The After Effects CS4 Software from Adobe is a powerful 2D and 3D compositing and animation suite. The software can be used to create motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. It features an animation engine in which any frame can be keyframed. After Effects integrates seamlessly with other applications in the Adobe Creative Suite, allowing for a streamlined workflow when working on projects in conjunction with Flash, Photoshop, or Premiere Pro.

• 2D and 3D Compositing

After Effects is the industry-standard application for 2D and 3D video compositing. Whether you are working with chromakey footage or integrating 3D animation with live-action video, After Effects will provide the tools you need to get the job done. The software even provides advanced masking tools to let you control what parts of a layer are visible.

• Clip Notes

After Effects supports the popular Clip Notes feature that was introduced in Adobe Premiere Pro 2. Creating a clip notes file allows you to place a draft version of an After Effects project into a PDF document. This PDF can be sent to clients; it allows them to enter notes and comments for your review. When returned to you, comments are placed directly onto the After Effects timeline at appropriate points. This better facilitates your communication with clients, helping to improve your workflow and deliver to them the content they desire.

• Shape Layers

You'll be able to add impressive vector graphics to animations using the shape layers tool. After Effects includes tools to build, modify and animate vector shapes that include polygons and stars. You'll even be able to create your own shape layers using the pen tool.

• Puppet Tool

The puppet tool can turn almost any 2D image or text field into a dynamic animated layer. It allows you to place "joints" within the image. This lets you reshape, extend, squish and rotate objects. You can even make parts of the image "sticky," preventing it from moving and becoming deformed. The puppet tool can create incredibly life-like character animations in almost no time.

• Cartoon Effect

Use the Cartoon effect on your video to mimic the appearance of cel animation and watercolor paintings. It allows you to stylize footage for artistic purposes, or to help improve the aesthetics of poor-quality, low-resolution footage.

• Brainstorm

You can think of Brainstorm as the equivalent of the Filter Gallery in Photoshop. The tool creates nine previews using different animation styles, based on the objects you've placed in the workspace and variables you set. You'll be able to select the animations from the gallery that you like; Brainstorm then creates more animations that are more similar to those that you have chosen. This lets you drill down and choose the animation that best suits your needs.

• Animation and Keyframing

After Effects features powerful animation and keyframing tools that help you bring your video to life. A graph editor and professionally designed animation and behavior presets will quickly let you add animation effects to your video. 3D text can be animated on a per-character basis, allowing you to create a wide variety of text animation styles.

• Visual Effects

After Effects features special visual effects plug-ins that will help you to enhance, stylize and make other changes to any layer of your video. You have a wide variety of effects to choose from, including blur effects.

• Advanced Keying and Matte Tools

After Effects Professional offers advanced keying and matte tools to help improve your compositing workflow. These tools include Keylight, Matte Choker, and Spill Suppressor. Also included is the Smart Mask Interpolation keyframe assistant that helps you animate complex masks.

• Device Central

Device Central is designed to help developers create video for display on mobile phones, PDAs, and other portable devices. Device emulators will show you exactly what your project will look like on a specific mobile device, going so far as to emulate its processing power and memory. You'll be able to control the application using a clickable interface that reproduces buttons and controls on emulated device. The included library of devices is limited to those that support Flash Lite.