I’ve recently upgraded to Adobe CC, and I’d like to use AE CC for creating templates and not only for regular work projects.
The thing is, I want my projects to be compatible as many versions backwards as possible, so more people can purchase and use them. The oldest version I have is CS5, so I assume I could use OpenSesame to open the projects in CS5 and save.
So I basically have two questions…
Does anyone have experience with OpenSesame and AE CC, and can confirm it works?
Is this the best way to approach this issue? Or does someone have a better idea? Is there perhaps a way to save projects back even more…? CS3…?
I imagine I’m not the only one who will be facing this issue in the near future…
AE cannot save projects older than one version before (at least natively). CC will save to CS6, CS6 will save to CS5.5, etc. What you are asking isn’t possible with AE at the moment, so your only solution is to work in CS5 or lower if you want those compatibility. I know some authors who save as CS5.5 from CS6, open it in CS5.5, then save it as CS5. You could do that if you have those AE versions installed.
OpenSesame is a great script, but just know it’s limitations. You can’t export stuff that can’t be accessed with expressions like Hue/Saturation as mentioned in the info page. From what I know, very few authors use it, it’s much easier to use an older version.
Personally, I use CS5 for all my VideoHive projects and it works completely fine.
AE cannot save projects older than one version before (at least natively). CC will save to CS6, CS6 will save to CS5.5, etc. What you are asking isn’t possible with AE at the moment, so your only solution is to work in CS5 or lower if you want those compatibility. I know some authors who save as CS5.5 from CS6, open it in CS5.5, then save it as CS5. You could do that if you have those AE versions installed.
OpenSesame is a great script, but just know it’s limitations. You can’t export stuff that can’t be accessed with expressions like Hue/Saturation as mentioned in the info page. From what I know, very few authors use it, it’s much easier to use an older version.
Personally, I use CS5 for all my VideoHive projects and it works completely fine.
Thanks for the answer VinhSonNguyen, I agree CS5 is perfectly fine for creating templates (or for any thing else actually) but after upgrading to CC it feels a little bit of a shame that I can’t use it for creating templates. One of the main advantages of CC is the increase in speed which really makes the workflow feel a lot faster and smoother, so I hoped to find a reasonable way to save backwards to CS5 or later…
I am aware of the possibility of saving backwards one version at a time but unfortunately I don’t own CS6, or 5.5… So I guess I will simply have to stick with CS5 or take a deeper look into OpenSesame…
By the way, I think I heard or read somewhere that starting from Adobe CC and onward, there will always be an option to save backwards to CS6. So if for example there is CC 2 / CC 3 we’ll still be able to save to backwards to CS 6… (but that actually contradicted what I thought about CC in the first place, that it will always stay ‘CC’ with no version numbers since it’s all automatically updated…? A little confusing the whole thing…)
Anyways, thanks again for you help… I’ll keep using CS5 for now…
As VinhSonNguyen said: “CC will save to CS6, CS6 will save to CS5.5, etc.”
So you can work in cc, and save project compatible with cs6. In cs6 save the same project compatible with cs5.5. In cs5.5 save project compatible with cs5.
Just keep on mind that you must avoid some new ae features during the work.
For example you can use 3d camera tracker and than save cs5 project and it will works. But you can’t use ray-trace, because it’s not supported in cs5.
Open sesame is required only if you want project compatible with cs3 and cs4.
So if you want to sell cs5 projects, feel free to work in cc, but you need to have cc, cs6 and cs5.5 installed, and also cs5 to test just in case if everything works fine.
Since you don’t have cs6 and cs5.5, maybe other authors can help you.
As VinhSonNguyen said: “CC will save to CS6, CS6 will save to CS5.5, etc.”
So you can work in cc, and save project compatible with cs6. In cs6 save the same project compatible with cs5.5. In cs5.5 save project compatible with cs5.
Just keep on mind that you must avoid some new ae features during the work.
For example you can use 3d camera tracker and than save cs5 project and it will works. But you can’t use ray-trace, because it’s not supported in cs5.
Open sesame is required only if you want project compatible with cs3 and cs4.
So if you want to sell cs5 projects, feel free to work in cc, but you need to have cc, cs6 and cs5.5 installed, and also cs5 to test just in case if everything works fine.
