Adobe has added Composition Profiler to it’s beta of After Effects as it announced in it’s BETA Forum. You enable it by clicking the snail in the lower left of the timeline window and it will show render times for each layer so you can can see the render times for each layer and know which layer is slowing you down.
This is very cool. Just a great feature so you can quickly see what is slowing you down.
A very useful lesson on adding randomization in After Effects.
You should check out the rest of ECAbrams videos on youTube as well.
I really need to dive more into expressions. I can use them and do some modifications, but I am not really an expert or good at creating my own, which is something that really can bring master levels of After Effects.
Jim Thacker at CF Channel has an article on Multi-Frame Rendering in the After Effects Beta.
This is super exciting, as After Effects has basically run at the same speed forever. It likely won’t be released fully until the next big trade show, where Adobe will move it from the beta channel.
Neat Video the creator of the best Noise Reduction software out there has updated it’s software to version 5.4.6.
It has expanded AMD support, optimization for Apple’s M1 chips, and support for the latest Adobe releases. You can read about the changes here.
Neat Video is incredibly good and they keep getting better and faster, the only rival is noise reduction in the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve, but I have found they are great companions, and tend to work on software that the other doesn’t do well on. I try out one and then switch to the other if that one isn’t working as well. And I have Neat for Premiere Pro and After Effects as well.
So adobe updated After Effects to version 18.4. The July 2021 update has the following features:
Improved Default Property naming in Essential Graphics Panel.
Support for MKV Files.
Automatic default audio device switching on Windows.
And it looks like Multi-Frame Rendering has remained in the beta for the moment.
Nothing too monumental here, unlike the Premiere Pro update today.
The software for the Elgato Stream Deck has been updated to version 5.0 with the addition of a store. Jose Antunes at ProVideoCoalition has a great article on it.
Now it is great for them to have a store, but the store is pretty useless to me if it doesn’t have SideShowFX in it, because they make the profiles for pro video users. Now you can find software for streaming in the store, but the Stream Deck really works for Pro Video users, and to not have that software represented seems like a huge mistake.
I still plan on doing an article on Steam Deck and SideshowFX, but have been so busy I haven’t had the time.
Chris Zwar has posted an overview of his 18 part in depth series on Adobe After Effects and performance. He has been writing these must read articles since 2019 and every pro after effects user should have a look. It goes about as in depth as you can on what After Effects does and why it can be very hard to speed up.
I was rendering some graphics in After Effects for use in Premiere Pro and started thinking about Alpha interpretation. I have been doing graphics professionally since I started editing the behind the scenes footage for Lord of the Rings , The Fellowship of the Ring and over the years I worked out that Straight alphas almost always worked out better for me, with better edges. Now I have read that Final Cut Pro prefers a premultiplied alpha, but I have certainly had better luck with with a straight alpha. I wanted to dive into what the differences really are, and a great definition is in Help for After Effects.
Image files with alpha channels store transparency information in one of two ways: straight or premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ.
With straight (or unmatted) channels, transparency information is stored only in the alpha channel, not in any of the visible color channels. With straight channels, the results of transparency aren’t visible until the image is displayed in an application that supports straight channels.
With premultiplied (or matted) channels, transparency information is stored in the alpha channel and also in the visible RGB channels, which are multiplied with a background color. Premultiplied channels are sometimes said to be matted with color. The colors of semitransparent areas, such as feathered edges, are shifted toward the background color in proportion to their degree of transparency.
Some software lets you specify the background color with which the channels are premultiplied; otherwise, the background color is usually black or white.
Straight channels retain more accurate color information than premultiplied channels. Premultiplied channels are compatible with a wider range of programs, such as Apple QuickTime Player. Often, the choice of whether to use images with straight or premultiplied channels has been made before you receive the assets to edit and composite. Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects recognize both straight and premultiplied channels, but only the first alpha channel they encounter in a file containing multiple alpha channels.
Setting the alpha channel interpretation correctly can prevent problems when you import a file, such as undesirable colors at the edge of an image or a loss of image quality at the edges of the alpha channel. For example, if channels are interpreted as straight when they are actually premultiplied, semitransparent areas retain some of the background color. If a color inaccuracy, such as a halo, appears along the semitransparent edges in a composition, try changing the interpretation method.
And that explains it, since with premultiplies the edges can get some of the background color leaking into them in some cases, which is not the case with straight alphas.
And while quicktime and Apple may prefer premultiplied alphas that does not make them better or desirable, Apple already has it’s whole gamma shift issue with quicktime that is a disaster, so adhering to what they want isn’t always the best idea.
Maxon has updated Universe (formerly Red Giant Universe) to 4.0. Universe is a set of Transition and effects plugs ins for editors and motion graphics artists, and is red giants fast rendering transitions.
The suite has 3 new plug ins, Electrify to add electrical effects, Analog to add the look of Analog video, and Texturize Motion which adds animated textures to your footage for a sketchy stop motion look. They have also included 100+ presets for the new effects and 140 new presets for Array Gun and Typographic.
Universe is available as a subscription for $199 a year, or as part of Red Giant Complete for $599.99 annually or Maxon one with all their products for $1199 a year or you can pay a monthly for $30, $79 or $149.
Personally I have used the Red Giant plug ins for many many years, and they have many of my go to effects. They are also fast and work across editing software for the most part. It is a big expense every year, but I find it very worth it for the suite of tools. And honestly if I could afford it would love to add Cinema 4D to the mix.
Check it out at the ProVideoCoalition, it is extensive and well worth a read.
