It's not really well suited for editing, but pair it with an inexpensive editor like Ulead Media studio directors cut. and your all set. since a lot of the text editing, FX, and compositing features in higher end editors would be redundant with mirage. and ya don't need a zillion cheezy transitions. I've never used after effects, but I don't think it has particles out of the box. I think You need other expensive softs like Particle illusion, to go with it. Also Mirage is a full featured paint program, it's really a jack of all trades and quite masterful at most of them. Oh and Mirage has fake volumetrics which work really well. The render time saved using that VS the atmospheres in Poser 5 is unimaginible :D