A quick note as I’ve heard this this question come up a lot lately from people reading my earlier post and in discussions on various forums on the topic of AE CS5 being 64-bit only.
Will Normality / Atlas / Generator be ported to 64-bit for After Effects CS5?
The short answer: No.
Longer answer: Adobe has made the business decision to deprive me (and all other professional AE users) of a significant investment by removing support for 32-bit plug-ins, e.g. all existing third-party plug-ins, in AE CS5.
Again, this was not done for technical reasons, it was purely a business decision.
Along with my invaluable collection of third-party plug-ins I also lose the functionality I require to do my daily work. Now I need to go out and find replacements for stable and time-tested tools and in some cases even develop new ones to replace custom software I do not own the rights to.
AE’s main strength IMHO was the sheer number of third-party plug-ins that are not available for other platforms. In a way Adobe has leveled the playing field.
In light of this predicament I in turn have also made a business decision: I’m simply taking my business elsewhere.
As I’ll have to replace all my plug-ins anyway, this is the perfect opportunity for me to ditch After Effects for a more powerful solution. One that, ironically, manages to run in both 32– and 64-bit. And in Linux!
A word to the After Effects community
I’m not doing this out of spite or to harm the AE community in any way and I apologize to all users that have come to rely on my plug-ins for their daily work.
Updating my software to run in CS5 means I myself would have to invest in the new version, and I’m sure you understand that’s not something I’m prepared to do just to support some free plug-ins.
Just like Adobe’s, mine is purely a business decision.
