Adobe Production Studio

Premiere Pro and After Effects Just Got Better and Work Better Together

By David English

April 1, 2006    Source: Studio Monthly

If you work in video production, you probably have an assortment of software you’ve hobbled together. In a perfect world, your programs would have a similar interface and operate the same way for similar tasks. In the real world, you choose whichever program you can find for whatever you need to do and assume everything will somehow work together. It’s a practical approach based on the realization that "integrated" and "streamlined" software rarely makes the job any easier.

Against that jaded mindset, Adobe has introduced a new integrated bundle: Adobe Production Studio Premium ($1,699). It includes Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Audition 2.0, Adobe Encore DVD 2.0, Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe Dynamic Link and Adobe Bridge. A typical installation consumes a whopping 21 gigabytes of space on your hard drive. If that’s more production muscle than you need, you can opt for Adobe Production Studio Standard ($1,199). It leaves out Illustrator, Encore and Audition, and also substitutes a less powerful After Effects version: Adobe After Effects 7.0 Standard.

This is a major upgrade for Adobe— and not only because After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore and Audition are significant upgrades on their own. Adobe is attempting to integrate its applications to a degree that’s unusual for any category of software, especially of this complexity. Potential buyers can look at the bundles two ways. If you use two or three of the applications already, and are interested in upgrading what you have, the price break for the bundle may make it a bargain, even without the integration. What Adobe is hoping for, and has largely succeeded in achieving, is a considerable value from the integration itself. They’ve also stacked the deck by including Adobe Dynamic Link and Adobe Bridge to showcase the benefits of the integration.

Edit More, Render Less

If you currently spend much of your working day shuttling back and forth between After Effects and Premiere Pro, Dynamic Link could noticeably boost your productivity. It lets you use your After Effects compositions in Premiere Pro and Encore without having to render the compositions. Any changes you make in After Effects are automatically reflected in Premiere Pro and Encore, and you don’t have to save the file first in After Effects. You’ll be able to experiment more freely and see the results in the complete project in real time. And you’re not limited to a single After Effects composition. You can have multiple compositions linked simultaneously within your Premiere Pro or Encore project. It’s a really cool feature that could help minimize repetitive tasks within Production Studio.

Adobe Bridge isn’t nearly as powerful as Dynamic Link. It is useful if you need a comprehensive content manager. It lets you search your media assets based on specific criteria. For example, you could call up any video files that were created on a specific date or that were created by a particular artist or composer. Using tags and keywords, you could set up a searchable index that instantly sorts and retrieves the media assets you need— though you’ll have to put some thought and effort into it in order to receive the full benefit.

You’ve Been Framed

The other major advantage to Adobe Production Studio as a whole is the new streamlined interface. After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition and Encore now share a common interface that consists almost entirely of panels arranged in frames. By default, there are no floating palettes. Here the benefits are two-fold. The interface is more consistent across the applications. And the new interface makes the workspace less cluttered than before and much easier to rearrange.

On the whole, the interface is more intuitive for newcomers. It may, however, be confusing for those already familiar with the applications. For example, each panel has its own built-in set of resizing rules. Panels that wouldn’t benefit from becoming larger now stay the same size when you resize the window. Panels that would benefit from being resized are now more scalable.

The new interface also lets you define workspaces for specific applications or projects. It’s simple to create or modify a workspace using the new Workspace submenu. Any changes you make to the layout of the panels are automatically saved to the workspace and reappear the next time you choose that workspace.

Extras in Premiere Pro and AE

While I’ve concentrated on the global features of Adobe Production Studio, it’s worth pointing out that many of the individual programs have important new features, and you do have the option to upgrade the applications individually. Premiere Pro and After Effects can now export to Flash Video files, and HD video is supported in all the popular resolutions and frame rates. After Effects Professional supports 32-bit HDR (High Definition Range) color, Premiere Pro supports 10-bit YUV color and 32-bit audio is supported throughout the applications.

Premiere Pro has a host of new and improved features that will do wonders for your workflow and your deadlines, including native HDV editing, support for 2K and 4K resolutions for feature film editing and 3:2 pulldown conversions. Effects rendering is GPU-accelerated, too, which means even basic things like motion get revved up. There’s also a welcome new multi-cam editing mode that lets you edit in real time the saved clips from as many as four cameras. In fact, Premiere looks and acts a lot more like After Effects than it ever did before, and the integration between the two really is seamless. For example, you can drop an AE timeline into Premiere Pro, change keyframes in your AE comp and Premiere Pro will update automatically.

If you listen only to the software developers, you would think every upgrade is a monumental event. In truth, some upgrades are more hefty than others. In this case, the new Adobe Production Studio really could save you time and effort if you use it daily. The new interface is a big plus if you’re willing to relearn some of your work routines. For those new to video production, either the Premium or Standard bundle would be an excellent opportunity to learn the trade from the ground up (especially since you can go way up to 4K resolution in this version). Everyone, in fact, can benefit from the advantages that derive from uniquely powerful tools in an intelligently integrated environment.

Close Up

No Render Zone: Use your After Effects compositions in Premiere Pro or Encore DVD without having to render. They’ll be dynamically available in real time. You don’t even have to save them first in After Effects.

Pre-Defined Workspaces: Create different workspaces for specific tasks within an application, or create workspaces that fit a particular project. The new interface is designed to accommodate a wide range of layouts.

Native HD Support: Work in all the popular HD resolutions and frame rates, all the way up to 2K and 4K. Premiere Pro supports logging, batch capture, trimming and editing of HDV, so there’s no conversion or quality loss.

Multi-Cam Editing: The new quad-view shows as many as four synchronized source tracks. Switch among the tracks in real time to create an edited sequence.

32-bit Audio: Keep your sound in a pristine 32-bit format throughout the entire production process. This will allow you to apply digital effects to your audio without adding distortion artifacts.

Bridge Both Worlds: Choose a time reference system that suits your content. You can select a traditional SMPTE video timecode, or opt for a Feet + Frames display to match footage that originated or will be delivered on film.