Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is one of the most advanced and highly praised video editing suites available today that features several advanced tools for creating impressive motion graphics and cinematic effects.

When getting started with this compositing and visual effects software, you're greeted with a very complex user interface that has many different options and layouts for video creators. Thankfully, everything doesn't have to be visible and you can navigate through the effects and tools that are necessary for the project.

Thankfully when starting the application, you have the option to be given a tour of Adobe After Effects so that new users can get an idea of what tools are available, how to access them, and how to get started creating a video project.

Advanced effects, transitions, and animations

After adding media to the project, creating a composition is a pretty straightforward first task. After that, you can add several different video and transition effects to video clips located in the composition timeline. They range from beautiful 3D and even 4D effects along with retouching, color, and brightness adjustments just to name a couple.

Not only can you apply these animations to videos, but also create wonderful effects on text, geometric shapes boxes, or other objects created in After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. Animate In, Animate Out, blurring effects, fill and stroke, lines and optical, paths, rotation, tracking and a slew of other animation presets are included.

One invaluable feature of After Effects is the inclusion of masking, making it possible to apply masks and their effects to video clips and frames.

When a new composition is created, application users can add text, colors, camera angles, lighting effects, and new layers with relative ease. The number of other tools included with this video editing suite is just unbelievable.

Hardware optimization for Intel, AMD and NVIDIA

As programs like this rely heavily on graphics processing power, it comes out-of-the-box with support for using your graphics card GPU optimization. With that said Adobe After Effects can be configured to utilize some hardware acceleration of your GPU, taking some of the load off of CPU processing and making exporting videos faster.

Video rendering and effects can easily be set to use GPU acceleration within the project settings dialog.

Conclusion

Adobe After Effects is a very powerful and complicated application with a rather large learning curve. With that said, it's usually an advanced step to take after gaining a little bit of experience with video editing software. A great place to start learning this application would be YouTube to watch tutorial videos on just how to get certain tasks accomplished.

All in all, great software and a perfect last step to optimizing and enhancing videos created with other editing suites.

Features of Adobe After Effects

• 3D Animation: Create stunning animations with text, shapes, and logos.
• Animation Presets: Choose from hundreds of animation presets and customize them.
• Audio Editing: Adjust and mix music and sound effects.
• Character Animation: Animate 2D characters with bones and rigging.
• Color Correction: Dramatically improve the look of your footage.
• Compositing: Combine multiple layers of video, images, and audio.
• Expressions: Create dynamic animations with expressions and scripting.
• Keyframe Animation: Create smooth, fine-tuned animations with keyframes.
• Masking: Quickly mask and remove elements from imagery.
• Motion Tracking: Track objects in live footage and apply effects to them.
• Output Formats: Choose from multiple file formats for final delivery.
• Rotoscoping: Isolate objects in footage and animate them.
• Special Effects: Add realistic touches with particle systems, flares, and more.
• Stabilization: Reduce camera shake and motion blur.
• Virtual Reality: Create immersive VR content with 3D and 360 video.

Compatibility and License

This download is licensed as shareware for the Windows operating system from audio and video editors. It can be used as a free trial until the trial period ends (after an unspecified number of days). The Adobe After Effects CC 2024 24.2 demo is available to all software users as a free download with potential restrictions and is not necessarily the full version of this software.

What version of Windows can Adobe After Effects run on?

Adobe After Effects can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It's only available as a 64-bit download.

Other operating systems: The latest Adobe After Effects version from 2024 is also available for  Mac.