So I came across this compression software on one of my Premiere Pro forums on Facebook, having not hear of it before. Someone was asking for a batch compressor that could set a file size for all your files and this was recommended.
It uses the same FFmpeg engine as the awesome Handbrake software, so you know it has impressive results.
It can trim videos without re-encoding, replace audio, rewrap, merge, subtitle, and do so much more. And unlike Handbrake it does all the important pro formats, it even has file renaming and an ftp program for uploads and downloading of web video, and can open multiple instances of the app. And it is donation ware and is for Mac, Windows, Ubunti and Linux and it has a whole slew of presets you can download.
This is an impressive piece of kit that should be added to every editors arsenal, and please consider donating if you use it professionally.
Now like Sofi Marshall I do like Merge clips, but just wish Adobe would fix them, getting rid of meta data and not being able to go back to original clips without exporting an xml and re-importing (and the fact that this works shows that Merge clips still has the data somewhere). And I don’t like single angle clips to be multicam, but they are right that as it is now Multi-cam is slightly superior.
Still might just switch back to using Red Giant (or should I say Maxon) Plural eyes and sequences unless Adobe does something about Merge clips.
Speech to Text is so good for doing testimonials I don’t know how i ever lived without it. It is fast and works so incredibly well. And having the script helps with comprehension so my edits just go faster. This is the most impressive feature in years, and it has quickly become essential to my workflow.
I was rendering some graphics in After Effects for use in Premiere Pro and started thinking about Alpha interpretation. I have been doing graphics professionally since I started editing the behind the scenes footage for Lord of the Rings , The Fellowship of the Ring and over the years I worked out that Straight alphas almost always worked out better for me, with better edges. Now I have read that Final Cut Pro prefers a premultiplied alpha, but I have certainly had better luck with with a straight alpha. I wanted to dive into what the differences really are, and a great definition is in Help for After Effects.
Image files with alpha channels store transparency information in one of two ways: straight or premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ.
With straight (or unmatted) channels, transparency information is stored only in the alpha channel, not in any of the visible color channels. With straight channels, the results of transparency aren’t visible until the image is displayed in an application that supports straight channels.
With premultiplied (or matted) channels, transparency information is stored in the alpha channel and also in the visible RGB channels, which are multiplied with a background color. Premultiplied channels are sometimes said to be matted with color. The colors of semitransparent areas, such as feathered edges, are shifted toward the background color in proportion to their degree of transparency.
Some software lets you specify the background color with which the channels are premultiplied; otherwise, the background color is usually black or white.
Straight channels retain more accurate color information than premultiplied channels. Premultiplied channels are compatible with a wider range of programs, such as Apple QuickTime Player.Often, the choice of whether to use images with straight or premultiplied channels has been made before you receive the assets to edit and composite. Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects recognize both straight and premultiplied channels, but only the first alpha channel they encounter in a file containing multiple alpha channels.
Setting the alpha channel interpretation correctly can prevent problems when you import a file, such as undesirable colors at the edge of an image or a loss of image quality at the edges of the alpha channel. For example, if channels are interpreted as straight when they are actually premultiplied, semitransparent areas retain some of the background color. If a color inaccuracy, such as a halo, appears along the semitransparent edges in a composition, try changing the interpretation method.
And that explains it, since with premultiplies the edges can get some of the background color leaking into them in some cases, which is not the case with straight alphas.
And while quicktime and Apple may prefer premultiplied alphas that does not make them better or desirable, Apple already has it’s whole gamma shift issue with quicktime that is a disaster, so adhering to what they want isn’t always the best idea.
Now I was a huge fan of SpeedGrade when it existed, and greatly lamented it’s passing when it went away. For those of you who don’t know, SpeedGrade was a professional color correction software much like DaVinci Resolve that Adobe purchased and added to their creative suite for a while, and then gutted it and that is where the Lumetri color panel came from. What I miss the most was that unlike with DaVinci where you render out movies with the grade baked in, the grade from SpeedGrade could be exported a single movie or movies of each shot, but you could also roundtrip to premiere and the entire grade came back to Premiere as the Lumetri plug in on your clips! Not only was this much faster, especially since most Lumetri grades would play back in real time without rendering in Premiere, but it saved hard drive space too and made the whole round-tripping thing a real pleasure.
Sure it wasn’t quite as powerful as DaVinci Resolve at the time, but it was plenty powerful and at the time even beat DaVinci on a couple of things.
Of course by this point DaVinci has vastly moved on from SpeedGrade, but this is Adobe we are talking about, and they could certainly update it (and give it multi-monitor support). And maybe bake in some After Effects tools for masks and tracking and the like.
