Adobe After Effect CS5
When Adobe dropped CS4 and brought with it a 64-bit version of Photoshop, my big question was...where's their 64-bit video editing software? It's true the megapixel race keeps raising the sheer size of raw image files, but the jump from standard definition to high definition video has been nothing short of devastating. It's true that most of the video being edited on a computer is compressed in some fashion, but here's the thing: it has to be uncompressed at some point, too. You also need to fit that video in memory along with all the tweaks you're doing with it.
In Premiere Pro you could probably get away with just letting the program use the 2GB of RAM and call it a day. Most of the work you're going to do there will be minor animation or color correction. But in something like After Effects? Premiere Pro lets you play back your footage in real time, only gradually starting to chop when your processor just can't handle the load. After Effects doesn't work that way.
I harp constantly about the jump to 64-bit and how "omigosh amazing" it is, but After Effects CS5 is the first place you're going to really feel it. When you're doing work in AE, you utilize what's called a "RAM preview." The program renders out a part of your composition (however much you've selected) to RAM so that you can see it how it will finally look. This was great for standard definition video, since a good fifteen or thirty seconds of that will fit in the 2GB of RAM a 32-bit program is going to limit you to.
High definition video brings the program to its knees. I've done composites in 1080p that have gotten maybe ten seconds of footage to fit into RAM tops. If any program in Adobe's Creative Suite needed to go 64-bit, After Effects did with a vengeance, and that's going to be the big draw for CS5.
Adobe added a couple of extra features, mostly involving tweaks in how it handles rudimentary 3D animation along with streamlining the overall process of using the software. They've added additional support for tapeless editing for more formats, continuing the Adobe tradition of being able to edit virtually anything.
In Premiere Pro you could probably get away with just letting the program use the 2GB of RAM and call it a day. Most of the work you're going to do there will be minor animation or color correction. But in something like After Effects? Premiere Pro lets you play back your footage in real time, only gradually starting to chop when your processor just can't handle the load. After Effects doesn't work that way.
I harp constantly about the jump to 64-bit and how "omigosh amazing" it is, but After Effects CS5 is the first place you're going to really feel it. When you're doing work in AE, you utilize what's called a "RAM preview." The program renders out a part of your composition (however much you've selected) to RAM so that you can see it how it will finally look. This was great for standard definition video, since a good fifteen or thirty seconds of that will fit in the 2GB of RAM a 32-bit program is going to limit you to.
High definition video brings the program to its knees. I've done composites in 1080p that have gotten maybe ten seconds of footage to fit into RAM tops. If any program in Adobe's Creative Suite needed to go 64-bit, After Effects did with a vengeance, and that's going to be the big draw for CS5.
Adobe added a couple of extra features, mostly involving tweaks in how it handles rudimentary 3D animation along with streamlining the overall process of using the software. They've added additional support for tapeless editing for more formats, continuing the Adobe tradition of being able to edit virtually anything.
