Re: Questions about Combustion feature parity in AE

AE is a terrible compositor. But it's strength lies elsewhere.

Schematic = yes. But like Combustion, it's really just a kludged view of a layer based program. You want to blow your mind: get into Shake or Nuke or Fusion.

It's masking tools are utter crap. No vertex tracking, no feathering per side, no B splines. Nuttin. They're not fun to use. I hate masks in AE so much.

3D compositing is on par with C.

Paint tools will leave you crying. Combustion is uber-alles.

Warping: yes. Good stuff there. Reflex. Bezier. MESH WARPING! puppets!

8,16,float color depth if you'd like. not all effects support it though.

3:2 removal and addition is great. works a little easier than C.

Buffer preview works like a charm.

Keyframe control is quicker than C, but not as easy to fine tune as C. You'll miss the Animate button.

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I'm frankly surprised you haven't dabbled with AE yet! Doesn't everyone have it lying around :) Despite it's compositing problems, it is *really* a handy program.

Motion graphics and type setting are a gem. I do my text/graphics solely in After Effects at this point.

AE is FAAAASSSSTTTTT. Not only can it render with all available cores but it's caching is so incredibly smart. The thing is zippy!

It has SO many plug in possibilities - and they tend to be MUCH more stable than trying to run the same plugin in Combustion. And again they all seem WAY faster in AE than C.

It has amazing depth of options for color control: typically there are ZERO problems with gamma shift (but they do creep up, it's not the programs, it's quicktime). Though I haven't had a single problem in the last year of CS3.

Want to bring in some Illustrator files??? Great - it rasterizes continuously. This is also a great boon for setting type.

For ANY job I do I swear AE gets used at least once during the process. It's SUPER stable, it's fast, and it can do a lot of really simple or complicated tasks that save you time and headaches. BUT as a co positing program you'll tear out your hair. For me it's poor masking and paint tools are strikes 1, 2, and 3.

They have a 30 day free FULLY OPERATIONAL trial version. Do it! nothing to lose.

You'll bemoan the UI. It ain't sexy and artist friendly like Autodesk.... but you get used to it.

As far as compositing pick up a dirt cheap copy of Shake. it may be EOL, but it's still a juggernaut. You'll fall in love with nodes and never go back. Also Shake is FAAASSSSTTTTT.