Now Premiere Pro has the Lumetri Color Panel, but it isn’t near what SpeedGrade was and no where near what Premiere can do. So the Adobe Creative Suit really needs a high end color correction package and it could be the evolution of SpeedGrade or as Randi Altman called it Lumetri Pro (I wish I could take credit for the name).
You get Substance 3D Stager to put models together, material and light a 3D scene to produce virtual photographs and renderings, which sounds like a high end version of Adobe Dimension (which is in Creative Cloud).
You get Substance 3D Painter to paint textures and materials on a 3D Object.
I know companies love there subscriptions, and that 3D programs are getting really high subscription prices, but this should have been included in Creative Cloud. Of course I also think it should be more than creating stills as 3D motion product shots would be amazing to be able to make quickly and well.
Universe is available as a subscription for $199 a year, or as part of Red Giant Complete for $599.99 annually or Maxon one with all their products for $1199 a year or you can pay a monthly for $30, $79 or $149.
Personally I have used the Red Giant plug ins for many many years, and they have many of my go to effects. They are also fast and work across editing software for the most part. It is a big expense every year, but I find it very worth it for the suite of tools. And honestly if I could afford it would love to add Cinema 4D to the mix.
I like his thoughts on import which is a simplified version of DaVinci’s cut page (since you can quickly assemble a sequence) are interesting, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but then the Cut page isn’t really for me or how I work, though I do like some of it, it just isn’t there for me.
And the fact that he asked adobe and they will eventually update everything including the timeline (just don’t learn anything from Final Cut Pro X please) is pretty huge news.
And he is right they need to make Lumetri Pro, which would be a new version of SpeedGrade and bring back the grade just being the lumetri plug in premiere. OMG I WOULD LOVE THAT, I have missed SpeedGrade since it went, and it is really the one thing Adobe is seriously missing a powerful finishing program.
The New Export Window is cleaner and takes up the full screen automatically
One problem with the whole screen thing, is that it is completely taking over the Premiere Pro interface, and my automatic response was to go to the red button on the top left to close the window, which closes the whole program. To close the export panel you have to go to the EXIT button on the bottom left. Which the hell knows about?
See the Exit button on the bottom left corner.
Honestly I kind of see where they are going here, as the export instead of a window is now basically a workspace, but if that is the case treat it like a workspace and have it with the workspaces (at the top of the list) and to exit it you go back to your workspace. It is going to take me a bit to break me of closing it as a window if I need to.
Or they realized and put an exit in because might not realize that you leave by going to Edit instead of export, but this makes the edit workspaces a second tier (since you have to click twice to access and select them now, and they are only within the edit interface and not within the export interface. And why the hell is the Exit button on the bottom right of the Import dialogue and left of the Export dialogue?
A single unified Workspaces would make much more sense to me instead of 2 tiers, and it is 2 tiers as the workspaces have now been moved to their own button, and in both Import and Exit they are greyed out.
Greyed out Workspaces
And the default Export Settings is so much less pro now, being renamed to destinations. Well OK you can include upload settings, but it is not something a pro will normally use.
The Default Export Settings
All these “Destinations” are so web oriiented, how about some master settings, or at least export full resolution timeline at it’s settings (which should be the top setting). Honestly I never use an automatic upload. Anything that is for mastering needs to be exported then watched then uploaded anyway, so having all these “destinations” is completely useless to me. And how about a Frame.io destination which could be a bit useful at least, but still should be watched before uploading.
Now it is easy enough to add new ones, based on the settings you make with the media file settings.
New Media File Destination added to the list.
And as for getting to the compression settings, everything is harder to get to now, taking multiple clicks to do what could be opened by one before.
I have to click more and scroll to see more settingsOnce I have clicked more
And you cannot type in a number in the bitrate, only use the slider to set bit rate. No thank you, I need to be able to type in a bitrate as I used to be able to. (UPDATE: in the forums they have said they are working on this).
I am really not sure about the new header bar, and it’s hiding the workspaces in favor of Import/Edit/Export which becomes a new tier of workspaces, and ones that I don’t use as much as my edit workspaces on a day to day basis.
Going to be interesting to see how Adobe makes it standard across apps, as I am assuming that will just mean video apps, but we shall see.
I can honestly say I don’t need the Import and Export all the time on my title bar, I would rather have quick access to my custom workspaces than have those. Many times I import most everything at the start then only need a graphic here and there so don’t need it on the title bar.
I think it should all be one workspace system or at least make Edit a drop down with your workspaces.
So now it is two clicks for me to change workspaces instead of 2. That is not an improvement.
You can discuss the new features at the Adobe Support Community, here is for the Header Bar, Import Workflow and Export Workflow. And the Export discussions says the layout is still being worked on, and they are going to add BACKGROUND RENDERING as well as the already added multiple outputs.
And I really wish Adobe would fix Merge Clips rather than adding new stuff.
