Saving AfterEffects CS4 file for CS3

[danzums 0]

Hi I was wondering if there was a way to save a CS4 format After effects file for After Effects CS3?

[RustyAce 0]

not unless that is a new feature

[JMRicks 0]

Nope.

[raven52321 0]

Why is this question always coming up? I don't know of any software that has this kind of reverse-engineered compatibility.

[Rob M 0]

Well because some of CS software does it, and some of it doesn't?

Try 'Save As' in Illustrator, it has all the backward compatable options back to Illu 7.

A handy tool for sure.

 

R

[superegophobia 0]

Why is this question always coming up? I don't know of any software that has this kind of reverse-engineered compatibility.

Maya can open older versions if you save your scene file as a .ma and then edit it in TextEdit or Notepad by changing the 'requires maya "version";' line.

[raven52321 0]

Maya can open older versions if you save your scene file as a .ma and then edit it in TextEdit or Notepad by changing the 'requires maya "version";' line.

Unfortunately, this workaround is totally impossible for after effects (just open an after effects file in a text editor and you'll see why). Even for maya, this was hit and miss, and if you were using any features new to the more recent version, the file would just never open no matter what.

 

Now that I think about it, Adobe Illustrator allows for saving legacy versions, although sometimes this would mess with any new feature-related objects.

[Mylenium 0]

Well because some of CS software does it, and some of it doesn't?

 

This is not quite correct in technical terms. Any export to a legacy version looses data and even in case of Illu this can mean loss of the curve interpolation (for some formats, segments are subdivided) and trivial things such as grouping and path names. Photoshop and InDesign tackle this in the file format itself by separating it into version specific chunks, where older versions simply ignore the parts they don't understand. Question is, however, whether AE could ever function in either of both ways and if it really needed to. It's pretty much a one of a kind application that, unlike other apps, is not dependent on exchanging its own project format with third-party applications and therefore it is more logical to look forward than wasting resources on looking back. this is further driven by the general evolution of the technology surrounding it - it makes little or no sense to transfer projects to older versions, when those older cversions aren't even compatible with the latest Quicktime anymore, let alone specific CoDecs used in the MOVs...

 

Mylenium

[fatmike 0]

What about XML? Could this lead to a work around?