Adobe After Effects CS3 (DE) Mac Retail DV VAR

After Effects CS3 (DE) Mac Retail DV VAR Innovate visually
Enjoy the freedom of intuitive, responsive controls and limitless possibilities for creating motion graphics and effects.

32-bit 2D and 3D compositing and animation
- 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.
- GPU acceleration. Mix and match 2D and 3D layers in a single composition and design in real time using OpenGL acceleration. OpenGL 2.0 capabilities include blend modes, 2D motion blur, common effects, shadows, transparency, and more.
- Cameras and lights for 3D compositions. Create and animate multiple cameras and lights. Specify a point of interest, produce soft shadows, and simulate different types of lights to add depth.
- 3D compositions from Vanishing Point. Export Vanishing Point data from Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, and then import the data into After Effects to automatically build a 3D composition from the 2D Photoshop image.
- Multiple views and workspaces. See how layers interact in space and manipulate a composition from multiple perspectives using multiple views. Use predefined workspaces or create your own to contextually streamline your workflow.
- Adaptive motion blur. Automatically adjust motion blur based on the speed of the layer to provide higher quality output for fast-moving objects and high-quality and faster rendering for slow-moving objects.
- Projection layers and colored shadows. Project light through a layer to create colored shadows, stained-glass effects, and the look of projected slides.
- Quick arrangement of multiple layers. Quickly arrange multiple layers in time with the Sequence Layers keyframe assistant, and arrange layers in space with the Align and Distribute tools.
- Adjustment layers. Create adjustment layers similar to those in Photoshop to apply effects to any layers that appear below them.
- Parenting. Speed up production by defining a parent-child relationship between layers so that the child layer inherits all transformations applied to the parent.
- Built-in creative tools and templates. Produce cool animations from scratch right in After Effects by creating layers, adding masks, and applying effects. Or use the included project templates to quickly create DVD motion menus, animated backgrounds, and more.
- Camera data. Import 3D camera and null animation data in the Alias Maya (MA) format, directly from Maya or from any 3D tracking software that can export MA files, such as 2d3’s boujou.

Text and vector graphics creation and animation
- Intuitive text creation. Create text using Adobe-standard tools for typing, editing, and formatting text, and easily edit text created in Photoshop. Mix and match fonts and other attributes on a layer.
- Versatile text animation. Animate text along paths, transform or displace words or lines of text over time, set inter-character blending modes, randomize the order in which characters animate, blur or wiggle your text, and more.
- Text animation presets. Save animation time by instantly applying more than 250 professionally designed, fully editable text animation presets, or create and save your own.

Use Adobe Bridge CS3 to conveniently preview and apply presets.
- Per-character 3D text animation. Explore new text animation possibilities by making individual characters in your text—or an entire phrase—move and rotate in 3D space.
- Shape Layers. Easily create and animate vector graphics with new Shape Layers. Add and animate strokes, fills, gradients, and vector effects. You can convert text into shapes and animate them just like any other shape type.
- Web-ready text animations. Export animated text as vector-based SWF files to create innovative, web-friendly animations.

