New features include:

• Accepts Lights switch for 3D layers
• 3D model preview thumbnail
• Cinema 4D 2025 upgrade in After Effects

After Effects 25.2 is in Beta; current features include:

• Customize Transparency Grids
• Customize panel background colors
• Change anchor point in a more efficient way

PVC staff posted Looking back on 2024 and ahead to 2025 – A PVC Roundtable Discussion. After Effects specialist Chris Zwar bucked the crowd source opinion on HDR, saying that the spread of HDR & ACES has helped After Effects become increasingly accepted as a tool for high-end VFX. Unfortunately, HDR adoption is slow.

Chris shared related information in his video article Color Management Part 25: Corporate Brand Colors and ACES.

Envato Video looked at Motion Design Trends for 2025, hosting four designers to learn what’s inspiring them, what’s driving them crazy, and how motion graphics designers can stay at the top of their game.

The School of Motion yearly summary is up, links and all. See the sample of 15 minutes, but it’s useful to catch the entire 6 1/2 hours. Here’s Highlights from our EPIC 2024 Year-End Roundup Podcast! Who are those pixies working for? Could it be…..?

Jake In Motion posted 2 substantial tutorials in December: Advanced CC Ball Action Techniques /// After Effects Tutorial and Advanced Grunge Texture /// After Effects Tutorial.

Noble Kreative used CC Ball Action for 3D Procedural Audio Visualizer in After Effects and Procedural Fiery Flames and Wavy Backgrounds in After Effects.

Film Riot posted Insane Asteroid Impact in After Effects. They heavily massaged stock footage to get there.

ukramedia is back with The After Effects Marker Trick Nobody Talks About! See how to control multiple elements across After Effects compositions using a single marker. You can set up markers to manage text, colors, and other properties efficiently with expressions, to simplify updating multiple items at once, saving time on complex projects. By automating changes with markers, you can streamline your workflow and avoid repetitive manual adjustments across compositions.

Stephan Zammit makes headway on creating 3D glass in Realistic 3D Motion Graphics in After Effects Advanced Tutorial.

One of several recent tutorials on the theme is Premiere Gal’s AWESOME Futuristic HUD Effects in After Effects.

Boone Loves Video adds a quick 3D airplane for a map animation with Working with 3D Models in Adobe After Effects 2025! .

After Effects Basics shared 10 After Effects HACKS Every Motion Designer NEEDS!

Still going strong, Eran Stern upped the ante with 10 Ae Techniques You’ve Never Seen!

And, Texturelabs is back with 21 PHOTOSHOP TIPS – Easy Through Advanced! Meanwhile, in dekeNow’s 7 Techniques That Will Change How You Use Photoshop Forever, the first tip (Auto Color Options) immediately impressed.

Check out ObjPop Beta from the Plugin Play toolset for AE in Instant Image to 3d model in After Effects. There’s already 3D animations from video footage elsewhere, but this is inside AE.

If you’ve dragged your feet on this, Default Cube says It’s Time For Gaussian Splatting // Tutorial. That one uses Blender, but there’s more on Gaussian splats in AE in After Effects Roundup October 2024.

Javier Mercedes shows you how to Reveal Text From Behind Object (Premiere Pro and After Effects).

Adobe Spectrum is the name for the new UI style in Creative Cloud. VideoRevealed has the justification for Premiere Pro (without nagging details) in Spectrum – Adobe’s Design System!

VFX and Chill hosted Talking Animals in After Effects (with JASON MURPHY). From talking dogs to practical puppets to CGI aliens, they chat about how Jason Murphy found himself directing movies full of so many visual effects shots. “How did After Effects fit into a production pipeline?”

Josh Toonen explains Why I Quit After Effects (to work in Hollywood VFX). You’re supposed to delete AE and learn Nuke for free (course fees not included). But really, you can use Nuke for free and, apparently, Unreal Engine is useful.

After Effects didn’t get AI at Max 2024 in October. Here are the newish features, described in Is that really it? After Effects updates | Adobe MAX 2024 from Tom Graham for Envato Video:

* Leaner 3D model import
* GPU-accelerated UI on Windows
* New Adobe Spectrum interface look (for reasons now unclear 1,  2), 3, etc.)
* Per-character text and paragraph styling expressions
* Color management improvements

Top beta features are now:

• Accepts Lights switch in Advanced 3D,
• Customize Transparency Grids,
• Customize panel background colors,
• Quick Set Anchor Point, and
• 8 Blend Modes Receive 32-bpc Blending Support on GPU.

Here on PVC, Chris Zwar continues his series with Color Management Part 23: HDR tone mapping in practise. Chris says that the preferred way of compositing HDR video is using ACES. But ACES isn’t just a button we can click – we now have three different ACES options in After Effects, as well as the original Adobe Color Engine.

SternFX asks Untapped Potential or Obsolete? when looking at 10 After Effects tools that reflect its evolution. Some still have niche uses, but most are relics of the past. Which are hidden gems or just obsolete after maybe 30 years?

