How broke make animation software
The year was 1992, before the world wide web was, well, wide, and the group of ten or so team members making up the Company of Science and Art (COSA) had already failed at one project: Selling digital
magazines on CD-ROMs via snail mail. Now, another project was in jeopardy. Apple had just launched QuickTime, a serious competitor to the small company’s own video playback app, PACo Producer.Web Development Company NEWYORK WEB 247
An idea born of desperation
After Effects did to animation and motion graphics what Photoshop did for photography and graphic arts by providing a layer-based system for animation design. Creating digital animations before After Effects was possible, but other programs limited the number of layers to just two or three. After Effects had no such limit, giving creators far more flexibility.
magazines on CD-ROMs via snail mail. Now, another project was in jeopardy. Apple had just launched QuickTime, a serious competitor to the small company’s own video playback app, PACo Producer.Web Development Company NEWYORK WEB 247
An idea born of desperation
After Effects did to animation and motion graphics what Photoshop did for photography and graphic arts by providing a layer-based system for animation design. Creating digital animations before After Effects was possible, but other programs limited the number of layers to just two or three. After Effects had no such limit, giving creators far more flexibility.
The layer-based essence of After Effects, where every layer can be a video, was there from the very first version, but other trademarks of the software, including the timeline that allows you to navigate to different frames, was missing. Instead, the animators navigated using pause, play, fast-forward, and rewind controls. Rendering the animation on that very first version took long enough that the task was often left to run overnight.
Adobe initially turned it down
The team spent nine months creating After Effects, running on a bare minimum budget (hence, the unheated building). They approached several large companies for funding, including Adobe, but found no takers. Thankfully, QuickTime actually helped create a higher demand for PACo Producer, giving the struggling company a few more months than they expected and keeping them afloat until the release of After Effects in January 1993.
The software was not only enough to save the company, it also attracted large buyers. COSA was acquired by Aldus, which was in turn bought by Adobe in 1994, where After Effects found it forever home. That new ownership also meant the program could grow far beyond its original scope, integrating with Photoshop and eventually becoming part of today’s Creative Cloud suite of applications. Read
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