Extensive visual effects
- Comprehensive effects toolkit. Use a broad selection of included effects to change the appearance of footage or generate entirely new elements. Create unique looks from scratch or by using more than 100 customizable effects presets.
- Effects & Presets palette. Organize effects the way you like and quickly access them in the Effects & Presets palette. Save, apply, and share animation presets with specific settings and animated properties.
- Cycore FX. Add smoke and sparks using Particle World, create blazing ray-of-light transitions using Light Burst and Light Sweep, and apply more than 60 other bundled effects from Cycore.
- Creative blur effects. Re-create the effect of a unfocused camera lens easily and realistically with Lens Blur, and use Smart Blur to create soft color effects without destroying fine detail. Other blur effects include Directional Blur, Box Blur, and Gaussian Blur.
- Flexible distortion effects. Warp and distort the full frame of your footage—as well as selected areas—in specific, realistic ways with effects like Mesh Warp, Bezier Warp, and Displacement Map. Paint distortions directly onto imagery with Liquify. Distort footage using Mirror, Ripple, Bulge, and other effects.
- Fractal Noise. Create textures and organic elements with Fractal Noise, which is perfect for simulating caustics, clouds, lava, flowing water, and gas. Use included presets to create eye-catching animated backgrounds.
- Grain management tools. Add, remove, or match grain artifacts from footage automatically or manually. Specify the characteristics of grain on all three individual color channels for a perfect match.
- Reshape. Morph one defined shape in a layer into another shape on the same layer, distorting the image itself to fit the shape of the new area.
- Scribble. Achieve a loose, hand-drawn look instantly by applying Scribble to a layer.
- Corner Pin. Skew the corners of an image to simulate the perspective of a plane in 3D space. Use the tracker to create animated corner pin data automatically, matching scene features precisely.
- 3D effects. Use 3D Channel Effects to import 3D channel image files saved in RLA, RPF, Softimage PIC/ZPIC, and Electric Image EI/EIZ formats. Use Depth of Field to simulate the focal effects of camera depth of field, and use Fog 3D to simulate volumetric haze in a source 3D image file.
- Glow. Instantly brighten or diffuse the bright areas of an image to create a glowing halo or other lighting effect, suitable for stylized emphasis of featured elements.
- Advanced Lighting. Create realistic electrical arcs with variety and precision.
- Particle Playground. Simulate explosions, flocks of birds, swarms of bees, and more using a powerful particle system. Even text layers can be a particle.
- Scatter. Generate sizzle around borders by adding dancing, dissolve-style animated pixel scatter to the inside and outside of masked areas of a layer.
- Expandable effects toolkit. Expand your creative range in Adobe After Effects with hundreds of compatible third-party effects plug-ins, available separately.

Superb color correction
- Comprehensive color correction. Manage color correction with a variety of tools, including new Tritone Brightness & Contrast, Channel Mixer, Color Balance, Levels, Tint, Hue/Saturation, and more.
- Color Finesse™. Take advantage of Color Finesse from Synthetic Aperture, a full-featured color-correction environment that contains high-end telecine-style correction tools.
- Automatic adjustments. Enhance the contrast and tone of footage over time with Photoshop style Auto Color, Auto Contrast, and Auto Levels controls.
- Shadow/Highlight effect. Automate color correction over time while preserving the shadows and highlights within individual frames.
- Curves controls. Adjust the tonal range of an image with complete control, such as decreasing blues in the shadows and increasing them in bright areas. You can import curve settings from Photoshop as well.
- Color Stabilizer. Sample the exposure of a single reference frame and adjust the exposure of all other frames to match it.
Graph Editor
- Value and Speed graphs. Edit Value and Speed graphs in the Graph Editor, or let After Effects choose the one most appropriate for the animated property.
- Value graphs for spatial properties. See spatial properties such as Position represented with value graphs on individual channels, each with a unique color.
- One-button eases. Add eases in and out of curves with a single click.
- Free transform. Scale and offset keyframes in the Graph Editor with free-transform features, just as you would scale or offset vertices on a mask.
- Snapping keyframes. Snap keyframes to interesting points as you drag them horizontally or vertically around the Graph Editor.
- Scalable view. Freely zoom and pan around the Graph Editor with the Zoom tool, Hand tool, or your mouse scroll wheel, using modifier keys for additional controls. Automatically fit all graphs to the current view with a single click.
Powerful masking and keying tools for video transparency
- 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.
- Mask animations. Stroke, feather, transform, animate, and apply motion blur to masks over time.
- RotoBezier masks. RotoBeziers simplify repetitive tasks by reducing the number of control points you have to think about.
- Imported masks. Import Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator paths as masks.
- Mask auto-tracing. Quickly turn any channel, including alpha channels, into a vector-based mask, and quickly create animated masks.
- Masks from text. Turn After Effects text into masks using the Create Outlines command.
- Smart Mask Interpolation. Replicate natural motion by taking control of mask transitions.
- Keylight. Create subtle, elegant mattes of reflections, semitransparent areas, and hair with this Academy Award-winning keyer from The Foundry. Spill suppression, color correction, and edge refinement help perfect the result.
- Track mattes. Turn any grayscale image, movie, or animated text or graphic into an alpha or luma track matte to control what’s visible on another layer.
- Color Range. Quickly eliminate all the pixels on a layer that are similar to a color you’ve specified. For example, cut out a greenscreen background in one step by specifying that color.
- Extract and Linear Color keys. Easily create high-contrast mattes with subtle edge thresholds using these keys to isolate and knock out a single shade or range of intensity.
- Color Difference Key. Replicate the method used to key color footage on many landmark films. The Color Difference Key weights the dominant color being keyed against the other two primary colors.
- Spill Suppressor. Remove unwanted color spill from footage quickly and easily.
- Difference Matte. Compare foreground information in a scene against a precisely matched, static background “clean plate,” leaving only the pixels that are different.
- Inner/Outer Key. Derive the key from border pixels that you select by creating a rough mask around the edges of the object, to help in difficult keying situations.
- Matte Choker and Simple Choker. Spread or choke the selection area of any alpha channel with a subpixel level of control.

