Premiere Pro CS4 New Features - Info Request

Daygola814 said:
David... I have been dying to know how the new track targeting system (like Avid) works. In CS3 and before, you could only select one video and one audio track. Can you select multiple video and audio tracks now? (not with the patch on the left. I'm talking about the box that says VIDEO1, VIDEO2, etc.
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Yes.

I was wondering, the new track targeter on the left, is that for selecting which track in the timeline you want the video to be placed on? Or is that for the source?

If it's for the timeline, is there track targeting for the source?
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It is used when inserting -- not dragging -- media from the source window -- you can target the tracks and bring only the files associated with those tracks to the timeline.

If you drag and drop, track targeting will be ignored. If you choose Insert or Overlay by right-clicking a clip in the Project window, the track targeting will be ignored.

You can set up your audio tracks, under the Clip menu, using Source Channel Mapping and bring in only what you want by drag-and-drop, too.

On the timeline, track targeting will affect things like the Razor tool for splitting clips, etc. -- only targeted tracks will be affected.
 
David Jimerson said:
Yes.



It is used when inserting -- not dragging -- media from the source window -- you can target the tracks and bring only the files associated with those tracks to the timeline.

If you drag and drop, track targeting will be ignored. If you choose Insert or Overlay by right-clicking a clip in the Project window, the track targeting will be ignored.

You can set up your audio tracks, under the Clip menu, using Source Channel Mapping and bring in only what you want by drag-and-drop, too.

On the timeline, track targeting will affect things like the Razor tool for splitting clips, etc. -- only targeted tracks will be affected.
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Wow.. that's awesome! I can't wait to get my hands on Production Premium CS4. The workflow changes they made seem to be AMAZING! I'm still kinda annoyed that you can't see the contents of the clip in the track when you click and drag. That's annoying. I'll miss that from Vegas...
 
David,

How is stability and performance on Leopard? I had some problems with CS3 on the Mac. Have you been impressed by the speed, stability, and responsiveness?

Also, is there a "fit to fill" option like in Final Cut Pro (are you familiar with FCP? You sound like a vegas user?). If you are familiar with FCP, how does this compare in overall features and stability? Which would you prefer, if P2 support/integration was a non-issue?
 
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filmguy123 said:
David,

How is stability and performance on Leopard? I had some problems with CS3 on the Mac. Have you been impressed by the speed, stability, and responsiveness?
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I don't have Leopard; I have 10.4.4. All those things seem quite serviceable with it, about the same as FCP -- though there were a few problems, being beta versions, I expected them.


Also, is there a "fit to fill" option like in Final Cut Pro (are you familiar with FCP? You sound like a vegas user?).
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You can use the time compressor function and just stretch out the clip to fill the space.


If you are familiar with FCP, how does this compare in overall features and stability?
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I think it surpasses FCP in many respects, particularly in format support, but also in general flexibility. It certainly has no peer in cross-platform support. But overall, they're very similar programs.

The CS4 suite apps, pound for pound, outmatch their FCS2 counterparts (plus, you get Photoshop Extended and Illustrator), though there's no counterpart for Color, nor does FCS have counterparts for OnLocation or Ultra. I mean, After Effects is the grand daddy; Motion is very good but isn't AE. Photoshop and Illustrator are the standards. Encore and DVDSP are very similar, but Encore allows for Blu-Ray burning. I would pick FCS's Soundtrack over Sounbooth any day, though. But then, I do my audio in Vegas, so I don't really care either way.

Who knows -- this might all change with FCS3 which might knock everything out of the park. We'll have to see.


Which would you prefer, if P2 support/integration was a non-issue?
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Given what I said above, PP. But you select a tool based on what you're going to use it for. I use P2, so it's a major factor which really can't be separated.

I mean, if it were just about DV, I'd be on Vegas, no question whatsoever. But that's not my world anymore.
 
Got it. Yeah I've used Premiere Pro CS2/CS3. And now use FCS2. I actually do use P2 for everything, I was just curious regardless of that.

In an ideal world, I'd love to see FCS3 knock it out of the park. But I dunno. When I switched to FCS2 when it released almost a year and a half ago, I liked it, but I remember feeling there were some things Adobe just did better. And with the latest version, and being a lot more familiar with FCS2 now...

