After Effects -- Worth It?

J

JRAnderson

Well-known member
Hey Vegas editors,

Was wondering how many of you are using AE and what you see as its pros and cons. I know there's a lot that AE does that Vegas can't -- I'm particularly interested in its advanced titling features -- but how much duplication is there? For example, are its color correction tools really any better than Vegas'?

Any input appreciated.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by "better." I personally think they're laid out kinda stupidly in AE, owing to many years of being a legacy application.

But do they work better? If they do, it's marginal at best, and is that really worth the work of exporting to AE and then exporting back to Vegas when you can do it all on the Vegas timeline? Up to you, I guess.

Yes, you can get great titling from AE. And AE does do many things Vegas can't do in advanced effects.

But as to whether it's "worth it" -- that depends on what you plan to do . If you plan to do a lot of things beyond Vegas's capabilities, like a lot of motion tracking (not to be confused with track motion), then AE would be a good purchase. But if you're only planning to do things within Vegas's capaibilities (and Vegas has able compositing tools), then it might not be.

So, what do you plan to do?
 
I don't use Vegas, so beside knowing that it's an editing ap. I don't know much about it's capabilities, but I do know AE very well. First, AE is a digital compositing ap. not an editing ap. It means that for things like Titling, it can do whatever you can come up with your imagination. However, like any aps., it takes years to master and be very good at. Color correction is one of the weakest point of AE, in fact most people get plug in... I would recommend using combustion for color correction and titling.
 
AE is for full blown animation and compositing. Animation is it's strong point. Compatability with many edit systems is another point. Compositing many many layers a breeze. However, it is not the best keyer. It is not a color corrector. It has some basic CC tools but you need a third party app like Color Finesse from Synthetic Aperture to do serious CC work.

Dissing AE in favor of Vegas only means you aren't doing anything requiring a purpose built FX app. and thus don't know the difference.
 
Hey Guys,

Thanks for the responses.

David, to answer your question, my main interest is in advanced titling. Animated titling to be specific. I'd also like to be able to do imbeded photos (or videos) within a graphic for snazzier montages...the photo album effect, for example. I checked out Combustion, and it looks fantastic, but wow, it's just as expensive as AEpro. Anything out there that specializes in titling, a little less pricey and, of couse, plays nice with Vegas?

Thanks again.
 
If it were only for titling, there are dedicated titling apps out there.

But the photo album thing sounds like something that's squarely in AE's strengths. You can do something similar in Vegas with parent/child track motion, but not nearly as well.
 
The problem with apps. that specialized in titling, is that they are mostly self contain plugins, they are very easy to learn and use, but they have the feel of plugins, which means they look very much computer generated, not much of a soul... And because they are often used by cheaper productions, they tend to look....well....cheap.
All great film/tv show tittle sequences are always keyframed by hand, no plugins... It takes a bit more time to learn and use, but you get something your client will be very impressed by.
 
Hi, just wanna add that Vegas is 8bit so its better to use AE if your doing color correction or compositing
 
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