“Today we are announcing that the next version of Adobe After Effects will be a native 64-bit application. This news represents a huge step forward and will provide unprecedented advantages to just about anyone who uses After Effects today. It’s going to be a must-have release.”
Wait…what?!? is this right? Yes! This from Michael Coleman, product manager for Adobe After Effects. What does this mean? Well, predominantly AE will be able to see and use more than 4GB of RAM…yep, on a mac using 32bit AE, no matter how much RAM you have, AE will only see 4GB, and use 3GB leaving 1GB for the OS and such. With a 64 bit version, this means the ability to render heavier comps, where out of memory errors can be circumnavigated by purchasing more RAM – as much as the OS will allow. In addition, this would also mean users will be able to create longer RAM previews. Will the 64 bit AE be faster? Yes in the sense that more frames can be cached during production which will make the application seem snappier. As of yet, Adobe is not committing to a release date, but just knowing that a 64bit version of After Effects is coming settles my stomach a bit concerning the future of AE.
