The After Effects team continues to chug along with new features and releases.

The May 2024 (24.4) After Effects release presented new features, workflow improvement, and important fixes, including:

• Improved Freeze performance with Roto Brush
• Label Color Menu Swatches
• Multi-layer keyframe copy-paste
• Reverse paste keyframes
• Navigation to the earliest In and latest Out points

Eran at SternFX has a news schtick on this release in After Effects Just Got Better! Exploring the May 2024 Update.

The main features in the current After Effects Beta include: Embedded 3D Model Animations, New After Effects Spectrum User Interface, Shadow Catcher, and Depth data in Advanced 3D scenes (see Michael Ponch below). Addition features have trickled out, including:

• A memory management update with setting to limit usage more strictly, reducing transient memory spikes to minimize spurious low memory warnings and ensures a more consistent preview range.
• Support for the Advanced 3D engine on specific Intel GPUs.
• Camera and Light Options are now available in the Properties Panel
• 33 new presets including anime speed lines, charts and graphs, text boxes, numeric counters, textures and transitions. All are listed in the link.
• Support for Per-character Text and Paragraph Styling in Expressions. The bigger feature already came out of beta Per-Character Scripting  SternFX already released a tutorial for the general feature, Advanced Typography: Per-Character Styling in After Effects.

For latest on Premiere Pro, see What’s new in Premiere Pro May 2024 update (24.4) and Top features in beta, although you may have to rollback to version v24.3!  See Creative Kickoff | New Audio Features in Premiere Pro (Beta), but skip ahead 7 minutes to avoid chit-chat.

Premiere is where the AI action will be, not After Effects (wah), so check out Revolutionize Your Editing: Unleash AI Magic with New Quickture Panel for Premiere Pro at Adobe Live.

While you’re at it you might look at Photoshop’s EPIC AI Update: All New Features Explained. Posted by PiXimperfect, it covers improvements in AI features like Generative Fill with Reference Image, Generate Similar, Enhance Detail, and the New Firefly Image Model 3 — as well as the brand-new Font Panel and Adjustment Brush Tool.

There were big announcements this week, featuring OpenAI versus Google events. OpenAI flexed so Apple might close an iPhone deal with them instead of Google, then Google flexed 2 days later.

There’s a ton of coverage, but there’s so much not released there’s not much sense in spending much time on vaporware or shovelware. For a summary, see 10 Shootouts: OpenAI vs Google / Who Won? You Might Be Surprised! from Theoretically Media. I’m not sure anyone wins quite yet, since we’re not sure if people will mainly get stripped-down versions of, say, OpenAI Sora. Perhaps market segmentation will take over soon, along the lines of free Adobe Express, paid Express, Elements, Creative Cloud apps then CC bundles.

The School of Motion’s Larry Fine talks about New After Effects Features, Google’s AI Video Generator, and Stadium GFX Galore in a new Motion Mondays episode.

Premiere Gal shows you how to Create an AI Film Start to Finish, saying that it’s not as simple as one might think.

With the rise of AI tools, many are again re-considering the subscription costs of Creative Cloud.

The youthful Theo Rants has a take on Adobe’s First Real Competition, which would be the Affinity Photo purchase by Canva. Switching is not a new thing, last year was filled with Davinci Resolve switching. One example is from Michael Sturgill with 2 Years After Leaving Adobe – Update.

In The Future of DaVinci Resolve, Ryan Osborn dives deep into the challenges of ditching Adobe and how Blackmagic and Affinity can step up their game with subscription-free tools. Of course, a big issue is motion graphics (Ryan has a problem with vector graphics), though MotionVFX shows that Fusion/Davinci is capable.

Jake In Motion continued his Rive tutorial series with Animating in ways After Effects CAN’T with Rive.

John The Video Guy posted his ideas on an evergreen topic in 10 Ways To Make After Effects Run FASTER!

Film Riot shows various approaches for backgrounds in Transform Your Location for $0 Dollars.

Lines To Designs has several new tutorials, including Make Your Videos STAND OUT with Firefly 3 + After Effects. Using a still frame as a structure reference in Firefly 3 he generates a new background and covers motion matching with Mocha AE.

In another tutorial, This Tiny Feature is HUGE in After Effects, he shows how to expose selected properties of a precomped Roto Brush effect into the Essential graphics panel.

Michael Ponch has a NEW UPDATE! Create a TRUE 3D DEPTH MAP in After Effects (beta) | Quicktip.

MotionXP shared After Effects Warp Effect…on another level, which uses the After Effects Warp effect to reverse engineer an animation that feels like it’s moving in 3D space; comes with a project file.

Motion By Scott shares 8 Easy After Effects Techniques To Improve Your Projects.

Texturelabs demonstrates Endless Particle World (loops, samples, and tips in After Effects). To create a paint splatter animation, he uses the Particle World effect, then loops ‘em with a single bonus effect. His older You’ve Never Seen Displacement in After Effects Like THIS! was also fun.

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Please note that these roundups are for quick review and comparison — and After Effects Portal can only skim the surface of what’s out there.

There’s almost always vital information from the originating authors at the links provided, and often free presets, projects, or stock footage too.
@aerich