After Effects Basics posted 5 Hacks Every Motion Designer Needs!

SternFx also shared Mastering the Shatter Effect: Exploding Text Made Easy, on how to make your text come alive with the Shatter effect, which was introduced in the mid-90s as a 3rd party plug-in and later folded into AE.

Brian Maffitt’s original Total Training videos have disappeared again, so various subtleties of custom shatter maps may be out there somewhere. Jake In Motion has a general overview of the filter in Shatter | Effects of After Effects.

Manuel does Motion took a look recently at several uses in Incredible Noise Tricks in After Effects | Tutorial.

My favorite AE noise tutorial is a revived classic text by Chris Zwar, Fractal Noise: Advanced analysis of After Effects most versatile plugin. If you want an overview of the Fractal Noise effect and its update Turbulent Noise, see After Effects Classic Course: Turbulent Noise by Crish Design.

There’s more noise effects in AE covered by Jake in Motion in his series on AE’s built-in plug-ins. More scattershot in application is an old AEP roundup, Fractal Noise in After Effects.

This demo is fun… A Dynamic deforming Spiral of Text using Adobe After Effects and Newton4 by the tool vendor Motion Boutique.

Stephan Zammit moves away from reactive projects to box animations in A Better Way to Animate | After Effects Animation Tutorial.

olly creates some Automatic Proximity Reactions in After Effects.

Here are some basics on using 3D in After Effects. ProductionCrate has blending success in Start Using 3D in After Effects – Beginner Tutorial! Flomotion soldiers on in ADVANCED 3D COMPOSITING in After Effects.

Yanobox plug-ins make it easy to produce stylish complicated animations. There’s a Black Friday sale ending soon, so check out Nodes 3 for AE, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro & Motion.

AE competitors are not caput, especially when they have a free version, so check out What’s new in Cavalry 2.2? by Chris Hardcastle.

In Dear Adobe…addressing your concerns, Premiere Gal discusses missing features for social media editors. Avid is still the king of Hollywood, so services for the actual user base makes sense.

Gal also posted Dreamy Film Haze and Halation in Premiere Pro (Free vs Paid).

If you don’t use Premiere (or DaVinci, etc), you might consider Ruby Helyer’s I read through CapCut’s privacy policy… and it scared me away. TikTok is a sister company.

Apple purchased Pixelmator Pro, an Adobe competitor, and also finally released a new version of Final Cut Pro. See Final Cut Pro 11: Why now? by Tyler Stalman.

If you’re not using Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, or you want to explore beyond the ranch, check out The Best AI Tools for Video Editors by Johnny Elwyn.

Theoretically Media has news that’s already old after a week, and other newer stuff, but see NEW AI Tools & BIG Updates for AI Video & Audio!

Meanwhile Matt Wolfe has a newer roundup with AI News: OpenAI’s Sora Gets Exposed! And, Matt Wolfe & Nathan Lands build a tier list in Ranking 22 Of The Most Popular Ai Tools (Q4 2024 Ai Tier List).

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Don’t miss out on project files and presets often found at the original postings of the news items. And remember, the story of Pantera is just more propaganda!

Here are the newish features, described in Is that really it? After Effects updates | Adobe MAX 2024 from Tom Graham for Envato Video:

* Leaner 3D model import
* GPU-accelerated UI on Windows
* New Adobe Spectrum interface look (for reasons now unclear 1,  2), 3, etc.)
* Per-character text and paragraph styling expressions
* Color management improvements

Note: The October 2024 (25.0.1) release includes important fixes that enable you to work more efficiently in After Effects.

Top beta features are now:

• Accepts Lights switch in Advanced 3D,
• Customize Transparency Grids,
• Customize panel background colors,
• Quick Set Anchor Point, and
• 8 Blend Modes Receive 32-bpc Blending Support on GPU.

Motion Science posted Use C4D Lite and After Effects to Create Gritty Cinema, on how to transform a simple Cinema 4D Lite animation into a more cinematic scene using After Effects to combine 3D renders with 2D graphics.

BallerFX – Sports Motion Design shared Make Your Text Effectors Editable – After Effects Type Tutorial. He shows the use of expressions to drive text effector animation no matter the length of the text.

Mograph Mindset creates tools for After Effects and Premiere Pro, and has a bunch of tutorials on titles, including Wavy Subtitles – After Effects & Premiere Pro Tutorial. He also likes Type Jazz by @JakeInMotion, so check out his review.

See also his vanilla AE tutorial Format Numbers – Comma, decimal, and money symbols | After Effects Tutorial.

In Terrorific Title Treatments – Motion Design Hotline from Adobe Live, Even and Kyle hang out a cauldron of texty title tips.

Awhile back, Bold&Break explored the creative use of the Venetian Blinds transition plug-in in Quick Tips 8 – Venetian blinds(After Effects). See also his After Effects – Make this Sci-Fi UI Animation which used the built-in Wave World plug-in to drive the base level animation and effect.

