Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 15)

9 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Getting started
Last updated 12/21/2009
Chris Pirazzi provides technical details of digital video on his Lurker's Guide to Video website .
Chris Zwar provides articles, After Effects projects, scripts, and other resources on his website .
Christopher Green provides many useful scripts on his website .
New features in After Effects CS4
The new features listed here are only a few highlights from the hundreds of improvements and additions made for
After Effects CS4.
For a complete list of new and changed features in After Effects CS4, see Todd Kopriva's blog on the Adobe website.
For a detailed list of changes to the user interface for After Effects CS4, see “ User interface changes from After Effects
CS3 to After Effects CS4 ” on page 22.
• Create movies tailored to a set of mobile devices that you specify: “ Create compositions for playback on mobile
devices ” on page 56.
• Configure memory and multiprocessing settings more easily: “ Memory & Multiprocessing preferences ” on
page 635.
• Use XMP metadata and improved marker features to facilitate various stages of your work: “ XMP metadata ” on
page 625 and “ Markers ” on page 619.
• Save compositions for use in Adobe Flash® Professional: “ Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash
Player ” on page 705.
• Navigate among nested compositions more easily: “ Opening and navigating nested compositions ” on page 62.
• Animate each component of position separately: “ Separate dimensions of Position to animate components
individually ” on page 146.
• Find items more easily with search fields: “ Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels ”
on page 17.
• Use 3D object layers from Adobe Photoshop® Extended: “ 3D object layers from Photoshop ” on page 185.
• Save a copy of your project in the new XML project file format to improve automation workflows: “ About projects ”
on page 49.
• Import or create an Adobe Premiere® Pro sequence using Dynamic Link: “ Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and
After Effects ” on page 42.
• Use Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects to track motion: “ Tracking and stabilizing motion ” on page 261.
For more information about new features in After Effects CS4, go to the Adobe website:
www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_indepth .
Chris and Trish Meyer provide a discussion of new and changed features in After Effects on the ProVideo Coalition
website . Chris and Trish Meyer also provide a free chapter from their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects
on the Focal Press website that explains the new and changed features in After Effects CS4.