Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 now offers GPU acceleration on laptops

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, version 5.0.3 is an update now available. This update to Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 adds support for two new NVIDIA cards: the Quadro 4000 (Mac) and the Quadro 5000M (Windows). The addition of these new cards extends the power of the Mercury Playback Engine’s GPU acceleration to users working on laptops as well as workstations.

The 5.0.3 update also includes performance enhancements to further improve the experience of switching between Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and other applications, as well as other user interface, stability, and performance enhancements that make the Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 editing workflow even more efficient and robust. For a full list of enhancements, check out Adobe Premiere Pro team’s blog post that highlights the 5.0.3 update. 

Switching to Adobe Premiere Pro-A 4-part switcher series

More and more Final Cut editors are using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to make them more efficient. If you’re wondering if Adobe Premiere Pro is really worth the switch, check out the four-part web series (replay links are listed below) featuring Final Cut editors and how and why they use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. You’ll learn the real story on Adobe Premiere Pro’s Mercury Playback Engine, what it means to edit DSLR footage natively, and how you can remove bottlenecks in your pipeline when working with Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. To follow up the series, check out the Q&A session to see if your burning questions were answered.

Don’t forget to check out the resources we have for Final Cut and Avid editors here making the switch to Adobe Premiere Pro. We have also created a 7-part video series that answer a ton of questions. Check it out on AdobeTV. For information on hardware support, we have a special site just for that purpose and even have benchmarking data to give you the real scoop on Mercury. Finally, for all things revolving around HDSLR video editing, Adobe has created a site that is full of free video tutorials and tips & tricks.

Scaling in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

A lot of people are talking about CUDA and the GPU in the context of Premiere Pro CS5. But the talk is almost always about speed, speed, and more speed. Yeah, using CUDA on the GPU to process a lot of effects does speed things up (a lot!) in many cases, but that’s not the whole story.

An Adobe Premiere Pro Switcher Story

Chris Fenwick is a colleague of mine and has been for quite a while in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chris has been involved in the post-production community since the 80′s so he’s been around the block a few times. He’s also well known in the Final Cut Pro community and has given impassioned lectures about non-linear editing workflow at FCP users groups.

To my surprise, Chris has recently become a “switcher”. That is, someone who formerly used another editing tool and has made the decision to switch to Premiere Pro CS5. Lately, he’s been working with a ton of DSLR footage and the workflow for editing it in Final Cut Pro is too painful. Chris simply doesn’t have the time to transcode his footage just to start working on a project. Chris’ reasoning is that Premiere Pro CS5 provides tools to get his job done more quickly and smoothly than Final Cut Pro can.

Chris has recently released a series of videos about the switching process on his website. Although he can be a bit brash in talking about its quirks, I think that Chris gives a very honest assessment of the tools and features found in Premiere Pro CS5. Check out Chris’ website and look at the left hand column for links to all the videos and commentary. If you’re a switcher too, I think you’ll find the videos valuable. By the way, you can also follow Chris on Twitter.

Are you thinking about switching too? We’ve posted a web page for switchers on Adobe.com. There are a bunch of resources to help you with the transition.

Got a switcher story to share? Let us know!

Classroom: After Effects CS5 video tutorial series for beginners

Adam Shaening-Pokrasso presents a seven-part video tutorial series that introduces After Effects for beginners. This series is a single multi-part hands-on tutorial with downloadable exercise files, so it’s especially good for people who learn by doing.

I’ve added this tutorial series to the resources that I recommend in my overview post for beginners: “Getting started with After Effects (CS4 and CS5)”.

One of the things that makes this series stand out from other tutorials is that it spends a lot of time on fundamentals of animation and motion graphics, not just on the specific features of After Effects, and not just on the creation of a specific result or look. These fundamentals can be used every day, for every project. This is real teaching.