In VFX and Chill: The Original Unscripted Visual Effects Adventure
Hashi, Seth and Michael break down effects from movies and TV. A recent episode is Ballerina/John Wick-Inspired Action VFX, which Showa arm extension fixes for fight scenes, and a problematic creation of shattering glass.

Manuel does Motion shows quick-assemblage of Abstract Lines Animation in After Effects | Tutorial.

Comp Buddy is a cheap tool that simplifies the process of creating an edge blur and/or light wrap in After Effects. Here’s a look at why one fast obvious solution won’t work, Comp Buddy vs Channel Blur:

Jake In Motion had a reminder in 2022 so you’ll never have to worry about a missing plug-in: Unmult is built-in to After Effects. There used to be a lot of fuss about unmult, as seen in an old overview, “Unmult” with and without special plug-ins here on AEP.

SOM demoes (after 8:00) a “garbage matte key” (simple key, reverse choke, then serious plug-in), which was done similarly back in the day as “Super Tight Junk Mattes” by Aharon Rabinowitz.

SternFX shared a secret recipe to neutralize unwanted color casts in Color Recovery Magic: Fix Impossible shots without plugins!

Cinematic 3D Stroke Logo Intro in After Effects | No Plugins from SonduckFilm demonstrates how to turn a 2D logo into a 3D shape layer, add a stroke, and animate it using the trim paths property. The tutorial also covers how to add lighting, camera angles, and depth of field to create a cinematic look.

Stern Fx helps you Make Your Logos Shine! He animates a logo with glowing edges, and depth-of-field effects, while keeping things simple and elegant to create stylish openers, interludes, or screensavers.

Stephan Zammit continues his recent themes in another meaty tutorial with Reactive 3D? Motion Graphics Tutorial After Effects.

One @AdobeAE alternative gets added, and another Fable is folding. Fable was an interesting money pit that would make a logical addition to some generative video thingie.

Pikimov 1.0 is out, if you want a 2D/3D motion design and video editor: “Free. No sign up. No AI.” It’s like the handy image editor Photopea but for video; all 3 are browser-based apps.

School of Motion posted Build an Interactive Spinner in Rive! (You CAN’T do this in After Effects!). Rive is the app for interactive animation, akin to the old Flash and Director apps of yore that saw EOL at Adobe.

Bog shared The CapCut Experience (as an Adobe user). It’s sufficient to note that Capcut (not browser-based) is quite capable and familiar enough, and has very good audio noise reduction AI in the “pro” version.

Create FAKE CAMERA MOVEMENT in Post Production FAST! by Premiere Gal goes to Premiere and AE to share a conveyor belt effect or transition.

Corridor Crew’s I Learned How To Fake Water Exactly Like Hollywood is fun.

Also good is their VFX Artists Expose Ai Scams that plague the modern internet landscape.

There’s always lots of AI news, and there’s been several big released for AI video in recent weeks.

Naomi Brockwell TV has some advice on How To Use AI PRIVATELY.

AI Search says that AI video just got better! Updates you need to know about include Minimax image to video, Pika 1.5 and Kling.

There’s always a ton of video AI news; the last week was packed. Theoretically Media has deeper dives on big updates from Midjourney and Runway.

“Level Up” with the AI news roundups AI News: Autonomous Agents & New AI Video Tools by Matt Wolfe or There’s No Turning Back Now… from Curious Refuge.

After Effects 25 is live, with no surprise announcements. Here are the features coming out of beta, described in Is that really it? After Effects updates | Adobe MAX 2024 from Tom Graham for Envato Video:

* Leaner 3D model import
* GPU-accelerated UI on Windows
* New Adobe Spectrum interface look (for reasons now unclear)
* Per-character text and paragraph styling expressions
* Color management improvements

AE seems to be in a nerve activating holding pattern on new features, but the Adobe CEO did mention After Effects in an interview on Max 2024 with Bloomberg. He also mentioned that other AI models would be offered through theirs app, as demoed with Runway AI at IBC.

While AE doesn’t get new AI features, it’s still essential for refining the digital gumbo of generative AI. This is the way Okay Samurai of the Adobe Character Animator team approached using Firefly Video in his video (shown below).

In Generate Video (beta) on Firefly Web App, Meagan Keane out lines Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video with example output and prompts. Note: the beta waitlist for Generate Video and the Adobe Firefly Video Model is live.

Diving deeper, Okay Samurai presents his usage and workarounds in Firefly Generate Video (Beta). He leaned on After Effects to make things work.

You can learn more on Generative Extend in Premiere Pro (beta) in the article by Kylee Peña. Conveniently, you can generate music and sound effects at the same time.

And here on PVC, Scott Simmons answers some Burning Questions about Generative Extend in Premiere Pro (beta) with video demonstrations. For example, if you want to extend from the middle of a clip, just place an edit where you want Gen Extend to begin, then you’re ready.

