On an otherwise forgettable day, a small thing happened. A co-worker stopped by my desk and gave me a new piece of software. “Hey, I heard you know about multimedia. Take a look at this software. Tell me what you think”, he said.The word ‘multimedia’ should date the conversation like red Reebok pumps and fanny packs. It was 1993 and I was working as a designer in the creative services department at Aldus. Revolutionary publishing wasn’t a blog or even a web page. It was a CD-ROM that came in the mail.
I installed the software and played with it all day and nearly all night. When my co-worker returned, I told him I wasn’t giving it back. Sorry. It’s mine. The software was CoSA After Effects 1.0 and I was hooked.
The next day I found out that Aldus would be aquiring CoSA and soon I became co-workers, friends, and literally neighbors with the team that created this amazing software.
The experience was powerful enough that my career pivoted around these events. I left Adobe (which had aquired Aldus) to take on a career in visual effects & motion graphics. In 1999, I returned to Adobe to be the user interface designer for After Effects and the lead user experience designer for the Adobe Production Studio.
I now find myself lucky enough to be the product manager for After Effects. And you know, I think I might just have the coolest job in the world. I’ve created this blog to reach out with news, tips, and thoughts on After Effects and related topics. To the community of After Effects users, I hope you’ll enjoy what I have to share here. Feel free to drop me a line and contribute your thoughts and suggestions. My name is Michael Coleman and my email address is mcoleman {at} adobe.com.
They say all big things start small. To that I would add: Every movie begins on frame one.
Welcome to Keyframes.
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