Here’s a quick summary of the highlights of what each episode shows:

Episode 1, Animation and compositing basics
> overview of terminology, workflow, and user interface
> basic animation of layer properties
> RAM preview

Episode 2, Animation technique and keyframe interpolation
> overview of keyframes and animation
> keyframe interpolation

Episode 3, Masking and duplicating layers
basic compositing
> introduction to masks
> duplicating layers

Episode 4, Parenting
> null object layers
> parenting

Episode 5, Precompositions and master compositions
> composition settings
> precompositions
> introduction to effects
> changing and animating masks
> layer stacking order
> In and Out points

Episode 6, Photoshop to After Effects workflow
> working with Photoshop and After Effects
> preparing and importing Photoshop documents
> anchor points

Episide 7, Final touches and rendering
> markers
> navigating nested compositions
> moving and tweaking keyframes
> adjustment layers
> basic color correction and adjustment
> rendering and exporting

What sort of postings do you want from Adobe?

Like everyone else, I’ve started a blog, gotten into a blog, regularly contributed to a blog, added to the blog, expanded the blog, touted the blog and ultimately…forgotten the blog.

Actually, I never forgot about it and I’ve put in entries now and again, but working for Adobe, you’ve got to focus on what’s most important and sadly, though I love it, the blog languished and the petals fell off of the blossom.Well, I’m not out of the woods yet and I can’t remember ever being more busy than I am right now.  HOWEVER… I am resolved to get back into the blog.

Why?  Simply put – you.  Many of you have commented and taken the time to tell me that you’ve gotten something out of it, or asked a question or whatever.  Helping people is one of the most rewarding things that I can do for Adobe and while I’m not perfect at it (or even consistent), I’m glad to be getting back into this.

BUT..THERE’S..A..PROBLEM..

In addition to getting back into the groove, connecting Contribute to the blog, learning how to use Omniture, etc., there’s the idea of content.  What do you want?

Really – what do you want from this blog?  What do you want from Adobe Beginner Classes on Adobe TV?

One of the things I’m going to be doing is some informal and probably biased reviews of some gear.  I’m planning on doing some reviews of the equipment I get to play with and pass on some of my off beat thoughts and comments.

Anyway, you get the idea.  So I hope that you’ll comment here, post something on Twitter (@TheGenesisProj) or do some sky writing in a piper cub in whichever city I’m visiting.  Okay, maybe the last one is tough, but I’d be impressed!

Let me know and as always, thanks for your support.

Dennis

To Transcode or Not to Transcode

With the release of Premiere Pro CS5 earlier this year, the topic of native editing, and more specifically, native DSLR editing has been a big one…worldwide. From literally every country I’ve visited, people are discovering the power of DSLR video and leveraging it to it’s fullest. But the questions I’m continually asked are, “Why does Final Cut Pro/Avid Media Composer force you to transcode? Why don’t you transcode in Premiere?”

This is generally followed by, “Surely, transcoding to an intermediate codec leads to better/more accurate color grading, higher bit depths, faster performance, etc…right?”

Well, the short is answer is: No. There are many misconceptions about transcoding, largely stemming from its long-standing traditional use. But as Dylan once sang, “The times, they are a-changin’…” and the same can be said for the way we work in our NLEs specifically, Premiere Pro CS5.

So, I decided to record a short (less than 9 minute) tutorial on ‘Staying Native or Going Intermediate’ to try and clarify some of these misconceptions, and educate users as to when, how, and why you might/might not stay native or move to an intermediate codec.

Staying Native or Going Intermediate? Transcoding and Premiere Pro CS5 from Jason Levine on Vimeo.

As mentioned in the video, this is not meant in any way to ’slam’ or ‘cut down’ on anyone’s personal choices for editing/workflow, nor am I stating that there’s no place for transcoding~there most definitely are great benefits in certain workflows. These are simple truths that I hope will provide some clarification.

Blog on.

Adobe Premiere Pro 3D Stereoscopic Realtime Editing

I’ve created a start-to-finish workflow on how you can create a 3D stereoscopic workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 using complementary tools that are on the market today. It’s a must see for anyone getting started with 3D Stereo. This seven-part series covers Active, Passive and Anaglyph viewing as well how to play your videos on a consumer 3D TV. It’s a ton of information so I broke up the series into bite-sized pieces. Let me know if you have any questions and enjoy!—Dave

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