Premiere Gal discusses the some frame size and time length limitations, and some workarounds, in her video What’s the New Ai Generative Extend Tool in Premiere Pro? The video and audio extensions are limited to: various seconds of output, 1920×1080 or 1280×720 resolutions, a 16:9 aspect ratio, 12-30fps, 8-bit SDR, and mono and stereo audio. While in beta, there’s no surcharge for Firefly — but remember that Wall Street is ravenous.

There’s too much revealed at MAX 2024 to mention everything here, but a few more releases are immediately relevant.

Frame.io V4 is now available to every customer, with new Camera to Cloud partnerships and Lightroom integration for editing. For more see Frame.io V4: The fully reimagined platform is now available for all by founder Emery Wells.

And, Project Neo (beta) is not just an Adobe Illustrator tool for 3D. It puts 3D and AI in the same tool, and allows for the smooth blending of meshes (with SDF / Signed Distance Fields; looks like 3D blobs or metaballs). For more see Take your creative vision to new dimensions with Project Neo (beta) by Dave Cardwell and Instant Transformations with Project Neo (beta) | Adobe Creative Cloud. Oddly, you can’t export to 3D but only as a PNG, JPEG, SVG, MP4 Video, and JSON!

Later, the 2024 sneak peeks arrived:

Finally, feedback from around the league is very positive:

Why I’m leaving DaVinci for Premiere Pro | Adobe Max 2024 from Tom Graham for Envato Video.

ADOBES NEW AI ‘Firefly VIDEO’ SHOCKS The ENTIRE Industry! from TheAIGRID.

After Effects 25 is available in the beta program; you might expect the usual official announcement along with the rest of Creative Cloud 2025 at Adobe Max, October 10 or so. We expect UI refinements and 3D and expressions improvements.

Adobe reviewed recent feature upgrades for IBC in September, which was noted in After Effects Roundup September 2024. Here’s Film Riot’s summary video, What’s New in After Effects?

Also at IBC in September, Premiere Pro saw a number of important announcements on color and AI. For more see, Adobe previews upcoming Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year. Note that After Effects was NOT mentioned in connection to Firefly AI video development. Adobe have some new videos pondering the future, Sneak Peek at Adobe Firefly Video Model — Beta Coming Soon and Implications of AI for Video Editors.

flomotion says TEXT TO VIDEO in Adobe Firefly is CRAZY. VideoRevealed also joined in with Adobe AI generated video SNEAK PEEK!

Premiere Gal pumps up the beta program in New After Effects Features That Will Blow Your Mind.

Nostalgia for a past obsession solved by expensive plug-ins, no! Texturelabs posted Detailed Analog Film Damage in After Effects – no stock footage or plugins! He creates a vintage film treatment in After Effects using analog-ish effects like Light Leaks, vignettes, Color Correction, Flicker, Dust, Damage, Blobs, Scratches, Grain, and Gate Weave.

Stephan Zammit continues his releases with 3 Advanced 3D Animations After Effects Tutorial. He spills the secrets of The Orb, or rather, how to create realistic 3D spheres with these 3 advanced 3D techniques.

Premiere Gal posted MIND-BLOWING 3D Title Transitions in After Effects Revealed! She showed CC Force Motion Blur but also used the tutorial to advertise a Premiere Pro tool to faster results.

And in case you needed another basic 3D text tutorial, Adobe posted Create Dynamic 3D Text in After Effects | Adobe Video x @filmriot.

Eran Stern compares tools almost essential for After Effects in Physim vs Newton: Pick the Right Simulation Plugin for Your Workflow.

In Real 3D Phone Mockup in After Effects | Tutorial, Manuel does Motion shows you how to create a real 3D phone model in After Effects with realistic reflections.

Previously, AEP mentioned the irrealix plug-in for import, manipulation and rendering 3D Gaussian Splatting (.ply) files inside After Effects, in real-time with GPU.

School of Motion recently mentioned a Black Mixture demo of Gaussian Splatting with an AE Postshot plug-in. Postshot is a 3D gaussian splatting tool that can track multiple cameras across a scene and render photorealistic results in Blender and After Effects. Olli Huttunen also posted something, as did Alex Villabon with Train Your First Gaussian Splat With Postshot.

Creative Tech Digest also shared 3D Gaussian Splatting in After Effects (4-min Tutorial). He used Luma AI to train the splat and export the .ply, and you can import with realix, Postshot, Scaniverse or NeRF Studio. For an overview of Gaussian Splatting, see Irrealix and Creative Tech Digest’s substantial 3D Gaussian Splatting – Explained!

Adobe Video & Motion hosted After Effects Lightsaber Tutorial — No Plugin Required | Adobe Video x @filmriot. Adobe ignores the free Video Copilot plug-in SABER for perhaps a “no-CGI” move featuring a dowel and light strip. Just kidding, you get tips for both ways in case Andrew stops developing plug-ins.

Michael Ponch helps with a not uncommon problem in How I removed Reflection from Glasses | After Effects Tutorial.

Michael Sturgill says that I Left After Effects For This, meaning Cavalry who provides a FREE alternative to After Effects, with a focus on motion rather than compositing.

