As with Premiere, the CS3 iteration of After Effects keeps a consistent interface with its predecessors. But, in contrast to Adobe’s faithful timeline video editor, the flagship compositing tool has undergone what Adobe calls “one of its most significant updates”. And, once you’ve used it for a few days, you’ll see that even this is a bit of an understatement.

The new layer category called a Shape Layer is one of the most important changes since 3D layers arrived. Think of this as having a full-motion version of Illustrator built into After Effects, which isn’t so far from the truth – that’s where Adobe has sourced the engine. You can now draw and animate vector graphics using primitives or the freehand Pen tool, and then apply Shape Effects to transform the basic structures. As with any vector-based graphics, After Effects’ shapes are resolution independent, unlike bitmaps.

We could fill the remainder of this page with just the options available when you apply Shape Effects to your shapes. Although there are fewer than 20 of these, they can be animated and combined. They also include elaborate deformations, allowing you to squash and squeeze your shapes in outlandish ways.

The text engine has been further upgraded with Per-Character 3D. This means each letter can now act as a separate 3D object in its own right, rather than the whole layer acting as one flat entity. Animators can operate on individual letters in 3D as well, for some truly eye-catching motion. However, as with many of After Effects’ features, Per-Character 3D adds yet another level of complexity to text creation, albeit with another level of control and flexibility alongside. Fortunately, a selection of presets will help you get started.

Another powerful new feature is the Puppet tool, which lets you animate still images, primarily bodies cut out against a single-colour background. First, you specify pin points on your 2D figure – say their knees, feet and hands. After Effects creates a mesh covering your figure. You can then grab any of your pins and move it, and the other pinned points will remain static. By pressing Control as you drag, your motion is recorded as an animation. The end result is the ability to animate images into full-motion sprites, but it could be used to create many other strange visuals, like walking furniture or plants swaying to the music.

With all that power, though, After Effects has never been easy to use. The range of options available can be extremely daunting. Good news here comes in the form of Brainstorm. This new browsing tool aids experimentation. Simply click on one or more parameters, press the Brainstorm button, and a new window will open showing the original frame plus eight random alternatives. You can increase the randomness, and keep hitting the Brainstorm button until you like something.

Some of After Effects’ new strength comes from its integration with other Adobe apps. The link with Premiere Pro was tightened in the last version, so now it’s Photoshop’s turn – or rather Photoshop CS3 Extended (Web ID 87252). In particular, Layer Styles, Vanishing Points and Video Layers created in Photoshop can be imported intact and are editable. It’s possible to merge Layer Styles or even discard them, and fly around pseudo-3D created using Vanishing Points.

In line with Premiere Pro’s improved Flash export capabilities, After Effects can output Flash video FLV files, complete with cue points, as well as SWFs. Clip Notes have arrived for After Effects too, and are readily available from the File | Export command. Time markers are used to add initial notes, which will then appear in the resulting PDF file alongside the embedded video. Rendering has been enhanced across the board as well with multiprocessor support. This allows After Effects to render more than one frame at once on multiple cores, during both preview and output. However, this has to be turned on manually under Preferences, where other Adobe apps detect a multiprocessor system automatically.

After Effects rarely reaches a dot release without major new features, but this incarnation has more than many. We’re also pleased to see that the sluggishness with HDV we noted in the previous incarnation seems to have been alleviated. This is a massive release, although sadly the Standard version has been discontinued. So unless you qualify for an upgrade, the choice is between $1409 for the Professional version or $800 more for the entire Production Studio Premium. It’s clear which one Adobe wants you to purchase.