Do I need After Effects?

[hanexs]

I have decided to buy Adobe Premiere for a course I will be teaching soon. Now I have a bit of extra money in a budget, and I am debating on whether I should buy After Effects, or Photoshop. We don't really need photoshop, we use Fireworks, and it works quite well, but its not photoshop.

On the other hand I definetely don't want to be doing some movie editing only to find that you need After effects for some effect/plugin. I have never used after effects, is it something that would make my students budget movies a lot better looking? I looked though some tutorials for it, and I saw a lot of cool effects with it, lightning bolts, plasma rivers ect.

[edDV]

I have decided to buy Adobe Premiere for a course I will be teaching soon. Now I have a bit of extra money in a budget, and I am debating on whether I should buy After Effects, or Photoshop. We don't really need photoshop, we use Fireworks, and it works quite well, but its not photoshop.

On the other hand I definetely don't want to be doing some movie editing only to find that you need After effects for some effect/plugin. I have never used after effects, is it something that would make my students budget movies a lot better looking? I looked though some tutorials for it, and I saw a lot of cool effects with it, lightning bolts, plasma rivers ect.

No you don't. You didn't hint at your background but After Effects is an advanced program that takes a major effort + tutorials/classes to learn. Try the demo to get an idea.

[lordsmurf]

Photoshop is a requirement as far as I'm concerned. It's hard to do professional work without it. Fireworks is a stripped version of Illustrator to me, but for web design needs instead of print needs.

[guns1inger]

Honestly, if you have to ask, you don't need it. Photoshop would be a better buy.

[pijetro]

Agreed....

Don't worry about After Effects..You'd need a WHOLE semester dedicated to it's power...
Try and treat compositing and effects as an aside..It could potentially sidetrack your course.


You're better off investing in Photoshop, since integration is ideal for these two programs...
Understanding Photoshop basics allows your students the basic building blocks of layering, effects and other techniques that would allow them to take it up to the next step in almost any Adobe product, including After Effects..

Let them crawl first, and then run....

[lordsmurf]

I've actually never needed After Effects, I can do everything I want in Photoshop and Premiere. If I do need a special object, I'll find somebody to build it for me in Maya or another CG application (outsource that part of the project). There's no need for me to learn something like that, it's hard enough staying on top of video.

Maybe if you create television shows, it might be needed.

[daamon]

I have never used after effects, is it something that would make my students budget movies a lot better looking?

To me, "fancy" effects don't make productions look better - especially budget ones. A good production (budget or otherwise) is well planned, well scripted, well lit, well shot and has good audio. Anything else on top of that is, to me, final tweaking and added only where it really does add rather than cover up.

[guns1inger]

Nothing makes a low budget production look even more low budget than bad effects. If this is beginner - intermediate level film making then they should be concentrating on the basics, not the frills.

[edDV]

In the pro world, 80% of the use of "special effects" is to cover production problems or mistakes so that you, the viewer don't notice anything is different. That requires the highest skill. You can do most of this with the tools provided in Premiere.

[hanexs]

Well, its unanimous, I don't need after effects Thanks for the tips.

BUT, I still have the money, and I cant buy photoshop, mainly because of its price, and Id because Id need 30 copies of it.

Anyways, anyone know any other plugins or anything else that would compliment Adobe Premiere? Im talking software here.


THanks for all the help so far!

[edDV]

Well, its unanimous, I don't need after effects Thanks for the tips.

BUT, I still have the money, and I cant buy photoshop, mainly because of its price, and Id because Id need 30 copies of it.

Anyways, anyone know any other plugins or anything else that would compliment Adobe Premiere? Im talking software here.


THanks for all the help so far!

Are you working in DV format and editing to DVD? What authoring program are you using? Premeire has very limited DVD authoring.

How much money do you have to spend?

[hanexs]

I have 8 cheap panasonic DV cameras. We usually edit to avi and either burn to dvd or convert to flv and put on a page.

I have $3700. 10 copies of premier and after effects is $3700 Alternatively I could get 10 copies of premier and 30 copies of Photoshop or photoshop elements..

DVD Authoring isnt a big deal, we have NeroVision for Menuing.

What do you think?

[lordsmurf]

NeroVision sucks.

If you're an educator, Adobe gives educational discounts.
There are also multi-license discounts.
Plus contracts, if you're part of a larger institution.

[edDV]

What are the goals for this course?