See also School of Motion on How Cavalry is Changing the Game for Motion Designers. They say it’s a beast when it comes to motion design, data visualization, character animation, generative art, and even UX design. The free version changes the equation if you’re desperate to avoid Adobe.

MotionXP shared How to steal like a Motion Designer (leveraging a book by Austin Kleon) and Stop making BORING Motion Design with 3 Pro Tips, on Colorama, Fractal noise and Displacement map.

Nicholas Blowey has several AE and Blender tutorials, sort of design exercise things with free assets. See Easiest Way to Animate Geometric Posters: After Effects and Create Stunning Volumetric Video Effect, which reminds me of Bill Viola ‘The Veiling‘.

Flat Pack FX explores Stylized Timeline Animation in Adobe After Effects.

RE:Vision Effects announced Color Genius, an automatic color enhancement tool driven by AI; it comes as a plug-in and standalone app.

A frequent topic, but these are The Best Plugins for After Effects! for Mango Street.

Eran Stern had a quick tip on the free Quick Chromatic Aberration from Plugin Everything (vid).

Puget Systems posted some reviews on recent hardware, for example Adobe After Effects: AMD Ryzen 9000 Series vs Intel Core 14th Gen.

Captioneer for Premiere Pro, new from Mograph Mindset, provides an easy way to create animated subtitles in Premiere Pro. You can edit captions phrase by phrase, but that can get tedious quick. See the demo below, and also (for older tools) The Best Video Caption Plugins for Premiere Pro from Premiere Gal.

For some fanboy on fanboy action, see Adobe Speaks Out About DaVinci Resolve by Patrick Stirling. If you’re in a for a penny, here’s an Intro to VFX for Short Films in Fusion [FULL COURSE – Resolve 19] by Casey Faris, on the perpetual license effects companion to DaVinci Resolve.

Adobe is pushing hard on AI for video, and DaVinci Resolve will have to partner or buy, or get bought, to compete.

There’s been more chatter on this tool, so Kaleb Gonyea asked Is This the FUTURE of 3D Design? Adobe Project Neo Beta Revealed! We could find out more soon at Adobe Max.

For who have been more tentative about 3D, there’s Everything Blender can do in one video by blendereverything. A counter to Adobe Project Neo popped up from Eitan Rieger.design, Project Neo on Blender? Start Designing Now With this Template.

See last week’s Friday AI news from Curious Refuge in You’ve GOT to See These AI Video Updates!

ThrillSeeker says that Meta Just Had its iPhone Moment. He covers a few other AR/VR things too.

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After Effects 25 is available in the beta program; you might expect the usual official announcement along with the rest of Creative Cloud 2025 at Adobe Max in October. We expect UI refinements and 3D and expressions improvements.

Adobe reviewed recent feature upgrades for IBC in September, which was noted in After Effects Upgrades at IBC 2024 + AI teaser. Here’s Film Riot’s summary video, What’s New in After Effects?

Also at IBC, Premiere Pro saw a number of important announcements on color and AI. For more see, Adobe previews upcoming Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year. Note that After Effects was NOT mentioned in connection to Firefly AI video development.

For more on the new color features in Premiere, see My First Premiere Pro Release—New Color Management. By the way, Alexis Van Hurkman, now Senior Product Manager of Color in Adobe’s Digital Video/Audio organization. He produced widely used training for Apple Color (originally Silicon Color), when it, Adobe (Iridas) SpeedGrade, and da Vinci Systems tools were standalone tools. Here’s the video teasers.

In 100+ FREE After Effects Presets, Jake In Motion explains his free download project file that organizes the over 100 new animation presets of the past few years. Jake consolidated every one of the new presets into a single project file divided into their own comps and organized by date and category for easy viewing and access.

A few months back, SternFX shared important observations of new 3D features in After effects. If you’re catching up, these videos might be helpful: After Effects vs. Plugins: A 3D Showdown! and How to Replace 3D Materials in After Effects.

Stephan Zammit has another more Advanced 3D After Effects Motion Graphics Tutorial. In this step-by-step tutorial, you’ll learn how to use After Effects expressions to make objects dynamically react to other moving objects — an effect that until now has only been possible in 3D software like Cinema 4D and Blender.

In How to Denoise Your Video Footage from Adobe, ‪@filmriot‬ shows a variety of methods, including Remove Grain in After Effects.

Premiere Gal shares How to Use Tracking Markers and Remove Them (After Effects).

Eran Stern also cover tracking in his tutorials, recently with Mocha AE & After Effects: Tracking & Compositing in Minutes! and After Effects Tracking Hack: High Pass Filter for Better Results!

@kaihenthoiwane, author of @mographae, made his Rotate 3d Path script available as a freebie, along with others.

Face 3D from Nataworkstudio is a new AE plug-in creates a depth extrusion of sorts; it uses Blender for background processing.

JC Tecklenburg says that you don’t have to tweak path points just to do a morph in After Effects — there’s a procedural way with Signed Distance Fields. See his explanation in Morph in After Effects… without Path Points?! – Signed Distance Fields.

