Which is best ?

D

dowesee

Member
I'm soon going to be shooting a feture film and need to upgrade my editing sofware . My Question is Avid or FCP for CGI. The Visual effects guy is running After effects and I looked at the Adobe editing stuff and its cool but... I'd rather go with the other two softwares. Or should I forget them and just go with Premere? Which will work better with After Effects, Avid or FCP? Thanks to all.
 
Sorry dude, can you elaborate on what you want to do?

CGI is generated imagery, normally 3d imagery like that made in 3DS Max, Maya etc...

If you are talking compositing, I'd go with Aftereffects anyday [until I get to go with Shake that is] and render out shots to use in any NLE - as you can render out pretty much any format on a PC or a mac you can have your choice of NLE, you don't have to be restricted to Premiere.

Let us know what you have in mind

Thanks

Richard
 
After Effects is a compositing program, not an editing program.

Huge difference.

I don't know what you mean by "CGI."
 
As a vfx/color guy, I use AE, but my clients give me projects from Avid, Premiere, Edius, FCP, whatever, and I view it as my responsibility to interface with whatever they're using.

You just have to figure out what settings are compatible with both applications. With Premiere and Edius, the transition is pretty easy, with Avid and automatic duck it's very easy, and with FCP it's brutal. But there's always a way. :)

CGI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-generated_imagery
neither one of the programs you mentioned really do any 3d cgi, and any NLE will edit files generated by a CGI program.
 
Thanks to all on the comments, Sorry about the CGI stuff I used the wrong term. So ProfessorU what have you found to be the smoothest workflow for AE effects? I was thinking about FCP but you mentioned it was "Brutal" is it realy hard to work with the two? Thank you to all.
 
What we will be using the programs for is like muzzel flashes for guns or bullet holes. Alot of blue screen and such too.
 
dowesee said:
What we will be using the programs for is like muzzel flashes for guns or bullet holes. Alot of blue screen and such too.
Click to expand...

I'm a noob to editing...but normally a VFX/color guy too. I use AE for nearly everything compositing, color correcting, etc (save for occasional photoshop batches).

The workflow that works easiest for me right now is the "CS3" work flow.

In CS3, they've incorporated "Dynamic Link" which will allow you to render/link out to a AE project, do the color correcting/FX/compositing/etc....and it'll automagically be updated in Premiere (or Encore).

I've never used Edius or Avid...but also use FCP now.

What i've usually had to do for FCP workflow is render out compressed from FCP, import into AE, do what needs to be done, render back out uncompressed/lossless to re-import into FCP.

There may be an easier way...but i'm too stubborn to learn it yet. I'd rather learn it the hard way, then make it easier via short cut later....that's just the way I learn.

Back to topic.....so far, the most seamless integration for what I do is the CS3 workflow.
 
Well it sounds like it's gotten easier since CS2. Premiere and AE have always played pretty well together, though.

The projects I've done with FCP have all been renders to video files, or for effects, just working with the original video files and outputting updated ones.

If you decide to go with CS3, buy them in a suite, since you'll save some money. Another note, if you can qualify for the educational prices, it's a huge price break. I know people who have signed up for classes just to get the discount.
 
After Effects integrates well with all editing applications that support alpha channels. As a freelance editor, I get files all the time from AE artists, usually they give me animation files that I transcode to the appropriate codec that I happen to be working in, whether it's on an Avid, FCP, Premeire, etc. If you are doing some muzzle flashes and effects like that, check out Videocopilot, they have some already rendered effects of muzzle flashes and stuff and tutorials on how to use it in your projects.
 
Thanks again, I still need to do more homework. It sounds like CS3 is a cool program, and thanx cwpost for the videocopilot stuff.
 
Yeah I have the CS3 master collection and it's quite nice. I also recommend getting the educational discount. Remember that you're allowed to earn money with this software and when you're not a student anymore, you can still use it and earn money with it.

good luck
 
I use the CS3 collection as well. The workflow is pretty seamless between Premiere and AE, which I definitely like. If you end up using it, make sure to enable the 'Auto-Save' function and to save often manually and you'll avoid some of the occasional crashes that inevitably occur.
 
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