Using After Effects as an Advanced Titler for Premiere Pro

Footage from the Artbeats Portraits - Adults HD collection

Adobe Premiere Pro has a robust titler built in, including the ability to create title rolls and crawls. However, Adobe After Effects has even more advanced tools, including hundreds of Animation Presets for type, Shape Layers to build additional graphic elements such as lower third bars, and a combination of Layer Styles and Effects to further enhance the final look. If you have either the Production Premium or Master Collection suites, Premiere Pro and After Effects can talk to each other using Adobe Dynamic Link, which makes this process more fluid. In this article below I’ll explain the general process of using After Effects to create refined lower thirds for Premiere Pro, and then on the next page is a series of short videos that walk through the actual process (including some design ideas in After Effects).

The Adobe Premiere Pro timeline for Final Cut Pro users

When working in a non-linear editing application the editor spends many, many hours working in the timeline. Boy do we spend a lot of hours working in the timeline. If you’re moving from Final Cut Pro 7 to Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5 then you won’t be totally lost as there are a lot of similarities between the two application’s timelines. But there are some important differences as well. Let’s take a closer look at the Premiere Pro timeline if you’re moving from FCP 7. Did I mention how much time editors spend working in the timeline?

Film Is Dead!

In this episode Philip & I cover a series of topics starting with large sensor cameras in production, the November 3 announcements from Canon Professional video, RED and Avid. Then on to the death of film, the cinema experience, and the problems of 3D.

We’ve been predicting the demise of the Mac Pro in the current form fact for some time, and during this early October recording, we discuss what has this week become rumor: the demise of the heavy iron workstation. (And the value of SSD.)

I report from the Monitor shootout day sponsored by the Hollywood Post Alliance, and HPA sponsored workflows.

We also get onto the future of Apple after the loss of Steve Jobs (just like everyone else!), leading to a discussion of who invented what?

The implications of Siri for postproduction: specialist tools vs generalists tools.

To join us just click on the player link below.

Avid Media Composer 6 is announced and it’s moving into the future

Today was the day for the Avid webcast where they announced a new version of Media Composer. Version 6 will ship on November 15 and may be one of the most important releases of Media Composer since … well version 5.0. Version 5 ushered in the big change that is the Smart Tools and caused quite a ruckus amongst old timers. Version 6 will see an updated interface. That interface is a surface change but there’s a lot of under-the-hood changes as well. In fact, I think it could be said that Media Composer 6.0 is sort of like a reboot, or maybe a reset as I heard one person say. The last time we heard the term reboot when talking about an NLE was Final Cut Pro going to version X. Avid’s reboot is much more subtle. It’s the kind of reboot that is needed, mostly under-the-hood that builds a platform to move forward into the future without sacrificing the features we’ve come to use and rely on.

PsF’s missing workflow, Part 3: Sony’s AVCHD & NXCAM cameras

In part 1 of PsF’s missing workflow, we introduced the new terms benign PsF and malignant PsF (Progressive Segmented Frame), reviewed their vital importance and fragility in post-production, and clarified the PsF status of two Panasonic professional AVCHD cameras (branded as AVCCAM). In part 2, we clarified the PsF status of the Canon XA10 professional AVCHD camera. Now, in part 3, we’ll clarify the PsF status of Sony’s professional AVCHD cameras, some of which carry the NXCAM brand.

Use Dynamic Link to bring Warp Stabilizer to Premiere Pro CS5.5

The Dynamic Link process to stabilize a Pr clip in AE begins in the Pr timeline.

Warp Stabilizer was arguably the biggest addition to After Effects CS5.5. Once you understand how to use it, it’s a tool that can change the way you shoot; if you find yourself without a tripod or any kind of stabilization with a camera as notoriously unsteady as a DSLR, even on a moving shot, you can end up with footage that can look as if a dolly or SteadiCam were used to take it.

For editors and shooters who work more in Premiere Pro than in AE, this is clearly a case where Dynamic Link, the technology bridge between the two apps, is useful. Warp Stabilizer isn’t part of Pr, and it is relatively straightforward for basic usage even for the casual AE user. This article not only walks you through how to achieve shot stabilization on clips in a Pr edit, but it opens the door to how to use Dynamic Link generally, for those who’ve wished they had a better handle on it.

All of the Automatic Duck plug-ins are now free

It was just over a month ago that the post-production community was surprised by the news that the perennial workflow / transfer tools from Automatic Duck were suddenly gone. If you’ve been under a rock get up to speed on that news here and here. Another bombshell dropped Friday night when news broke that all those legacy Auto Duck products are now available for free.

A report on Walter Murch’s talk at the Boston SuperMeet

I wasn’t able to make it to the October 27 Boston SuperMeet though I really, really wanted to go. With a lineup that included the editor of Apocalypse Now and The English Patient, that would be Walter Murch of course, as well as Andrew Weisblum, editor of Black Swan and The Wrestler this looked to be a craft-focused event. Of course everyone wanted to know what Murch thinks of Final Cut Pro X and thanks to Chris Portal’s report from the event we now know.

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