I personally thought learning Combustion seemed a lot easier than learning After Effects.

The best resource for learning Combustion IMHO is the excellent Focal Press book "Combustion 4 Fundamentals Courseware" with a companion DVD. Great tutorials throughout, where you actually do real stuff. I also have Gary M. Davis' book, but thought it was confusing and less practical.

Don't make it your goal to learn everything there is to know, that is a deep undertaking (just like with, say, Photoshop, which nobody knows 100% of).

I like the Combustion user interface, where just the tools you need are presented.

Combustion is about the same list price as After Effects Pro (just under $1K), but there are always deals.

The less expensive non-pro version of After Effects has been carefully shaved of features, a pity I think.

There is also Digital Fusion DFX+ in the same price range, with other advantages and disadvantages (including 8-bit processing only, which does NOT look as good for this kind of work as 10-bit or 16-bit processing, even when the output is for 8-bit only).

I love AE. I have tried Red in a few various forms - I think I first tried it in version 2 and lastly with RedGL and its Vegas interface. I would not try and replace AE with Red. I have not tried MainVision but they have a demo so you might want to download it and see if it does anything for you. It does support AE plug-ins just like RedGL does.

All the AE replacements support AE plugins, although with limitations in some cases.

DF is available in 10 bit and above versions. Needless to say the price goes up however that's where it has an advantage over Combustion, you can stay with it all the way up to handlin Cineon files, in fact I think the 8 bit version is just a scaled down / cheaper version of their high end offering.
Bob.

Combustion handles Cineon and everything else on down, and does it every day of the week in Hollywood. Color bits from 8 to float precision.

DF is $5K, DFX+ is the 8-bit only version for $1-$2K depending on which modules you choose.

Thanks,
didn't know that, kind of muddies the waters trying to choose between Combustion and DF.
Bob.

I was lucky enough to get a free copy of DFX+ with 2 modules. when upgrading Lightwave 3D ( one of the best deals ever ).

It is a great app and seemed easy to learn. I absolutelly hated aftereffects a while back when I first tried it. DFX+ , even without modules has a lot. For example, you can buy a keying module for another $500, but what 's there in the base version seems to do a great job anyway.

Don't know whether DFX+ is worth $1000 though, when combustion is available for about the same. I guess it depends on whether you really need more than 8 bit processing. I'm pretty sure you can download a trial of Digital Fusion and see how it works for you.