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I am looking to buy an HD video camera, and Adobe After effects (student discount) to mess around with. I have been to several stores and sites and im trying to get more information. Does adobe after effects allow me to edit my clips like say, movie maker does? or is it specifically a special effect program? I need to know wether or not i need to buy a separate program to get everything together (cut,credits,transitions, etc) before I enter into Adobe After effects. I also would like to know the differences between the CS3 and CS4 versions, they seem to cost the exact same.
Answer by freevideoman
Great Question: I’ll give you my two cents worth…
Adobe After Effects is designed as a special effects program but it will allow you to edit video. However it is not designed as a non-linear-editor (NLE) and therefore the functionality is not as ‘easy’ as a standard editor.
There are a number of things you can do
1) Use After Effects and live with the fact that it has an ‘interesting’ NLE interface
2) Purchase the production studio Suite (with your Student Discount). This will give you Adobe Premier AND After Effects which work together in tandem (you can ediit in Premiere and open the Premier project in After Effects to work on it)
3) Use some third party software to edit and export the clips to After Effects for adding the different effects.
If you’re looking for free software:
1) Jahshaka
Jahshaka is a free multi-use offline editing tool. Although it is still fairly new on the market.
2) T@B ZS4
T2B ZS4 is a free video editing and compositing tool from Zwei-Stein. Its not for everyone, but it could be for you.
3) Wax
A free tool with powerful editing and compositing abilities.
4) Video Spin
Video Spin is the free video editing tool from Avid/Pinnacle.
5) Vivia
Vivia is a basic editing software which is currently being developed and is in Beta testing. If you are using Linux or Windows you might want to check this out
6) Avidemux
One of the more stable and complete free tools available.
7) Blender
Blender is a powerful, multi-use editing/compositing and modeling tool. It’s one of the best on the market and it’s free.
Movica
A tool to deal with MPG and flash video. It’s simple, it’s powerful and it’s free!
Generally speaking, unless you are only doing very basic things you may need more than one tool to create your final vision. I would recommend something like Avidemux or even Blender (If your after something very powerful and free)
Other than that you’re into the ‘big guns’ such as Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro ($ $ $ )
Information about these and more can be found on my web site. Check my profile for that link
Thanks… Freevideoman
Answer by ducky
If you have the student discount I would go with
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium this is the cs4 latest version. You will have everything in the box but a teacher, a computer, and a camera.
the 2 most important things are premiere and after effects for me photoshop was a biggy to but they now have flash in this too.
after effects is mainly for effects hench the name but many of them are every day now adays from green screen, to 3d fonts, colour correction, to working with 3d models tracked to a 2d footage.
The production box is about cost sure you could buy them separate but they would cost more.
Just need a camera and a teacher well here is a great tutorials site for after effects http://www.videocopilot.net/ that will show you the power of this software and for a camera in hd you could get a sony xl2 if you got the money but if you want to fool around first the aiptek is cheap hd 720p around 150 us no lens no manual focus just set it on a tripod and shoot.
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