SAN JOSE, Calif.--Dec. 3, 2001--Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe After Effects 5.5, a new version of the company's award-winning motion graphics and visual effects software. With an impressive set of new features, After Effects 5.5 helps users expand their creative options, enhance productivity and work with more media types than ever before. Adobe After Effects 5.5 boasts exciting new features that enable precise control including multiple views, colored shadows, stained glass lighting and the Advanced 3D Renderer for creating high-quality intersecting layers. Versatile import and output options, including Advanced RealMedia export and integration with Alias|Wavefront's Maya and Discreet's 3ds max(TM), give users more flexibility. Moreover, After Effects 5.5 supports additional 16-bit per channel file formats including Maya IFF, RPF, SGI and QuickTime. Whether creating motion graphics or visual effects for film, digital video, multimedia, or the Web, After Effects 5.5 gives designers a comprehensive set of tools for a flexible and improved workflow. "For visual effects artists and compositors, it is critical to be able to immediately see results as you are working,'' said Loren Olson of Rhonda Graphics. "After Effects just keeps getting better in terms of delivering a streamlined workflow and immediate creative feedback -- After Effects 5.5 is the fastest version yet.'' "We at Alias|Wavefront are thrilled that our customers who use both After Effects and Maya can now easily work between the programs, exchanging 3D camera data directly in After Effects,'' said Andrew Pearce, director of Maya technology at Alias|Wavefront. "This strong integration between industry-leading products will save our artists time and money and make After Effects a great tool for Maya users.'' After Effects 5.5 further enhances productivity with native support for Mac OS X and Windows XP and Pentium 4 optimizations. The new Effects Palette helps users organize and apply effects, with eight new effects including Color Stabilizer*, Advanced Lightning*, Grid, and Roughen Edges. After Effects 5.5 continues to offer tight integration with Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to produce high-quality, professional results from start to finish. As an added bonus, Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Classic* is included with the After Effects 5.5 Production Bundle, allowing users to turn 2D artwork into 3D elements without leaving the After Effects environment. (*Signifies Production Bundle exclusive) Adobe is also announcing the Adobe Digital Video Collection 6.0, which includes new versions of Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator, as well as Adobe Premiere 6.0 and Adobe Photoshop 6.0 software. This powerful set of tools is capable of producing professional quality digital video for film, video, multimedia and the Web at a significant cost savings. The Digital Video Collection is available in Standard and Production Bundle versions. Pricing and Availability Adobe After Effects 5.5 is expected to ship worldwide in the first quarter of the 2002 calendar year. It will be available for $649 US for the Standard version and $1499 US for the Production Bundle in the United States and Canada. Upgrades from After Effects 5.0 will cost $99 US for either the Standard and Production Bundle versions. Users who want to upgrade from the Standard version to the Production Bundle version can expect to pay $899 US and will also receive Zaxwerks Invigorator Classic. The Adobe DV Collection Production Bundle will be available for $1999 US and also includes Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator Classic. The Adobe DV Collection Standard version is $1,199 US. French, German, and Japanese versions are expected to ship simultaneously with the English version. Pricing, upgrade, and support policies for these languages will be announced separately.