Import and work with the new CinemaDNG open standard for raw moving image source.

Color Finesse LE 3

Perform demanding digital intermediate work using this full-featured color-correction environment that contains high-end telecine-style correction tools. Features include a vibrance control, hue and saturation curve controls, and highlight recovery.

Color LUT support

Get consistent color in your workflow by using industry-standard 3DL and CUBE lookup tables. Create your own color LUT files as exports from Color Finesse.

Project working space and color management

Specify a color intent via a color-managed ICC profile. Any profile can be linearized or allow color blending with a 1.0 gamma. Work with ICC profiles assigned by applications such as Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom® on import, and apply them on output.

Display compensation

Simulate formats that cannot be previewed in real time, such as film projection, as well as those that can be, such as broadcast and HDTV monitors, directly in the Composition viewer.

Use creative building blocks

Get a head start on your project using animation presets, shape presets, template compositions, Brainstorm, and other creative timesaving tools that help you realize your vision more quickly.

Built-in creative tools

Produce cool animations from scratch right in After Effects by creating layers, adding masks, and applying effects.

Animation presets

Jump-start projects quickly with hundreds of fully customizable animation presets for transitions, color treatments, picture-in-picture effects, backgrounds, and numerous other animations.

Text animation presets

Use Adobe Bridge to quickly preview and apply more than 250 professionally designed, fully editable text animation presets, or create and save your own.

Shape presets

Browse and apply dozens of Shape Layer sprites and animations, with hundreds more available on Adobe Marketplace & Exchange, a central resource for finding tools, services, and innovations that supplement and extend your Adobe products.

Automated animation

Take advantage of special "behavior" presets to create animations without keyframes — just set a few parameters and preview results, simple or complex.

Template compositions

Use included project templates to get a head start on creating DVD motion menus, show openers, animated backgrounds, and more.

Timesaving presets and learning tools

Jump-start text animation, synthetic background creation, and more with animation presets. Use Brainstorm to experiment and refine designs. Learn fast with help, tool tips, and training resources on the web.

Automate with scripting

Link individual parameters, effects, and layers within a project using expressions. You can also use the robust scripting support in After Effects to automate repetitive tasks and add custom capabilities to the application.

Expressions and scripting

Use expressions to link individual parameters, effects, and layers in a variety of ways — even across compositions. Also add custom capabilities to After Effects and automate repetitive tasks with robust scripting support.

Menu of preset commands

Reduce keystrokes and eliminate the need to memorize code with an extensive library of functions and commands available in a convenient contextual menu.

Script Debug menu

Isolate specific functions and statements in complex scripts by interactively managing breakpoints.

Integrated palette-based scripting interface

Access all scripts in the Scripts menu instantly, which also includes a JavaScript Console and Call Stack, Breakpoints, and Data Browser palettes.

Text-editing palettes

Organize and edit scripts using numbered lines, user-defined text formatting, and colored text.

Profile

Profile individual functions or lines within scripts for individual timing and hit count information to understand how and when individual parts of the script are called.

XML project file format

Export a project to an XML file, making it easier to write external scripts that modify the project file.

Work with 32-bit audio

Manage and process your audio without leaving After Effects using advanced audio effects. Control audio levels for each layer separately. Use Adobe Media Encoder to write compressed audio formats.

Support for multiple audio formats

Write compressed audio formats such as AAC and MP3 for Flash and H.264 video using Adobe Media Encoder. After Effects reads and writes multiple audio formats at multiple sample rates and bit depths (up to 32 bit).

Automatic sample rate conversion

Resample audio automatically using sampling rates from 8kHz to 96kHz.

Advanced audio effects

Manage an audio mix without leaving After Effects. Equalize, echo, reverberate, modulate, and process audio with 32-bit effects. Generate audio procedurally with a flexible Tone generator that can be linked to animations with the expressions pick whip.

Audio controls per layer

Control the audio levels of any given layer. Manage balance, mix, and fades with built-in Levels and a Stereo Mixer effect.

Audio-driven motion graphics elements

Generate customizable visuals based on audio elements that animate dynamically along a frequency spectrum or that behave like an audio waveform.

Audio-to-keyframe conversion

Convert audio in a composition into a stream of keyframes that can be used directly or by expressions.

Gain professional results for every media type

Master modern media. Deliver your completed projects to the widest range of formats, from large-format feature films and high-definition television to websites and mobile devices.

RAW digital cinema workflow improvements

Gain instant access to high-definition source formats. RED Rocket card and RMD metadata dramatically improve the performance and look of RED footage. Import footage in CinemaDNG format, an open standard that offers a common solution.

AVC-Intra support

Work natively with tapeless footage from Panasonic cameras thanks to AVC-Intra 50 and AVC-Intra 100 support.

Native RED EPIC camera support

Edit up to 5K footage shot from RED EPIC™ cameras without transcoding or rewrapping and access RED parameters directly from the enhanced Source Settings dialog box with the RED EPIC Importer plug-in from Adobe Labs.

