Hi,

Please can you bring back the Filmstrip export function which I think was dropped from After Effects after CS4 and I think from Premiere after CS3.

(Or alternatively, please can you make the CS3 and CS4 versions of Adobe CS software available through Creative Cloud subscription so the Filmstrip feature is readily available to use again.)

I realise that it's possible to draw on top of video frame by frame in the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline - and that's great, it's a very useful feature.

However I was trying to create a distressed effect across a video where precision as part of the process was not the priority - a little like in this music video

Stupid Girl by Garbage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GhPUAVgHZc

Working frame by frame in the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline would have been too time consuming to achieve something like this.

But dealing with all the frames as a single large image was more practical, and really quite quick once I got trial versions of the software installed - hence my preferred use of the Filmstrip export format.

This link below (which I think belongs to Adobe) has the older versions of After Effects / Premiere / Photoshop that still have the Filmstrip export / import option.
http://prodesigntools.com/download-adobe-cs4-and-cs3-free-trials-here.html

After Effects CS3, Premiere CS3, and Photoshop CS3 all install ok on Mac OS 10.13.4 High Sierra.

After Effects CS4 will also install, but not Premiere CS4 or Photoshop CS4.
(Or perhaps they would have done if I had investigated the Mac OS Gatekeeper function.)

I also had to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime installer for Photoshop CS3 to run in order to open the .FLM file and then edit and save it.
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_GB

I used After Effects CS3 and Photoshop CS3 in order to work with the Filmstrip format they can generate.

I tested with a 1920x1080 piece of video on a 2014 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and Nvidia GPU

I think there may be a limitation though on how many frames can be exported as .FLM at one time from After Effects CS3 - I tried 5 second batches at 25fps but I think it may be possible to export a longer duration.

I then imported the very large .FLM image that was generated from all those frames into Photoshop CS3 to edit. I thought when working at 1920 x 1080 per frame there would be a huge slowdown but it really wasn't too bad - everything was quite speedy really.

Then I reimported the .FLM file back into After Effects CS3

And then I rendered out video from CS3 for After Effects CC2018 to reimport.

Once again, I realise we now have the Photoshop CC2018 Timeline and it's very useful indeed, but for reasons of time and efficiency I don't think it's as quite as applicable to what I've described above as the Filmstrip format is.

I also like the look of all the frames presented together in Filmstrip's grid format and would quite like to reduce the size, save as a regular image and animate the whole thing as a footage element - so I have to say I like the possibilities of the Filmstrip format.

I'm still relatively new to After Effects so if there's any better way of doing what I've described above, please let me know as I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thanks for your time.

Kind regards,

John