AE worth the extra money for production bundle?
 

Just wanted to see what everyone thought about the production bundle of After Affects, is it worth the extra money. The 3d titling plug in that comes with it looks interesting.

Any Thoughts?

Jeff Troiano

Jeff,
Whether or not the extra expense of the production bundle is worthwhile depends on your interest in AE, your true needs and your finances. I'd say that 75-80% of AE comes in the sandard version. I ultimately got the p.b. but only after several years of using only the standard package. I cannot honestly say that I needed it, but I just became tired of encountering features only in the p.b.

Frankly, I think that if you do not use the product for professional work and your general budget is limited you might be best served allocating those dollars elsewhere.

well I bought version 3.1 AE student and just recently payed $399 I think for the upgrade all the way to AE pro. I really couldn't believe what I was hearing So I triple checked. This was on the phone with adobe. So I bought it. Yes it was worth it. Almost every piece of Adobe software is worth the money.hehe.
It does only add very few features but I have been finding them very useful in the present with the short film and other projects I have been working on.

Rob:D

I've never used anything but AE PB. Started with a student version of 3.1, upgraded for $300 to a full commercial version when 4 came out.

I think there are more goodies than one realizes in the delta between regular and PB. But I'd look at combustion (or is it Commotion?) and some of the others were I making the original choice again and they were priced as they are now.

The integration with Photoshop and Illustrator are great.

I got the PB because I wanted to stabilise some handheld fottage. But after seeing how it accomplished the feat (keyframing the anchor point) I reckon you could do the same for short shots using the standard version. Vector paint is a groovy toy though! :-)

if you want to stabilize some footage get the PB because you will get tired of it if you need to adjust ever so slightly to compensate for a twitch or a step backwards. Time consuming it is but a life saver it will be. I am in the middle of stabilizing some footage right now. It works amazingly well but at the sametime it takes time for it to go through the footage. also once you have something set the way you want it a applied remember to reset the stabilizer so it will not move your footage clear across the frame.

Rob:D

More info on the pro version