After Effects CC / Reviews

“To insert 3D effects in 2D footage, a visual effects artist would typically prepare the elements and hand them off to a motion graphics artist, which required extra time, personnel, and budget. Now, with the 3D Camera Tracker in Adobe After Effects CS6, one person can achieve the same effect, creating what used to be specialized shots easily in a single program.”

—Chris Meyer, cofounder, Crish Design

 "I have used everything from Avid and Final Cut Pro to LightWorks and Edit and Fast—and my tool of choice by far is Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium including Adobe Premiere Pro. The integration among Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Encore is a huge time saver—and Adobe solutions are a joy to work with."

—Jarle Leirpoll, independent filmmaker & videographer, Jarle Leirpoll

 “When you’re creating visual effects, it’s quite often a race against the clock and creativity is sometimes limited because a deadline is looming. The Global Performance Cache feature in Adobe After Effects CS6 makes it easier to try more ideas or go back to a previous idea without incurring a time penalty.”

—Chris Meyer, cofounder, Crish Design

 “Global Performance Cache in Adobe After Effects CS6 is a massive performance boost. I especially like the persistent disk cache so when you close a project and reopen it, the frames are still there in the cache, ready for playback.”

—Angie Taylor, artist, animator, and author

 “The biggest new feature in Adobe After Effects CS6 is the Global Performance Cache, which saves me so much time by letting me preview a change, such as a blur or opacity, and then go back to how it was before I made the change without rendering. I can’t see anyone not wanting to upgrade.”

—Christian Lett, visual effects and motion graphics artist

 “The addition of the raytraced 3D rendering engine in Adobe After Effects CS6 raises the production value of titles, logos, and other graphical elements created directly in After Effects.”

—Chris Meyer, cofounder, Crish Design

 “The number one feature in Adobe After Effects CS6 is obviously the new ray-traced 3D rendering engine, which saves time by letting me work with extruded 3D objects in true 3D space and make changes without pre-rendering, exporting and importing.”

—Steve Taylor, owner, Digital Spatula

 “Variable mask feathering in Adobe After Effects CS6 is the one feature I would upgrade for. Now to mask something like a natural shadow with falloff, I can feather less at base of the object where theshadow is sharper, and more at the edge where it falls off and gets fuzzy. This wasn’t possible in previous versions of After Effects with masks alone.”

—Christian Lett, visual effects and motion graphics artist

“The strength behind the Variable Mask Feathering in Adobe After Effects CS6 is huge. This is a feature we’ll get mileage out of every day.”

—Sean Cusson, motion media director, Banfield Seguin Ltd

 “With the enhanced 3D capabilities in Adobe After Effects CS6 I now have time to make more changes without leaving the program and re-rendering, helping me raise the quality of my work and ultimately do a better job for clients.”

—Steve Taylor, owner, Digital Spatula

“The persistent cache in Adobe After Effects CS6, which is part of the Global Performance Cache feature, is very exciting because it is a real workhorse tool and the benefits of having it are going to be amazing in terms of productivity and efficiency.”

—Sean Cusson, motion media director, Banfield Seguin Ltd