I can't help but feel like Adobe, for the most part, actually has a much superior product in Premiere and suite in the overall bundle. Color doesn't have a counterpart, but After Effects does everything Color does if I am not mistaken?

In any case, I know Final Cut is much more commonly used but so is Windows over Mac, and it doesn't make Windows better. There are some things FCS does that Adobe can't match, but for most independent people who do everything on their own, Adobe is looking pretty hard to beat with CS4 right now.

Final Cut Pro is behind on many things that make Premiere Pro nice to use. For example, titling needs a lot of improvement, time remapping needs a lot of improvement, interface things such as a history pallete, or the ability to click and drag to enable/disable tracks... just all sorts of things like that. And Adobe has a very, very slick suite integration going for it with photoshop and after effects.

And actually, I find Encore to be much more intuitive to use than DVD Studio Pro. It's hard to create decent menus within DVD SP, and the interface is just more intuitive in Encore - plus that super slick integration with Premiere and Photoshop and AE?
 
David - you mentioned you'd prefer Apple's Soundtrack Pro over Adobe's Soundbooth. The main thing I use soundtrack pro for is the excellent library of effects and music beds. How does Adobe's offering compare? Does soundbooth offer a library of music tracks and sound effects that is comparable to Apple's?
 
David,

Also, how is the title in PP CS4? Are there any improvements to the built in titler? I am also wondering about the ability to keyframe title properties (not add keyframes to attributes of the clip, like motion or scale), but can you actually keyframe title attributes? Such as, character tracking?
 
the other awesome thing about Production Premium CS4 is you get mocha with it!!!

that's Keylight, Color Finesse, AND MOCHA now, how awesome is that!!!

- Derrick
 
Also, I noticed - is there now only one version of After Effects? Previously there was a standard edition and a pro edition. Have these been combined into just one version of After Effects that includes everything?
 
I believe there is only one After Effects now, yes. At leas there's only one available in either of the Suites. Not sure about stand-alone versions.

TItler -- didn't really explore it that much (don't have time right this minute); wouldn't use it anyway when After Effects is available. No NLE has an on-board titler that's anything to write odes to.

Soundbooth -- it doesn't come with that much of a library; but Adobe Resource Central (its online library) can be accessed directly from Soundbooth, and there's quite a bit available.
 
Is resource central all free?

Next time your in Premiere, would you mind looking at the titler? Sure AE is better, of course, but for quick and easier titles Premiere has in the past had a very nice titler. Write odes to? No, But I use it for 90% of titles because it is fast and easy. I'd love to know if they added anything to it and if they made any parameters of titles keyframeable, such as character spacing and what not.
 
There has only been one version of After Effects since CS3. After 7, they stopped making the lower end version.
 
How does Apple Color compare to Color Finesse? I find I can basically 9 way color correct with Finesse and it does a great job of seperating out the shadows from the mid tones.
 
Another fabulous pro color correcting tool available for Premiere and AE, is Colorista, no matter what you give it, it converts it to 32bit, does it's thing, and if your project is in a lower format, converts it back down.

- Derrick
 
GreekStudios said:
How does Apple Color compare to Color Finesse? I find I can basically 9 way color correct with Finesse and it does a great job of seperating out the shadows from the mid tones.
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COLOR in my opinion is better than Color Finesse but when you have other tools like COLORISTA and MAGIC BULLET LOOKS available for AE, those are amazing and I really don't see the need for you to absolutely have COLOR. AE with Colorista and MB LOOKS is a deadly combination.
 
David, I was wondering, is the HMC150 AVCHD at 1080p/24 supported in Premiere CS4 and if so...

In your article, you mentioned you have to select "Remove 24p DV Pulldown" for 24p over 60i files. I also saw a demo but didn't see a selection for 1080p/24 under AVCHD

... so my question is -- if you want to edit AVCHD 1080p/24, do you have to select 60i for the project and then check "Remove 24p DV Pulldown" for the footage or is there a setting for editing AVCHD at 1080p/24 in a 24p timeline?

Thanks!
 
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