After Effects Basics pumps it up in Learn Everything About EXPRESSIONS! (After Effects Tutorial) and 10 BEST Effects In 2 Minutes! (After Effects Beginners).

SternFX shares tips in 10 Settings You Must Change in After Effects Right Now!

Adobe Live hosted editor Alex Hogue for his Create Engaging Audiograms: Visual Waveforms and Text Animation in After Effects. Unfortunately there’s no quick intro showing you what he’s recreating, which apparently Adobe discourages in general. In Motion Design Hotline’s latest Morning Motion Moments, you do start discovering the topics after some usual podcasty-type chat.

The Edit Place compares Affinity vs Adobe Photoshop 2024 | AI Tools, Features & More!, in light of Adobe’s recent changes to its user agreement. He also delves into the capabilities of a web-based Al tool called Pencil, which offers generative fill and other features. You could get away with $10/month for Photoshop, but it’s not clear you get AI. Retraining and convenience factors are hard to evaluate. All told, Adobe is as cagey as Apple in their pricing!

Tony & Chelsea Northrup have several suggestions in Dear Adobe, Do BETTER! It’s not clear if Adobe’s latest explanations are universally convincing.

As mentioned, Adobe teased Firefly AI Video for Premiere Pro. For more, see Preview of Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year.

After Effects & Visual Effects Tutorials discusses How to combine Midjourney, Runway ML Gen 3 Alpha Turbo & After Effects for visual effects composites.

Matt Wolfe posted his latest Friday roundup, AI News: AI Video Creation Explodes in 2024.

Curious Refuge shares assets so you can follow along with Control AI Actors with this Awesome Workflow (LivePortrait Tutorial).

Theoretically Media advocates for the Open Art AI platform in Fantastic AI Image Platform That Will Level You Up! (FREE Credits!). Among other news, he also says that Runway ML Gen-3’s New Feature is Stunning!

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The Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year, is designed to be commercially safe and will be integrated into Adobe workflows across Creative Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Adobe Express later this year. Previously, Firefly Video was to be Premiere Pro-only, so we’ll have to carefully parse “it’ll power in our industry-leading video tools like Premiere Pro, available starting in beta later this year.”

Features should include:

• Text to Video capabilities to generate video from text prompts; access a wide variety of camera controls such as angle, motion and zoom to fine tune videos; and reference images to generate b-roll that seamlessly fills timeline gaps.
• Image to Video capabilities to bring still shots or illustrations to life by transforming them into live clips.
• Generative Extend, a new Firefly-powered feature integrated in Premiere Pro, is designed to tackle several editorial challenges, including extending insufficient frames at the beginning or end of a clip, giving you extra footage to hold on a shot for another beat or to cover a transition, or creating seamless audio edits by generating “room tone” where none exists.

Adobe says that AI can be a tool for  human creativity and that generative AI should be developed responsibly with respect for creator rights! There’s something new on Adobe’s approach here. Controversy around AI in general and Adobe user agreements seems to have calmed down, but this should spark more interest in the language.

Here’s an Text to Video sample:

Prompt: An adorable kawaii cheeseball on the moon smiling, 3d render, octane, soft lighting, dreamy bokeh, light sparkles floating in the background.

Additional details and video examples can be found in the teaser, Bringing generative AI to video with Adobe Firefly Video Model by Ashley Still. Here’s a bite-size video teaser, Adobe Firefly Video Model Coming Soon | Adobe Video.

For fun, you might look at a Curious Refuge quick comparison with Runway in Adobe’s New AI Video Generator Bonkers!

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Adobe later posted a “coming soon” teaser, noted here in Adobe previews upcoming Adobe Firefly Video Model, available later this year. Here’s the video teaser:

Before getting to After Effects, the latest news on Premiere Pro and related tools is covered in Adobe Premiere Pro is getting a big color managment update, among other features by Scott Simmons here on PVC.

For extra fun, see Premiere Gal for a snapshot, and Exploring the Premiere Pro (beta) Updates from @filmriot.

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Adobe blogs rounds up the latest news on After Effects in September 2024 for the IBC conference, in Adobe introduces 3D & motion design upgrades for Adobe After Effects by Jason Druss. There’s a supporting video too, What’s New in After Effects.

The most recent update of AE is August 2024 release (version 24.6). Extensive fixes and improvements, new text scripting hooks for font management, and directly import to a folder are the lead features of that release. There’s also a master list of fixes. After Effects 25 is available in the beta program; you might expect the usual official announcement along with the rest of Creative Cloud 2025 at Adobe Max in October.

Top newer features of the current release include:

• Embedded 3D animations
• Enhanced shadow casting (with color)
• Depth-mapping
• Camera and Light Options are now available in the Properties Panel
• 33 all new animation presets
• Enhanced workflow connection with Adobe Substance 3D
• Performance enhancements and Numerous fixes

• Fresh new UI design (in Beta)

AE’s 3D toolset features Adobe Substance 3D enhanced connections to After Effects and materials (the substance of course). For the latest, see Workflows with After Effects, Substance 3D, & Maxon Cinema 4D on Adobe Live.

