Is Adobe After Effects worth the thousand dollars?

[AndrewLee]

Hey, sorry if this had been posted, I searched and couldn't find what I was looking for.
Anyway, I want to invest in a special effects program and was looking at EffectsLab Pro but then I saw After Effects along with it's 1000 dollar price tag. Just wondering if I will get my moneys worth if I buy it?

 

[Zensteve]

I 'spose that would depend on what you're lookin' to do.

The short-list on their website rattles off several things that sound really neat - but many of those are presets that can be downloaded for free from Creative Cow, for AEFX.

But then... EffectsLab only seems to cost $149 total.

Can it do everything you need it to do? Including handling the various video codecs that you'll be using?

Never heard of it, btw.

 

[Blade_Jones]

If you have a lot of After Effects work ahead of you and you'll save money by doing it yourself, then buy it (or DL it for free). If you have some really time consuming touch-up work to do then it will definitely pay for itself. If you need fancy animated text work done, then a GOOD AE artist should be able to deliver you some great looking stuff (better than you could do yourself), although it's hit and miss finding someone who is truly good at AE. You might do better buying some pre-designed font animations.

 

[sonnyboo]

Adobe After Effects is the standard for visual effects. Check out the free tutorials on www.videocopilot.net

 

[wheatgrinder]

After watching www.videocopilot.net tutorials, I realized that decent VFX were within my reach if I was willing to put in the time and energy. I think without AE I wouldn't be on this forum, I wouldn't be interested in making movies!

Now that I know more (just a bit) I realize that movies aren't ABOUT VFX ... but knowing that I can drop a few bombs, smash a few cars, shoot a hail storm of bullets if I need to, opens up possibilities that were closed to me before. Sure I could pay someone else, but Im a "buy the tool" and "not pay the contractor" kinda guy. If I can DIY, I do, just how I was raised I guess..

 

[Graeme]

Wheatgrinder, I'm the exact same way, although I'll open up to others helping me in areas where I'm totally over my head.