Adobe After Effects CC new features enhance animation and post production
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Adobe After Effects CC new features enhance animation and post production

  • Published on
by Christopher Smith
Adobe After Effects CC new features enhance animation and post production
Adobe recently issued an update for After Effects CC that introduces new features, improves the user interface, and fixes a number of bugs.  The latest version, After Effects CC 2014.1 also known as version 13.1, now displays user interface items and content at the correct resolution on high-DPI or high-resolution displays for Windows and Mac OS. This will be a boon for designers using the latest Apple Retina displays as well as Microsoft Surface Pro tablets.
 
Adobe also refreshed the user interface design. While the layout itself remains largely the same, developers have simplified panel functionality. For example, frame grabber and panel grabber icons are gone. Users now drag panels just using the panel tabs. The default brightness level is now somewhat darker. Not all scripts that generate ScriptUI panels have been updated to work with the new user interface. If you run into snags, you should enable the “Use Legacy UI” option in the ScriptUI panel’s menu.
 
Other features of the most recent After Effects update include:
 
  • The Collect Files command will now collect assets associated with Cinema 4D assets.
  • A new Adobe Color Themes panel replaces the previous Adobe Kuler panel.
  • After Effects introduces native decoding and encoding of videos using GoPro CineForm codecs, footage from which is all the rage among consumer hobbyists and athletes alike who shoot movies from helmet-mounted cameras.
  • Users will now see the entire path to the project file in the After Effects title bar.
Adobe quickly followed the After Effects features update of CC 2014.1 (13.1) with a 13.1.1 bug-fix update that you will want to apply after updating. Fixes in the 13.1.1. release of After Effects include restoring functionality to the middle mouse button (such as to activate the Hand tool or reposition masks) and eliminating lengthy error messages that would occur when users applied an effect without properties. Beginners will also appreciate that tool tips now show up properly in Effects Controls, Project and Timeline panels thanks to the bug fix. Users can install the update either by selecting “Help” and then “Updates” in any Adobe title or by launching Adobe’s Creative Cloud desktop software.
 
If you would like to get the most out of the latest features in After Effects CC, the After Effects training classes offered at American Graphics Institute will help you learn this post production tool quickly and efficiently, so you can better harness your creativity. Regularly scheduled public courses as well as private and customized training is available.
About the author

Christopher Smith is president of American Graphics Institute. He is the co-author of Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies and more than 10 other books on design and digital publishing. He served as publisher and editor of the Digital Classroom book series, which has sold more than one million books on topics relating to InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps. At American Graphics Institute, he provides strategic technology consulting to marketing professionals, publishers designers, and large technology companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and HP. An expert on web analytics and digital marketing, he also delivers Google Analytics classes along with workshops on digital marketing topics. Christopher did his undergraduate studies the at the University of Minnesota, and then worked for Quark, Inc. prior to joining American Graphics Institute where he has worked for more than 20 years.