SAN JOSE, CA - Adobe (www.adobe.com) has introduced Version 6.0 of its After Effects compositing, animation, effects and motion graphics tool. (more) The new release is designed for the Mac OS, Windows 2000 and Windows XP platforms and includes a number of performance improvements as well as Open GL support.
A Photoshop-styled text engine allows for the easy animation of type. Open GL support makes 3D compositing tasks fluid and interactive. The new paint engine is vector based and brings Photoshop-styled brushes and cloning capabilities. New effects tools include Liquify, Warp and Scribble. Dust and scratches can also be made less noticeable through controls similar to those found in Photoshop.
Pricing is $699 for the standard version and $999 for the professional version. Upgrades from earlier versions are $199 and $299 respectively. The "pro" version includes a new motion tracker that allows for the tracking of unlimited points.
Adobe also recently released a new version of Premiere called Premiere Pro, which is only on the Windows NT platform.