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| > Also how is 32bit texture support? Can it handle .exrs for environmental lighting? I mean if so... this could potentially be a real threat to Nuke and Smoke. As exciting as Element looks, nothing will make After Effects a threat to Nuke. They are two different applications that occupy different markets and fulfil different needs. After Effects is unrivalled as a motion design tool and Element builds on this - it will be used by designers. Nuke is a compositing program that works especially well in large production environments with structured workflows. There are some niche areas of crossover - high-end corporate productions and mid-level TVCs - but even here a single plugin is not going to prompt a company to change their established workflows and infrastructure. The headache for me is that before CS6 and plugins like Element, I have been perfectly happy working on iMacs. Now the emphasis has moved to graphics cards I am joining the increasingly large chorus of those worried about the future (and the price) of the MacPro. I suggested about 6 months ago that for the price of 1 Mac Pro you could get a 27" iMac and a 4x mac mini render farm. Up to CS 5.5 that would actually have worked pretty well. But when you add graphics cards to the mix you have all sorts of price/performance options that require careful reading of email threads, online forums and benchmarks that I would have happily ignored 6 months ago... Element looks like a great plugin at a generous price. I've watched the video but haven't read any further. If it has support for z-depth layering/compositing then it will be really powerful. Most of the time I use particular it's with a z-depth map, and using z-depth maps is the best way to work around After Effects mixture of 2.5D and 3D layers. -Chris |
