Worried about the future of Premiere Pro development when Adobe keeps telling me that by making things take more clicks it is actually better

Starting with the Adobe Premiere Pro beta and it’s redesigned header bar, which their is a discussion on about at the Adobe Support Community for Premiere Pro Beta.

Where adobe moved the workspaces to under a single button with no display for what workspace you are in. And when us users gave feedback their seemed to be a fight back.

Ann (and everyone else) – I hear you about the change in muscle memory and requiring 2 clicks instead of one. I really do empathize – change is hard. I was an editor for 10 years before joing the software game and the placement of buttons is cemented in my brain. I too didn’t like the workspaces in the dropdown menu at first. But I have been using it now for a few months (yes I still edit constantly) and I’ve found that I prefer the menu dropdown. It’s a much better use of space, a cleaner look, and you can see all your workspaces at once without needing the overflow menu. I ask that you give it a chance and push past the innitial discomfort and really try this new arrangement. Also remember that this is not the end of the road. And getting reactions like this is exactly why we put it in beta first before just releasing and forcing it upon everyone.

This was my first instance of Adobe telling me that more than one click was better than one click (and in this case wasting space and not displaying the current workspace). Now in this instance at least Adobe seems to have relented and is going to allow us to display 3 workspaces in the title bar, though not by default.

And then at the Facebook Premiere Pro Editors user group, which I have subsequently left since my posts had links to this blog and I was told users didn’t like that, and I my tone had to be calmer and more deferential to Adobe employees who post on it, when posting about the now completely changed methods for dealing with the damn (see that is what would piss them off) ALEXA AMIRA LUT, I was told the new method was faster, when it takes more clicks, so obviously it is not.

Previously I could select all my footage and right click and Disable Master Clips. Now I have to right click go to drop down menu and select Interpret Footage, then in the subsequent dialogue go down to color man agement and select the Embedded AMIRA LUT drop down menu and then select none. IN NO WAY IS THAT FASTER THAN BEING ABLE TO TURN IT OFF FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU.

Now the first example they fixed after user feedback. The second is part of a re-designed Color Management System, that doesn’t seem to be documented at all by Adobe as of yet (boy they could learn something from Black Magic Designs about manuals especially for release versions, ha again something that would have gotten me reprimanded by the Premier Pro Editors User Group) and my questions on it were pulled from the group, so I deleted them, which is why Adobe employees should just be interacting on their own web site, and not in places where people unaffiliated with Adobe are removing posts because of tone or linking to content not on Facebook (if you at all read this site, you see I do long posts with many images, so there is no way I could do the same in a facebook post), so there is no chance for Adobe to comment or users to share their opinion and maybe get things changed.

And it does worry me that in both situations the Adobe employees told us that the new methods were faster, when they are demonstrably not. They are working on a slow but full rework of Premiere Pro, and it is statements like this that worry me the most. They think their new way is better and faster, and just implement something slower.

I mean why didn’t the whole Color Management change show up in the Beta? It just showed up in the release version, un-vetted by end users.

Now the fact that the did change the first example does give hope, but the new Import and Export dialogues being given such prominence over work spaces does worry me. Especially since so much of the weirdness of the new Export Dialogue doesn’t seem to have changed since it first hit the beta.

Anyway I am just thinking out loud here as I like to do here. You be the judge.

Scott Simmons at Pro Video Coalition review the 16 inch Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors Part 1

Scott Simons has released the first part of a must read review of using the Apple MAcBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors.

Things sounds great so far, and it really gives me hope for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro.

Still hope that plug in makers start speeding up the process of re-writing their software for M1. It disturbs me that even companies like Maxon with Red Giant hasn’t upgraded everything to M1 yet, even though it is a subscription, which means they really should be upgrading their applications quickly, because I am paying for them constantly. At least Adobe has the Beta of After Effects working on M1, but it is going to be limited on plug ins for sure.

ProVideoCoalition on using OpenEXR format in After Effects

Chris Zwar has an article at ProVideoCoalition on using OpenEXR format for rendering in After Effects.

OpenEXR support has recently been updated to include compression, and it is a stll format in case of crashes, you save your renders (though have to also render out audio if necessary). EXR is a format developed by VFX Proffesionals for the purpose.

ProVideoCoalition Adobe Insights on Performance Improvements for workflows and adobe sensei in Premiere Pro

ProVideoCoalition has an aticle on streamlined workflows with Productions in Premiere Pro as well Speech to Text using Adobe Sensei as well as the upgraded Roto Brush 2.

I can honestly say I don’t ever want to work without Speech to Text, it is amazing, and game-changing, it really is.

And Roto Brush 2 I can’t say that I think it is a better roto necessarily, but it is so much damn faster that it is mindblowing.

Knights of the Editing Table has a new tool called Grave Robber to Un-nest nested or Multicam Sequences in Premiere Pro

Knights of the Editing Table has created a new tool called Grave Robber for $15 (currently on sale for $12). It un-nest nested sequences or multi-cam sequences (not just flatten).

This company is amazing, Excalibur has become my favorite tool for Premiere Pro in how it speeds things up. And they just keep coming out with new tools.

Chris Zwar at ProVideoCoalition on After Effects Binning, and layer rendering order

Chris Zwar at ProVideoCoalition has an article on Bining and After Effects Rending order in the public beta of After Effects. The embedded video is about 45 minutes long, but well worth checking out. And you should also check out his 18 part series on After Effects and Performance which I have talked about before.

