The New Features in After Effects, Photoshop and Premiere CS5

After Effects CS5:

• Natively 64-Bit: This is the big new feature in After Effects. It’s been rewritten to take full advantage of modern operating systems — After Effects CS5 will only run on 64-bit OSs. What does that mean concretely?
  First, you’ll need a compatible system. Mac users, no worries — as long as your Mac has an Intel processor, whether it’s running Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard, your system supports 64-bit apps. For Windows, you’ll need a 64-bit version, which isn’t the case with all editions — so make sure to check.
  Then, boost your machine’s RAM. Not because the new versions are more demanding, but because they’re designed to make the most of your hardware.
  For example, where After Effects CS4 could only allocate a maximum of 3GB per process, there will now be no limits! So don’t hesitate to upgrade your memory. Ideally, each core needs about 2GB of RAM to run at full speed. On a quad-core, aim for at least 8GB, 16GB on an octo-core, and so on.
  If you have newer processors like the i7s found in Mac Pros and the latest iMacs, you may have noticed that each physical core represents two virtual ones. On my Mac Pro, I have two quad-core processors (8 cores total), and macOS sees 16! After Effects does too, but previously couldn’t fully use them. Now it can — doubling the available rendering cores!

• In practical terms, based on Adobe’s benchmarks across many projects, here’s what kind of performance boost you can expect with the switch to 64-bit:

  • The app launches twice as fast
  • When starting a RAM preview with “render multiple frames simultaneously,” AE could previously take up to 30s to prepare the project — that’s now down to 1–2s!
  • The render engine has been completely rewritten, resulting in renders that are 30–50% faster — almost twice as fast!
  • RAM previews will last much longer. Where you could only preview 10s before, you’ll now reach 40s! If you were already doing 40, you might get 3 minutes now! ^^
  • Much better performance and fewer memory allocation errors, such as the notorious “unable to allocate memory for image size xxxx” that appeared when working on large comps.
    In short, great news for productivity!

• Roto Brush: A new tool advertised as revolutionary for rotoscoping. It lets you isolate and separate elements from the background in seconds. The idea: give a quick brush stroke over a subject, and it automatically detects and masks it. Impressive in principle — can’t wait to see it in action!

• DigiEffects Freeform and Mocha v2: Two great additions! Freeform is a plugin that allows 3D warping — you can deform a Photoshop layer along three axes, adding real depth!
  Then, Mocha for After Effects is now available in version 2, along with the Mocha Shape plugin, which lets you import masks — not just tracking data. Previously, you had to buy both separately, but now they’re included with CS5. Great news!

• Plus lots of handy little updates: new layer alignment tools, keyboard shortcuts to center the view on a specific object, and the ability to import Photoshop adjustment layers like Vibrance and Black & White, among others.

Find all the new features and improvements in After Effects CS5 on this page !

Photoshop CS5

Impressive! That’s the best way to describe some of Photoshop’s new tools.

• Content-Aware Fill: One of the most amazing new features in my opinion — with one click, you can remove objects, and Photoshop automatically fills in the gap by analyzing surrounding data. The example video above shows just how powerful it is.

• Enhanced Selection Tools: Truly improved — the new edge detection features make isolating elements from the background incredibly fast and accurate.

• 3D Extrusion with “Repoussé”: You can now extrude, bevel, and twist any text, selection, or mask in 3D! With a dedicated new panel, it looks like a great quick solution for creating small 3D effects on text or simple shapes :) Let’s see if the renders are better than Photoshop CS4’s previous 3D module, which I found a bit disappointing in quality.

• And many other new features: new painting brushes, realistic 3D rendering, the puppet tool, and more.

Find all the new features and improvements in Photoshop CS5 on this page !

Premiere Pro CS5:

• New Adobe Mercury Playback Engine: Combining the new 64-bit architecture with GPU power (harnessing the computational performance of graphics cards), this new engine lets you navigate smoothly through complex projects combining multiple HD, 2K, or 4K layers — without affecting playback performance. Great news for anyone who, like me, found Premiere Pro CS4 a bit sluggish!
• Ultra Keyer: A new GPU-accelerated keying tool capable of handling complex keys — like smoke, liquids, and other tricky elements — almost in real time, even in HD!

Find all the new features and improvements in Premiere Pro CS5 on this page !

So, what do you think of this new suite? :)