The next big release (25) seems due around or after the IBC conference, or around Adobe MAX in Miami. Beta version 25 is now available. This yearly switch to the next major version means that After Effects projects saved in v25 cannot be opened in previous versions of After Effects. It is also required to have v25 of Premiere Pro and Media Encoder to make use of Dynamic Link.

The new version should feature a new look across the entire app, themed and styled using “Adobe Spectrum design.” Per-character Text and Paragraph styling in Expressions and Decluttered 3D model import (so no extra files or folders to manage) round out the big features coming.

SternFX posted Parallax in Motion: 3D Depth with Camera Tracking and Mocha Ae part 1, with Part 2 on another website, VDODNA.

But first you may want to check out Everything About 3D CAMERA TRACKING! (After Effects Tutorial) from After Effects Basics.

Jake In Motion shared Type Jazz \\ Text Animation made EASY in After Effects. With Type Jazz, an inexpensive new After Effects Script UI Panel, you’re able to quickly create fluid oscillating, bouncing, or linear text animations with easy-to-use controls and instant feedback. The frequency and amplitude decay controls allow you to precisely dial in the exact look you need. Type Jazz also comes with 80 custom animation presets and full KBar compatibility.

Mapal shared 5 Clean Text Animations (After Effects Tutorial). He’s only one wag that uses “clean,” which leaves me wondering what dirty animation is.

School of Motion posted NEW After Effects Physics Tool, Procreate’s Bold Move, MoGraph Hiring Spree! | Motion Mondays and This Unreal to After Effects Workflow is just TOO POWERFUL.

MotionXP covers fake 3D in How to create Motion Design like Seven (Wonil Seo), as does Manuel does Motion in Fake-3D Animation in After Effects | Tutorial.

Motion Circles looks at Advanced Geometric Animation Behind the Scene | After Effects Pro Tips.

Stephan Zammit avoids Blender, which I heard was free, in After Effects Advanced 3D Tutorial.

In 8 Pro Tricks For Logo Animation in After Effects, ilkin shows off Trim Paths, 3D Rotation, and Stroke Animation. Offset Paths, Text Animation, Bounce Effect, Line Effect, and adding Small Details to your animations.

Manuel does Motion shared some Displacement Map Tricks in After Effects | Tutorial.

Connor Henkle ranked his Top 5 Ae Plugins & Scripts based on how often used. The thread shared more…

Lines To Designs compares and contrasts in Meta’s SAM 2 vs. Adobe RotoBrush 3: Ultimate Rotoscoping Showdown.

Frame.io posted The Complete 2024 Premiere Pro Color Correction Guide by Jarle Leirpoll.

DaVinci Resolve 19 was released; see Scott Simmons’ summary here on PVC. See also, DaVinci Resolve 19’s Newest Color Features by Oliver Peters.

There’s a bunch of video overviews, so here’s one, Top 10 New Features – DaVinci Resolve 19 !!! (Studio) It’s Finally Released fromTeam 2 Films.

Premiere Gal shared Turn Your DSLR Camera into a Pro Webcam Setup for Livestreaming, while Stephen Robles ranks his Top 5 Webcams for High-Quality Live Streaming: Best Budget and Premium Options.

Frame.io posted Is Generative AI for Video Ready for Prime Time Production? by Noah Kadner, which features a number of test examples.

In This free MIND BLOWING Workflow Just Changed Filmmaking, Mickmumpitz demoes an AI workflow in development for compositing using a ComfyUI node workflow to combine a variety of tools (Midjourney, etc.) to automatically cut out a subject, match lighting, fix edges, and add additional VFX. It seems like standard image processing methods using traditional tools like AE and Blender with additional processes and generative AI.

Noting the piecemeal workflows of current AI graphics, School of Motion had a comprehensive if verbose take in  Let’s Talk AI, Motion Design, and the Future of Generative Video.

Finally, we can finish with some usual AI suspects like Curious Refuge and Matt Wolfe (but there’s always more):

There’s several other beta features starting release in August, including Decluttered 3D model import, and some new Render Queue settings. Also, Camera and Light Options are now available in the Properties Panel.

Importantly, Beta version 25 is now available. This yearly switch to the next major version means that After Effects projects saved in v25 cannot be opened in previous versions of After Effects. It is also required to have v25 of Premiere Pro and Media Encoder to make use of Dynamic Link.

The Complete MOGRT Guide for After Effects 2024 by Jarle Leirpoll is really that. A shorter article also on Frame.io is Insider Tips: Put Your After Effects Guides Right Where You Want Them by Laurence Grayson.

SternFX keeps us up to date, and cranks out a number of AE tutorials from beginning to more advanced levels. Recently he shared some tips on how to Instantly Elevate Premiere Pro with After Effects. But remember rushing jobs reduces quality, as explained by Corridor Crew in I Prove Hollywood Effects Aren’t BAD, They’re RUSHED.

