Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premier?

[Markham]

I know very little about these programs.  What is the difference between the two?  As an animator, which one will be the most beneficial?

[C.S. Murphy]

If you want a 3D camera and some available particle effects for your Flash elements, After Effects is the way to go.

Premiere is good for post production as well as sound sync and storyboarding, but I believe is not as robust as AE is.

Considering it's something to benefit you animations, I'd probably go with AE.

Is there any particular function that you were looking for these softwares to do?

[chluaid]

Premiere Pro is Adobe's video editing software, whereas After Effects is the compositing and post production package. True that After Effects has editing capability and Premiere has some compositing/effects capability, but when you use the two together, you have a complete suite. On their own, they do one thing exceptionally well and a bit of the other.

I'm far from an advanced user, but after a couple years of casual experience with both, here's how I see them (ratings are contextual):

After Effects Compositing, transitions & fx - 10/10 Editing - 4/10 Premiere Pro Editing - 10/10 Compositing, transitions & fx - 3/10