Aura 2.5 vs. Adobe Photoshop & After Effects

[miken]

Hi, My company just purchased Aura 2.5. My experience has been with Adobe and PaintShopPro. Can anyone tell me the major differences between Aura 2.5 and Photoshop with After Effects? I have been playing with Aura a little and find it difficult so far (i.e. locating the tools, tool names differ).
Any help is appreciated.
Mike - :confused:

[SBowie]

This comes up from time to time. You might find the thread here (http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1827&highlight=compositor) helps a bit...

[miken]

Thanks Stve, I appreciate the help. Unfortunite for me there is no simple answer, ie. "Aura's better". I mainly create post-construction visual simulation type stuff with the occasional fly-by. I do a lot of still image manipulation. I create and render solid models (3dsmax) and overlay onto existing photos etc. Sounds to me like Photoshop has more tools available for high quality still image work? I need to make a decision soon (keep Aura 2.5 or go Adobe) and I keep flip flopping. Any additional info to help my decision is appreciated.
Thanks again, Mike - :rolleyes:

[SBowie]

If your main schtick is stills, then likely Pshop would be best. A case could be presented that Aura is the better program for painting with, but for IP and compositing of stills I think most would still prefer Photoshop ...

[miken]

Thanks again, If I could just ask one last newbie question please? Where is the "CLONE" tool? In PSP (PaintshopPro) there is a clone tool that basically just copies a pre-defined area/size to another area based on the brush size. I found the magic wand copy thing but thats not exactly the thing I'm looking for. That seems to copy specific color area.
Thanks, Mike -

[SBowie]

Some apps, including Aura, called that "Pantograph" mode. See Pages 6.3 and 6.4 in the Aura 2.5 manual if you've got that :)

[miken]

Thanks Steve, I can get the manual from our IT people.
Mike - :) :)

[SBowie]

Oh, sorry- thought you'd have it handy. A quick tutorial:

- Select the airbrush

- hit F4 to designate Panto painting mode for the tool

- either click [Set] in the Tool's settings panel (right-click on the freehand drawing button to bring this up), or hit [Shift + p] on the keyboard, then drag with the mouse to designate an offset for the tool.

- paint :)

[mrjaialai]

Cine Paint is now on Windows and it's pretty neat to work with stills. Haven't got to work with it enough to really get a feel yet.

[miken]

Thanks Steve, That's what I was looking for.
Mike -:)