The After Effects Beginner Guide: Tutorials & Templates to Get Started from Creative Market is reasonably new and succinct, leveraging external resources to introduce you to AE. Here’s an example on masking from David Lindgren.

Along the same line, After Effects Basics introduces the subject with extra certainty in Learn EVERYTHING About MASKING (After Effects Tutorial). They also introduce the RotoBrush in Learn EVERYTHING About ROTOSCOPING! (After Effects Tutorial).

In Mask Like A Pro Using This Time-Saving 3D Roto Hack | 3D Alpha Mattes, Will Carmack 3d tracks in a mask to avoid using the pen tool frame by frame to keep a matte lined up. And in Transform Paintings Into 3D Scenes With After Effects, Will creates a 3D scene by cutting up old art and adding Generative Fills in Photoshop to help rebuild the scene.

After Effects Basics also posted These FREE PLUGINS Will Change Your LIFE! (After Effects Tutorial), and Motion Nerds (like just about everyone) has their own list in Top 5 Free After Effects Plugins You Need.

Motion Array posted How to Create Light Stroke Paths in Adobe After Effects from Scratch. If you don’t have time to create your own light stroke effects, Motion Array has tons of downloadable templates you can customize in just a few clicks. For similar background, see Adobe on Learn how to shoot light painting photography.

You can also check out older Andrew Kramer tutorials on replication of the old iPod nano commercial, Light Streaks and Light Streaks 2. Aharon Rabinowitz updated the effect in Ghostbusters Afterlife Ghost Trail Effect. Those tutorials use Trapcode Particular but you can use built-in plug-ins too. QuickVFX showed how to use CC Particle Systems II in After Effects Tutorial: Awesome Light Streaks With No Plugins!

SonduckFilm shows you how to create a 3D-looking sphere from a circular solid, and then gets you into CC Particle World in Make the Best Cinematic Visual Particles in After Effects.

Film Riot showed off a Doctor Doom Forcefield Effect from the last Fantastic Four film.

Texturelabs has several good AE tutorials, but others too, and a new Photoshop distress plug-in. This week School in Motion mentioned one of his Photoshop tutorials that can be done in apps with similar tools. See The Secret to Eye-Popping Color Overlays in Photoshop! and “Color Science Hacks” from School of Motion, a summary inside Runway’s Monster Maker, Public Domain GOLDMINE, Art of the Title SOS | Motion Mondays.

In Advanced Tracking In After Effects, Flomotion shares details about various advanced motion tracking in 2D and 3D. Then in Wolverine Claws in After Effects – Advanced Object Tracking, Flomotion shows you how to make a 3D scan of your hand and use GeoTracker from KeenTools.

If you need a warm-up try Premiere Gal’s 3 Ways to Motion Track: Beginner to Advanced! (After Effects).

Victoria Nece from the AE team has some clues on a different effect: “Accidental cool AE effect stack of the day: 3D Channel Extract + Find Edges + Threshold. Almost a retro-linework look.” She also never gets “sick of throwing Colorama on a depth map.“

Gimme more lines and keep your hands to yourself..

Motion Nations recently shared Line Motion Graphics Text Animation in After Effects – After Effects Tutorial. But since there are multiple approaches to every task, and lines are a cottage industry, here’s are a couple of more blasts from the past. ECAbrams posted Diverging Paths – Adobe After Effects tutorial and SonduckFilm had some different quickies in 5 Line Motion Graphics To Elevate Your After Effects Work.

Corridor posted a short, THE BROKEN PORTAL, which they later explained. Just don’t think too much about the ending or the comments. And, it’s not a tutorial: This is What Happens When you Desynchronize Portals by Corridor Crew.

Many of us dug the book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel, as well as the website Sci-Fi Interfaces. Now Adam Savage’s Tested has posted Why Star Trek’s Graphic Design Makes Sense, another primer on Star Trek Next Generation graphic design and fictional film user interfaces, with the actual designers.

Black Mixture has been covering some AI tools and has comments on Blender and AE in After Effects is Still Beating AI.

In AI news, Elmo X is here to save the election with ultra-believable deepfakes.

Whoever wins AI, wins the world, or a big part of it. The almost obscene gamble on this venture instead of human needs has possibly huge implications. Matthew Berman outlines the details of a paper on AI conundrums in Ex-OpenAI Employee Reveals TERRIFYING Future of AI.

This week’s AI graphics news is summarized by Matt Wolfe in AI News: Uncensored AI Will Create ANYTHING! and Curious Refuge in Pro Runway Secrets + Elon Takes on Midjourney.

Theoretically Media covered the latest ultimate in FREE Midjourney?! Meet Flux: The AI Image Generator That Changes Everything! Ai Flux has more from a different slant in Flux.1 16B: New SOTA Text 2 Video Model by Black Forest Labs (Ex-Stability AI).

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The black and white thumbnail of retro-line art is from Victoria Nece.