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Adobe unveiled After Effects 6.5 at the NAB 2004 convention in Las Vegas. I know I get excited each time a new update is released to any product, because I know that new features, updates, and tweaks under the hood means more productivity for me. Even though the release is still a while a way, here is DMN?s first look at Adobe After Effects 6.5.
Speed
Before delving into some of the new ?wow? features in After Effects 6.5, one important area of improvement is in speed enhancements. With the new Disk Caching feature, your RAM previews and renders should increase your productivity by allowing you see updates more quickly and thus finishing your projects on time.
In fact, OS performances as a whole in After Effects 6.5 have been tweaked for the better. On the PC side, you?ll see at least a huge improvement in Depth of Field Rendering, lighting using the Advanced 3D renderer is faster, and using the Paint Tool has speed increases too. For the Mac, Adobe has optimized After Effects 6.5 for the G5 for faster motion blur capabilities, improved performance during motion path interactions, and when using many of the current and new effects.
GridIron X-Factor
In addition to the internal working of the After Effects code to improve performance, GridIron?s X-Factor is also included with the new release of AE 6.5. X-Factor uses grid computing technology to access the processors of other systems on your network, thus decreasing render and RAM preview times when you are working with complex, processor intensive compositions.
This is much better than the built in After Effects Network Renderer because unlike Network Rendering, X-Factor does not require that you set up a shared network folder for each computer on the network to access. It also does not require that other systems on the network be exclusively dedicated to rendering or previewing. If your co-cubicle mate is working on his system and it is connected to X-Factor, he will be able to work on a different project, or even a different application without being disturbed. Finally, X-Factor can be used to generate a RAM Preview, something network rendering does not. If you have been one of the many that have had to wait 20 minutes for a RAM Preview to complete, you know how frustrating and unproductive this is. Using X-Factor is a definite plus when you are working with After Effects.
What kind of speed increases can one expect? It is going to be dependent on many things (like the amount of RAM on each system, network speed, etc.), but on average (according to GridIron), adding two additional computers will increase speeds by 100%. As an added bonus, X-Factor works across platforms. In the DMN Central Division I routinely use two PCs and one Mac for my work. With X-Factor I can access all of these systems for increased performance.
Over the last couple of months I have used X-Factor quite a bit and have been impressed with the turn around time it has given me.
The only drawback to X-Factor is that the version that ships with After Effects 6.5 only allows you to install and use it on your base system and two additional systems. For me this isn?t a problem as that is all the systems I have. For those in a larger environment and who want to use all of their systems, additional seats can be purchased. X-Factor Plus ($99 per CPU), and X-Factor Unlimited ($1995) give you increased options for auditing your systems, setting up data and peer management, and allows you to prestage all of your elements in one click.
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