Adobe After Effects had some new features released in 2024 Edition.
Adobe has released yet another version of their internationally renowned VFX Software known as Adobe After Effects. In this latest release, we’re lucky to experience new tools and features such as color-coded keyframes, more text formatting options, several bug fixes (very interesting, I know), Cinema 4D rendering directly from After Effects and 7 more cool new characteristics!
If you’re considering downloading the software for the first time, or upgrading from the previous version, this article will cover every piece of information you’ll need to know to keep you up to date on what’s new.
How To Create Realistic 3D Animations In After Effects 2024 Using The Improved Cinema 4D Lite Integration
In this version of Adobe After Effects, a free but feature-restricted version of Cinema 4D called Cinema 4D Lite is included. You’ll also be able to use the Cineware plugin to open and save Cinema 4D .c4d project files without having to navigate outside the software.
As a result of these two features, creating realistic 3D animations in After Effects can now be done more efficiently and as a result, it will be less time consuming. The integration allows you to seamlessly import and manipulate 3D models and animations from Cinema 4D, giving you more control over the look and feel of your animations.
So as a recap: You’ll easily be able to import a 3D model, create a new 3D layer, animate the model by adjusting its position, rotation, and scale, add lighting and texture to make it more realistic, and finally render the animation using the appropriate settings and format. Did I forget to mention that you can do all this from within Adobe After Effects? Well know you know!
Color-Code Keyframes For Better Organization
Adobe After Effects 2024 now provides you with the ability to change the color of selected keyframes. While it may sound simple at first, there are actually several benefits involved with this basic improvement. Here are some of the things that become easier with colorful keyframes, listed off the top of my mind:
Improved Identification + Animation Visibility
Keyframing becomes easier to distinguish between animations, especially when creating complex animations that involve plenty of keyframes.
Increased efficiency – After Effects 2024 new features in workflow
Since the keyframes can be identified more easily, you’ll spend less time finding the keyframes you’re looking for when adjusting animations.
Better organization
By using different colors to represent different types of keyframes, users can better organize and group their keyframes in a way that makes sense for the animation.
Easier collaboration
Say you’re working on the same project with other editors, you can use color code animations to identify who did what to the project. For instance; John uses the color red whilst Rebecca uses the color blue for her keyframes. Now you can find out who really stuffed up the project!
Enhanced workflow when sharing project files
Color-coded keyframes can help editors quickly understand the structure and flow of their newly downloaded pre-made template, this can help them to make adjustments and changes more easily, making their workflow more efficient.
Keyframe Shortcuts
The keyframe shortcuts from the previous versions of Adobe After Effects, were a set of keyboard functions that allowed users to create, edit, and navigate keyframes more efficiently. They improved workflow by enhancing keyframe precision, as well as providing greater flexibility.
They also gave users the ability to access frequently used keyframe-related commands quickly and easily, which saved so much time (from personal experience as it was my most frequently used shortcut). I only mentioned that because I have a follow-up assertion: in this update of Adobe After Effects, you now also have the ability to edit, change and adjust your keyframes with even more keyboard shortcuts. While there isn’t a 100% confirmation on what these shortcuts are, I will say that they’ll be helpful in speeding up the workflow the same way the previous shortcuts did.
1. New Preference Option
A new preference setting has been added that allows position properties to be separated by default. This feature may be useful for users who prefer value graphs. Other than that, there’s not much more to say about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a useless feature. The fact that it’s on this list in the first place goes to show how much we considered it to be ‘blog-worthy’.
2. Social Media Export Options
New options have been added to the export file settings. These social media expert settings make it easy for exporting directly for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and even Twitter + Reddit uploads.