The video goes into 2D layers and precomps (rendering from the bottom up), and then 3D layers which is where Binning comes in, which connects all 3d layers that are next to each other in the timeline as a single render so you don’t get motion blur issues of individual layers in a created object. The new beta includes labels to show you how 3d layers are binned in the timeline, which will prove very useful to anyone who does a lot of 3d within After Effects.

It is funny, he started on After Effects 3, and I believe I started on version 4, though he is certainly more of a master than I am.

Some more posts with low votes at Adobe User Voice for Adobe Premiere Pro that deserve huge upvotes!

I have posted about this before, but here are some more topics that I can’t believe don’t have more upvotes.

The first is with a problem that has been bugging me lately that Essential Graqhics automatically scale when you change the sequence size, and I want them not to, or to have control if they automatically scale as you can do with Motion Effects. I often have to do a 1920×1080 and a 1080×1080 sequence so I cut it in 1920×1080 then do a 1080 version. Now I want the graphics to stay the same, but they don’t.

Bug: Essential Graphics scale when changing sequence frame size with 5 votes.

Option to not resize graphics when resizing a sequence with 2 votes.

So I have long hated the AMIRA lut added to Alexa Footage. It has been notorious since it was added, and has been known to cause project bloat. It used to show up as a Master Clip effect (now a source clip effect) but this has been changed (though strangely I can’t find it anywhere in the Premiere Pro help files) to be in the new Interpret Footage Color Management section.

Moving the AMIRA LUT to Interpret Footage Color Management takes more steps to remove the AMIRA LUT, How about an option to not apply ever. And yes this is mine.

Option to disable or delete Amira LUT with 8 Votes.

These are just a few more issues that Adobe needs to deal with, let me know if you have any that you think should be dealt with quickly by Adobe.

Did Adobe hide the Amira Lut instead of trying to fix it? NOPE THEY MOVED IT, but it still is automatically applied, and now takes more steps to de-activate it

OK AMIRA LUT CAN BE TURNED OFF, SEE BOTTOM OF POST ON HOW TO DO IT, I STILL WANT THE ABILITY TO NOT HAVE IT APPLIED THOUGH, WHY AM I FORCED TO HAVE THE DAMN AMIRA LUT APPLIED? AND WHY DOES IT TAKE MORE STEPS TO TURN IT OFF NOW THAN IT DID BEFORE? Yes Sorry I was yelling.

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Adobe released Premiere Pro 2022 this week, and I was playing with some Alexa footage, and looked at the source in the effects window and there is no AMIRA LUT anymore, but the LUT is still being applied. WHAT IS GOING ON?

Honestly I have been complaining about the damn AMIRA LUT for years, and I just wanted ADOBE to remove the fucking thing. I never want it automatically turned on, I want to work with the RAW footage and I can add an Adobe LUT if want it.

So in 2019 I have Alexa footage, that if I bring into the project it has the AMIRA Lut applied.

Alexa Footage with AMIRA LUT Automatically Applied
AMIRA LUT IN THE MASTER SETTINGS
The Alexa Footage with the AMIRA LUT Turned off

Now lets take a look in 2022, and it looks like in 2021 as well.

Alexa Footage in Premiere Pro 2022
This files Effects Panel with no Lumetri
The Source (renamed from Master) of the Alexa clip within 2022, no AMIRA LUT, but it is being Applied.

So it looks like Adobe saw that people were complaining about the AMIRA LUT being automatically added to footage and instead, of listening to us and just not adding it, they are now automatically adding it to any ALEXA footage you import into Premiere without the ability to remove it. WTF!!!!!

THIS IS NOT THE DAMN SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM ADOBE!!!!!

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OK HERE IS HOW TO TURN OFF THE AMIRA LUT, given by a very helpful Adobe Engineer in the Adobe Premiere Pro Editors facebook group, though my post was removed for being too emotional, so the solution is no longer available there.

So Right Click on a clip and go to Interpret Footage
The Modify Clip panel go to color Management, and you see embedded AMIRA LUT
In the drop down menu you can select none to remove the AMIRA LUT

OK so you can remove the AMIRA LUT, in a different way than you previously did, but why am I forced to have this LUT Applied. Adobe give me a way to not have the AMIRA LUT applied! And why does it actually take more steps to remove the “Embedded” LUT than it previously did?

Of course I was also told by an Adobe Engineer on UserVoice that the new top navigation bar is far better than the old one, even though it takes more clicks to switch between workspaces, but enough people complained, and now we at least get 3 that can be at the top, so I will continue to complain. And especially when things are made even less efficient!

In Premiere Pro 2019 you could select all the clips, and right click and hit disable Master Clips, and this turned the AMIRA LUT off.

Batch disabling the Masterclip effects in 2019

Now it is right click, sub menu, then another sub menu in another screen. And I have heard said now it is removed, but I am not so sure about that. If it was removed, the AMIRA LUT wouldn’t be re-selectable. The fact that it is called Embedded now I think means it is still there. I wonder if it is still causing project bloat as the AMIRA LUT had previously done?

All I want is for an option to not have AMIRA LUT added at all, if I want a Alexa Rec709 LUT I Can add it. Most other footage doesn’t force a LUT on it in Premiere, except maybe RAW.

I deleted my previous post on this, and posted an updated post at UserVoice.