Since you don’t have cs6 and cs5.5, maybe other authors can help you.
As VinhSonNguyen said: “CC will save to CS6, CS6 will save to CS5.5, etc.”
So you can work in cc, and save project compatible with cs6. In cs6 save the same project compatible with cs5.5. In cs5.5 save project compatible with cs5.
Just keep on mind that you must avoid some new ae features during the work.
For example you can use 3d camera tracker and than save cs5 project and it will works. But you can’t use ray-trace, because it’s not supported in cs5.
Open sesame is required only if you want project compatible with cs3 and cs4.
So if you want to sell cs5 projects, feel free to work in cc, but you need to have cc, cs6 and cs5.5 installed, and also cs5 to test just in case if everything works fine.
Since you don’t have cs6 and cs5.5, maybe other authors can help you.
Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong.
AmigoProductions said
unfortunately I don’t own CS6, or 5.5…
dorde said
Since you don’t have cs6 and cs5.5, maybe other authors can help you.
I’m using OpenSesame to save from CS6 to CS4 and in most cases I have no problems with the restrictions. Curves cannot be transferred that way, but you can save them as curve-file and then just import it directly. hue/saturation may need to be typed in manually, but I’m fine with how it works and it is often faster than saving as cs5.5, open in cs5.5 and save as cs5 again.
Hey thanks for the replies guys, it’s always nice to see what a helpful community we have here
Dorde, good idea about asking other authors to help save backwards to CS5. But I think I’ll just try using OpenSesame because I can imagine it being quite a procedure asking authors to help convert each time…
Creattive thanks for your insight about saving from CS6 to CS4, it’s helpful to know that you’ve had good experience with the plugin.
I guess the bottom line is that there is no ‘magic’ solution to this issue. Seems to me that at the moment the best option is to use OpenSesame with it’s limitations and workaround that…
A full year after my original post about this subject, I’m back with a recap and explanation of what I did - just in case someone finds this information useful
Did I purchase Open Sesame? No.
Did I find a workaround to save AE projects from CC (or CC14) down to CS5? Not exactly.
So what did I end up doing?
As VinhSon suggested, at first I kept using CS5 for most of my Videohive templates. But after a while I just had enough of using CS5 and started using CC and the eventually CC14 for the templates.
So how do I save back to CS5? I don’t.
What do I do then? I save down only to CS5.5.
How? I go through the process of downgrading from CC14 to CC, to CS6, and then thanks to a friend who still uses CS6, I’m able to downgrade to CS5.5.
Gladly the process of downgrading is super simple and only takes about 5 minutes, therefore I don’t think I’ll be purchasing Open Sesame in the near future.
Has this caused any problems? Did I see a drop in sales?
Not at all. In fact non of my buyers ever contacted me to ask for CS5 (or lower) compatibility. And this makes perfect sense… We’re in 2015, and if someone is still using CS3 or CS4 it means he’s using a 7-8 old version of AE. If they’re using CS5 (which is more possible), it still means the software is 5 years old. In my opinion most people have already upgraded to CS5.5 or above.
(My own) Conclusion for VH authors
If you don’t mind, just use CS5 for creating VH templates.
If you prefer CC and have a way to save down to CS5.5 that’s probably good enough.
If you don’t have a way to save down to CS5.5, Open Sesame might be a great option for you. But remember, you still need to export the project and import it in the earlier AE version in order for this to work. So if you want to save down to CS3 for example, you need to have a copy of CS3 installed on your system (unless I’m mistaking?).
Hope this helps someone out there who’s searching for information about this topic!
Daniel
I actually think that many people are still using CS6 or 5.5 because both those versions are excellent and not everyone will see the immediate benefit of upgrading to CC. Some aren’t happy about paying an annual price (but that a topic for a whole new discussion).
Any way, that’s why I do think it’s still important to create versions compatible down to at least CS5.5
I actually think that many people are still using CS6 or 5.5 because both those versions are excellent and not everyone will see the immediate benefit of upgrading to CC. Some aren’t happy about paying an annual price (but that a topic for a whole new discussion).
Any way, that’s why I do think it’s still important to create versions compatible down to at least CS5.5
