History of After Effects

After Effects was originally the product of Company of Science & Art (CoSA). CoSA was founded by four graduates of Brown University, Rhode Island, USA in June 1990.

Greg Deocampo, who was graduated in 1988 plan to start a company and his three friends David “DaveF” Foster, David “DaveH” Herbstman, and David “DaveS” Simons who was just graduated in the spring of 1990, wanted to help make it reality.

Greg predicted a time when all computers would be connected and electronic information publishing would become much more important than paper-based methods. The Company of Science & Art (CoSA) – would become a world-class content provider for the new electronic age. According to the business plan, CoSA would become an electronic publishing conglomerate in five years.

Initially they don't have an office and all the preliminary meetings so far had been held in DaveS apartment, which he shared at the time with his girlfriend and two housemates. But, soon his girlfriend made it clear that CoSA needed its own office. After searching all around Providence, DaveF found a great space near downtown in the recently refurbished Imperial Knife Building. A great open space with huge factory windows and sandblasted brick and wooden support beams, it seemed perfect. DaveH negotiated the rent down to $1,000 a month, and they were in business. With the help of some friends, they postered the Brown campus looking for furniture. It was a buyer’s market, since most of the graduating seniors had little need for their desks ($15), chairs ($10), and bookcases ($5) anymore. Greg’s couches from home rounded out the comfortable décor.

The four CoSA founders clearly needed help to carry out the master plan, so they immediately started hiring others. The only capital they had was Greg’s $30,000 investment, so the main thing they were offering was the fun of working at a start-up where the next big thing would be born. This was a hard sell, but Greg is a very convincing person. Greg had saved a lot of time by picking a name for the company before anyone joined. However, CoSA didn’t yet have a logo. The majority of their first few weeks (months?) were occupied with making pencil sketches and holding meetings, trying to decide on a logo. In case it’s not obvious, the CoSA logo they picked is composed of a stylized C, o, S, and A. The response from most people is “Oh – I thought it was a parrot’s head.”