XDCAM HD export

Render in the XDCAM HD format using multiple bitrates, pixel aspect ratios, and frame rates. This allows you to roundtrip footage shot on popular Sony cameras so that your output is consistent with files being edited directly from source.

Network rendering

Install render-only versions of After Effects on multiple computers and harness them to render frames in large projects using a centralized Watch folder.

Batch rendering

Queue multiple compositions inside a single project to render in sequence without user intervention. Have one render create a proxy or source to be used by a later composition.

Extensive standard format support

Import and output files in QuickTime, FLV, SWF, AVI, MPEG-2, Windows Media (Windows® only), CinemaDNG, PSD, Camera Raw, OpenEXR, ProEXR, Cineon, SGI, TIFF, TGA, Maya IFF, JPEG, PDF, MP3, WAV, and AIFF. Import files in Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM HD, and RED.

Easy delivery of multiple formats

Assign multiple output modules, each using a different size and output format, to a single item in the Render Queue.

Streamlined Adobe Media Encoder

Deliver virtually any format, including DPX, FLV, H.264, MPEG-2, QT, WM, and more, with Adobe Media Encoder. Batch encode multiple versions of source files and sequences, and control each item individually.

Flexible render settings and output modules

Specify resolution, frame rate, scale, and bit depth. Add interlacing; pull-down; individual layer switches; and RGB, alpha, or both (plus audio) to various formats. Assign multiple output modules in unique sizes and formats to a single Render Queue item.

Integrate seamlessly with Adobe Creative Suite

Build projects from 3D models in Adobe Photoshop Extended, Adobe Premiere® Pro sequences, FLV files, and motion paths created from Adobe Illustrator paths. Using any Adobe Creative Suite® 5.5 component, work easily with colleagues — even those still using After Effects CS5.

Save As After Effects CS5

Work easily on projects with colleagues still using After Effects CS5: Save projects in After Effects CS5 format to take advantage of new features and performance improvements without the need for colleagues to upgrade.

Affordable subscription option

Get ongoing access to After Effects CS5.5 software for an affordable monthly fee. Choose a one-year plan for lower payments or a flexible month-to-month plan you can stop and restart as needed. See how subscriptions work ›

3D and video support in Photoshop Extended

Create, import, and paint on 3D models in Photoshop Extended, export the result as a layered PSD file, and animate the After Effects 3D camera. Export Vanishing Point 3D planes from Photoshop and animate the 3D result, adding cameras and lights.

Photoshop HDR image and text support

Save 32-bit HDR and 16-bit color values in PSD files. Text remains editable, and layers, layer effects, blending modes, masks, and transparency are all preserved when PSD files are imported as compositions. Use Photoshop paths as masks or animation paths.

Integration with Adobe Premiere Pro

Import Adobe Premiere Pro sequences and preserve bins, edits, markers, keyframed effects, nested sequences, transitions, and more. Drag and drop or copy and paste between applications and share effects. Export a composition to Adobe Premiere Pro.

Integration with Flash Professional

Export After Effects compositions as layered XFL format rich media projects for Adobe Flash® Professional. Import and encode FLV files, batch rendering with embedded cue points. Preserve vectors created in After Effects for lean, clean delivery.

Integration with lllustrator

Copy vectors and paths from Illustrator to use as After Effects masks, shape layer paths, and motion paths. Illustrator layers and blend modes are preserved. Vector shapes can be continuously rasterized (and output as SWF), preserving smoothness.

Adobe Community Help

Get information using the searchable Adobe AIR® based Community Help Client, featuring the latest help documents with community-based comments. Connect with the team via Adobe-hosted blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

Motion design for mobile devices

Preview and test the appearance, performance, and behavior of mobile content on the desktop. After Effects matches the targeted device settings and prepares output with proper codecs, with simulation on a virtual model in Adobe Device Central.

Photoshop layer support

Import layer effects available in PSD files as a separate layer property. This yields greatly enhanced shadows, bevels, shading, and other treatments, which can also be animated.

Integration with Encore

Create DVD motion menus and interactive buttons. Export AVI and MPEG-2 movies with markers that Adobe Encore® reads as chapters. Adobe Dynamic Link (in Adobe Creative Suite® Production Premium) lets you view changes made in After Effects immediately in Encore without rendering.

Adobe Bridge

Organize, preview, and employ your assets using Adobe Bridge, a centralized media management utility included with After Effects.

Familiar Adobe look and feel

Leverage your knowledge of other Adobe products. After Effects uses standard Adobe tools, palettes, menus, and keyboard shortcuts, so you can get up to speed quickly.

Online LiveDocs

Use web search tools to find the answers you need on Adobe's website or in other locations on the web. Help files for all Adobe products are available online, are constantly updated by Adobe and a global community of users, and can be accessed offline.

