Adobe After Effects is a digital video production tool used to generate and/or manipulate moving graphics, compositing video, images and text, as well as color correct and grade. User-created plug-ins and scripts can extend almost any area of functionality and their development is the most likely reason for this tag appearing on Stack Overflow.
Adobe After Effects (AE) is primarily used by media production professionals and serious amateur filmmakers to create motion graphics and visual effects, as well as to color correct and grade movie material. It is often used along the entire production chain, from pre-production (visualization, storyboards), production (content) and post-production (compositing, 3D, special effects, color).
It allows users to animate, alter, and composite media in both 2D and 3D space with a wide range of built-in and third party plug-ins, and scripts either written in a JavaScript flavor called ExtendScript, or Apple-Script, as well as HTML5 panels and plain JavaScript modules which can be signed and distributed.
AE was initially released in 1993. It is roughly comparable to Autodesk's Combustion [now unavailable], Apple's Motion and elements of Avid Studio.
AE is one of seven core applications comprising the Adobe Creative Suite, a solution for media producers which includes photoshop, premiere, SpeedGrade, Prelude (metadata ingest, logging and rough cuts), Audition (audio editor) and others.
AE has a plug-in architecture with an extensive library of plug-ins, both from Adobe and third party vendors, for video effects like particle systems, 3D effects, color, to things like data visualization, 3D match-moving and tracking, as well as quality processes such as eliminating flicker, noise; or special effects rigging lines removal. It can import and export sequences and projects to and from Final Cut Pro or Avid Studio. Many plug-ins are shareable with Premiere Pro.
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