Powerful motion controls
- Puppet tool. This new, fast, and intuitive animation tool lets you squash and stretch images or text to bring it to life as an animated character. Use Motion Sketch to record the position and speed of your puppet movements, the Starch tool to stiffen areas of the character, and the Overlap tool to control the depth of elements of your puppet.
- Timewarp. Slow down and speed up footage with smooth, crisp results and minimal artifacts. Use Timewarp to analyze pixel motion and create more accurate in-between frames.
- Time remapping and frame blending. Produce effects such as variable slow motion and backward playback using two types of frame blending: Frame Mix and Pixel Motion.
- Motion Sketch and Smoother. Quickly draw an animation path and set its velocity with Motion Sketch. Then fine-tune the shape and speed of the path with the Smoother.
- Motion Tracker. Precisely match the motion of source footage using the fast, accurate Motion Tracker. Use as many points as you like or standard one-, two-, and four-point settings to track x and y position, rotation, and scale.
- Motion Stabilizer. Eliminate unwanted motion using the Motion Stabilizer, which can give handheld video shots the look of a locked-off shot.
- Wiggler. Apply smooth or jagged changes to color, motion, or other effects over time with the Wiggler.
- Exponential Scale tool. Create natural-looking zoom effects by making linear changes of scale exponential.
- Time Displacement. Mix different portions of source footage creatively using the luminance of one layer to control the timing of individual pixels in another layer.
Nondestructive vector painting
- Photoshop style brushes. Work with brushes similar to the ones in Photoshop. Customize 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 or paint strokes plus the underlying background footage.
- Wacom tablet support. Use Wacom tablets for more precise control when painting in After Effects.

32-bit audio tools
- Real-time audio playback. Play back your audio in real time without having to render.
- Auto-sampling support. Prepare and resample audio using sampling rates from 22kHz to 96kHz.
- Stereo Mixer. Pan from the left speaker or channel to the right speaker or channel, or vice versa, with the Stereo Mixer.
- Advanced audio effects. Remap audio over time with the Delay and Backwards audio effects. Adjust audio tone with Bass & Treble. Use Modulator, Parametric EQ, and High-Low Pass for precise professional control over 32-bit audio. Delay, Flange & Chorus, and tone generation allow you to stylize sound or generate sounds from scratch.
- Audio Spectrum and Audio Waveform effects. Generate full-color visuals based on audio elements that animate dynamically along a frequency spectrum or that behave like an audio waveform.
- Edit in Adobe Soundbooth™. Send audio files to Adobe Soundbooth CS3 software for editing. Changes made in Soundbooth are automatically updated in After Effects.

Maximize your time
Deliver your best results on schedule with a workflow that lets you work fast and stay focused.