Broad format support

Easily use the latest cameras and share media with Adobe Premiere Pro, thanks to native support for numerous tapeless formats in After Effects. Convert film, video, and web content to the correct format for your project.

Markers and cue point export

Export composition or layer markers as cue points in FLV files. Easily convert keyframe values into markers, allowing you to use motion tracking data and other After Effects keyframe values in Flash Professional.

Leverage outstanding performance

Work more quickly with 64-bit performance that dramatically improves the experience of creating HD and higher resolution content. Streamlined tools, advanced OpenGL capabilities, intelligent caching, and unified memory management also accelerate your workflow.

Responsive 64-bit performance

Work effectively on high-resolution projects — even at 32-bit-per-channel color inside HD, 2K, and 4K compositions. Use all your system's RAM to see longer previews. With enhanced disk caching, you can spend less time waiting and more time creating.

Multiprocessor and multicore support

Render and preview faster by taking advantage of your computer's power. Multiple processors and processor cores are used to calculate complex effects and to render multiple frames simultaneously.

Real-time, high-fidelity OpenGL support

Take advantage of advanced OpenGL capabilities, including support for blending modes, motion blur, anti-aliasing, track mattes, high-quality shadows and transparency, and accelerated rendering of common effects.

RAM previews and disk caching

Preview compositions in real time and benefit from intelligent caching and dynamic previews. Responsive 64-bit performance enables dramatically longer previews. Enhanced disk caching helps ensure that previews remain available more of the time.

Coordinated RAM allocation

Coordinate RAM usage across multiple Production Premium components with unified memory management. Make the most of your system resources without learning complex memory management settings.

Layer and composition proxies

Prerender time-consuming compositions and assign them as proxies without changing the structure of your project. Temporarily replace large source comps with lower resolution versions to speed up work.

Paint and clone with nondestructive vector brushes

Explore creative possibilities with customizable nondestructive vector brushes. Use the advanced Clone tool to remove unwanted distractions or to replicate multiple specific elements. Animate individual paint strokes.

Customizable brushes

Define brushes to control size, spacing, and angle, and save them for ongoing use.

Advanced Clone tool

Remove unwanted distractions like dust and scratches or replicate elements for a desired effect, such as filling a stadium with people. The Clone tool offers multiple presets and onion skinning of the source frame.

Animated paint strokes

Animate individual paint strokes over time to change their size, position, or shape and to create write-on and write-off effects.

Eraser tool

Control whether the Eraser tool removes paint strokes only, the last stroke only, or paint strokes plus the underlying background footage.

Wacom tablet support

Use Wacom tablets for more precise control when painting in After Effects.

Save time with efficient tools and a customizable interface

Keep your work focused and efficient with project management tools, customizable workspaces, a targetable Layer panel, searchable timelines and projects, and the ability to quickly align layers.

Source timecode support

Take the guesswork out of source footage edits. Timecode data in QuickTime, AVI, Broadcast WAV (BWF), DPX, and some variations of MXF is read directly in After Effects, and the Timecode effect can display both source timecode and composition frames.

Auto-Keyframe mode

Animate quickly by setting starting keyframes automatically.

Quick arrangement of multiple layers

Use convenient tools to quickly align layers with each other or with the overall composition.

User-modifiable interface

Easily rearrange workspace panels and customize user interface brightness to suit the task at hand and your work environment. Tinted panel tabs make it easy to track project elements.

Targetable Layer panel

View individual sources in context or on their own with View and Render switches, which allow you to see a layer before or after masks or at any point in the effect chain.

Project management tools

Resolve duplicate sources, delete unused sources, and collect your project and sources into a new folder for easy backup, handoff, or transport using simple menu commands.

Resources to get you up to speed

Take advantage of convenient, searchable tool tips; context-sensitive menus; the Adobe.com website; the Community Help Client; numerous third-party books and training videos; and an active user community.

Easy search and navigation

Use QuickSearch to instantly locate any element or all used or missing footage in a comp or project. Navigate quickly between nested comps using the Composition Navigator and Mini-Flowchart.

Grids, guides, and safe areas

Define a variety of grid patterns or hand-position guides, which can be used to more accurately place layers. Safe areas have programmable safe zone margins; widescreen compositions display 4:3 center cut safe areas.

Multiple views

Create multiple views for the same composition to see how layers interact in space, and manipulate them with confidence. Lock views so you can edit a nested composition while seeing the results downstream.

Guide layers

Specify layers that render only in a local composition without being rendered downstream. This feature is perfect for scratch audio tracks, guide overlays, temporary graphics, and so on.

Interpretation rules

Define a set of rules that allows specific media types to be given predetermined default frame rates, aspect ratios, alpha channel types, and color profiles.

XMP metadata

Add project-, comp-, and layer-level metadata to streamline project tracking, and automate asset auditing plus many other tasks that were previously handled manually.