Timesaving tools
- Brainstorm. Jump-start animations with Brainstorm, a new user interface that offers variations based on selected design and animation parameters. Choose which properties and effects you want to explore, and Brainstorm will propose animated variations.
- Animation presets. Jump-start projects quickly with hundreds of customizable animation presets. Share your presets and download additional presets from Adobe Exchange on Adobe.com.
- Project templates. Use included project templates for DVD motion menus and motion graphics backgrounds.
- Adobe Clip Note. Streamline the review and approval process. Render your work into an Adobe PDF file that enables anyone with Adobe Reader software to make timecode-accurate comments. When you import the comments into After Effects, they appear as markers on the Timeline.
- Helpful tools. Learn as you work with convenient Tool Tips and context-sensitive menus, as well as help from the Adobe website, third-party books and training videos, and an active user community. Get started quickly with professionally designed templates for DVD motion menus and animated backgrounds.
Enhanced performance
- Optimized multiprocessing. Take full advantage of multiprocessor and multicore systems for RAM previews and final renders. After Effects renders multiple frames simultaneously whenever possible.
- Real-time, high-fidelity OpenGL support. Advanced OpenGL capabilities include support for blending modes as well as motion blur, anti-aliasing, track mattes, high-quality shadows and transparency, and accelerated rendering of common effects. Use OpenGL for accelerated final renders.
- RAM previews. Preview compositions in real time and benefit from intelligent caching and the ability to define a region of interest for faster and longer RAM previews.
- Disk caching. Dramatically enhance previewing and interactivity on large projects with highly efficient disk caching.
- Render Queue. Use the powerful Render Queue to simultaneously render at multiple resolutions and file formats—even for mobile devices—or to batch render files. You can also create templates to apply common render and output settings.
Unmatched Adobe integration
- Photoshop CS3 Extended integration. Save 32-bit HDR and 16-bit color values in Photoshop files. Text remains editable, and layers, video layers, layer styles, blending modes, masks, transparency, and color profiles are all preserved when Photoshop files are imported as compositions. Use Photoshop paths as masks or animation paths.
- Extensive layering options. Vastly expand the possibilities for instantly adding texture and shading to even the most basic layer. Animate style characteristics at will, going beyond what is possible in Photoshop.
- 3D compositions from Vanishing Point. Export Vanishing Point data from Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, and then import the data into After Effects to automatically build a 3D composition from the 2D Photoshop image.
- Photoshop file creation. Create a new Photoshop file from within your After Effects project. Photoshop automatically opens a blank file using composition settings—including title-safe and action-safe guides—ready for editing. Changes appear in After Effects when you save the file.
- Adobe Illustrator CS3 integration. Copy vectors from Illustrator to use as After Effects masks or motion paths. Illustrator layers and blend modes are preserved, and vector shapes can be continuously rasterized (and output as compact SWF files), preserving smooth edge detail.
- Tight integration with Adobe Flash CS3 Professional. Work more efficiently to create and edit animations for playback on Adobe Flash Player software. Preserve vectors from animations created in After Effects for lean and clean delivery, and encode FLV files more easily. Import SWF files as vectors with alpha channels preserved and batch render FLV files with embedded cue points.
- SWF files imported as vectors. Import SWF files as continuously rasterized vectors with the alpha channel preserved, allowing you to scale them without loss in quality.
- FLV files batch rendered with cue points. Use markers to create cue points that can be added to your FLV output. Automatically convert any layer’s keyframes to cue points to make it easier to trigger events in Adobe Flash based on motion or elements changing over time.
- Adobe Premiere Pro project import. Save time and preserve project organization when working with Adobe Premiere Pro projects. Preserve bins, edits, markers, keyframed effects, nested sequences, transitions, and more. Drag and drop or copy and paste clips from one application to the other.
- Adobe Premiere Pro project export. Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project, streamlining work that involves editing as well as motion graphics and effects.
- Adobe Encore CS3 integration. Create elements such as motion menus and interactive buttons for your DVDs. Export movies from After Effects with markers that Adobe Encore CS3 software reads as chapters.
- File management with Adobe Bridge. Work more efficiently via a single interface to search and access your project files, preview and apply presets, run batch processes, and tag assets with XMP metadata.
- Unified user interface. Work in an elegant and adaptable interface featuring workspace panels that dock and group for optimal organization, eliminating overlapping windows. Save custom workspaces, control UI brightness, and more.
- Familiar Adobe look and feel. Leverage your knowledge of other Adobe products to get up to speed quickly. After Effects uses Adobe-standard tools, palettes, menus, and customizable keyboard shortcuts.
- Adobe Help Center. Get answers quickly with the Adobe Help Center, which offers powerful search features and convenient topics. New LiveDocs enable users to add comments to every Help topic. The new help topic portals aggregate learning resources from within Adobe.com and from across the Adobe community.

Design for tomorrow, today
Work with tools that evolve as fast as your craft, and deliver professional results in virtually every media type.

Professional results for every media type
- Flexible frame rates and resolutions. Specify output frame rates and resolutions (up to 30,000x30,000 pixels) to meet international film and broadcast standards, including Cineon, HDTV, HDV, and more.
- High-quality output. Simultaneously render at multiple resolutions and file formats or batch render files, either on a local machine or across a network. In addition, use the included presets to output movies for Sony PSP systems or Apple video iPods.
- Video for mobile. Use new rendering options and preview in Adobe Device Central CS3 to help ensure your video will look great on an array of supported mobile devices.
- Support for HDR image formats. Import and export HDR color images in Adobe Photoshop, OpenEXR, Radiance, and TIFF formats to preserve the full dynamic range of all footage.
- Extensive support for industry-standard formats. Import and output files in QuickTime, FLV and SWF, AVI, MPEG-2, Windows Media (Windows only), Photoshop (PSD), Camera Raw, OpenEXR, Cineon, SGI, TIFF, TGA, IFF, JPEG, ElectricImage, PDF, MP3, WAV, and AIFF formats.

Color accuracy
- Complete color management workflow. Enable color management simply by selecting a Project Working Space. Doing so maintains the color accuracy of imported files as they are displayed and rendered and allows you to preview how footage will look on other devices.
- Universal standard for color management. Like Photoshop, After Effects uses the open ICC color management system to help ensure universal adoption and support among all manufacturers. Photoshop revolutionized color management in the print industry, and After Effects is now ready to lead a similar transformation in the video and film industry.
- Automatic color profile import. Files with embedded or standardized color profiles are automatically interpreted upon import. Profiles can also be set (or changed) via Interpret Footage. Color spaces from HD and SD video formats are interpreted automatically.
- Color management display. Preview color accurately and simulate how final output will appear in a different medium, whether on a broadcast monitor or projected via a popular film stock.
- Color-managed output. Convert color appropriately for a specific output format (including standard SD and HD formats). ICC information can also be embedded in the output if the format supports it.
- Photoshop interoperability. Use common practices and settings for users of both Photoshop and After Effects, which share color management workflows. CMYK files can be imported and are color managed.
- Support for 32-bit linear floating point. Files created with 32-bit linear light color spaces, such as 32-bit PSD, TIFF, or EXR, composite accurately in a 32-bit linear high dynamic range (HDR) project workspace. Any output profile can be linearized for 32-bit HDR.

Flexible media management
- Cross-platform workflows. Easily share projects and files across Windows and Macintosh platforms.
- Resolution independence. Mix multiple file resolutions from small thumbnails up to 30,000x30,000-pixel frames.
- Post-render actions and Proxy creation. Use post-render actions to streamline back-end production tasks, such as creating proxies or replacing project footage with output from the Render Queue.
- Convenient file management. Use commands such as Find, Reveal, Reduce Project, and Collect Files to manage files easily.
- Flowchart view. View a flowchart of a composition or project to see how it’s organized and what footage, layers, and effects are used.
Integrated Script Editor
- Script-editing palettes. Organize and edit scripts using numbered lines, user-defined text formatting, and colored text.
- Debug menu. Clearly isolate specific functions and statements in complex scripts by interactively managing breakpoints.
- Profiling. Profile individual functions or lines within scripts for individual timing and hit-count information to understand how and when individual parts of the scripts are called.
- Integrated palette-based interface. Instantly access all scripts in the Scripts menu, which also includes a JavaScript Console and Call Stack, Breakpoints, and Data Browser palettes.
Command-line automation via Expressions and Scripting
- Keyframeless creation of animations. Define expressions that link the behavior of one layer property to that of another on any layer in the composition. Use behavior presets to create Wiggles, Bounces, Drifts, Flashes, and more without setting keyframes. New in After Effects Professional CS3, you can sample actual pixel values to drive effects.
- Intuitive pick whip interface. Link properties easily and intuitively with the pick whip interface.
- Standard syntax. Use standard JavaScript to modify Expressions, or create your own from scratch.
- Menu of preset commands. Reduce keystrokes and eliminate the need to memorize code with an extensive library of functions and commands.