RedGiant Universe is out of Beta

Red Giant has released version 1.0 of it’s new GPU accelerated Universe Plug ins. These include 31 free GPU accelerated plugs ins and currently 19 Pro plug ins that can be had for $10 a month, $99 a year or $399 for a lifetime subscription. And they promise dozens of new tools in 2014 alone. Already these protools include a version of Knoll Light Factory, Toonit and Holomatrix.

I love Red Giant’s stuff, so this is a great thing. Not sure about all these subscriptions though. So far the small businesses I work with have been very averse to a monthly fee, but the free plug ins are great to have.

Cinemartin makes Premiere Pro Plug-ins for ProRES and H.265 HEVC for Windows

Studio Daily reported the news from NAB.

A 30 Day Trial is available for download.

They will have various versions:

•ProRES 422 including LT and HQ in 1080p 30FPS for $68 with Single Core Encoding

•ProRES 4444, UHD, 4K and H.265 (v2) at up to 60FPS for $137 with Dual Core Encoding

•H.265 SQ and HQ and up to 6 Core Encoding for $551

ProRES is so ubiquitous that this is great news.

You knew it was coming, but it seems that subscription is going to be the way going forward for most software companies

It all started with Adobe and Creative Cloud which is $49.99 a month with a yearly subscription, and $79.99 for a per month basis. And with no other versions available, it means you need it if you need the latest and greatest.

Now they have been great with rapid upgrades, and with the full suite so necessary for most video post work this is basically a necessity.

Not sure how it will work for Media Composer with the same pricing. Most places buy a version and keep them on non-upgraded machines so they can just stick with the same version. Not only that, with Creative Cloud you get the full suite of apps, including Premiere Pro, and with Media Composer you just get Media Composer. Sure you get more options, like Symphony, NewBlue Titler Pro 2, Sorenson Squeeze Lite, and Boris Continuum Complete Lite, but it is still basically just an editing and finishing system, so seems like buying it is a better idea (at least while they still offer the ability to purchase) at least unless you just need it on a month to month basis and can bill a client for it.

And now Smoke 2015 is getting it, though it is a $3500 program that is $195 a month or $1750 a year. Or $3500 every 2 years, which makes sense if they continue to do an upgrade every 2 years, which they have done once now.

Still it is depressing for us independent post guys, as more monthly expenses does not seem like a good thing overall.

Chris Hocking at Late Nite Films on Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro CC and Avid Media Composer

Chris Hocking at Late Nite Films has an awesome article, where he goes into not only the best things about AVID and Premiere Pro, but also his first attempt at using FCP X. And his is the first article that makes me interested in taking a look again at FCP X, though maybe once they fix audio issues.

And I still say that for graphics heavy projects, even longform (at least 28:30 Direct Response), I think Premiere Pro with a proper video card can easily outdo AVID, which is still archaic in how it deals with Alphas (and importing them) even if it is the king of media management. And those same projects would be a mess in FCP X without the ability to have tracks for organization.

I mean my current sequence has 18 tracks of video going all organized into different layers.

Larry Jordan compares Apple Compressor 4.1 to Adobe Media Encorder CC

Larry Jordan did an extensive comparison of the latest Apple Compressor to Adobe Media Encoder.

He ran the tests twice, as at first he used default settings and didn’t check image quality, but his seconds test are more equivalent, and the results surprised me as I gave up on Compressor a long time ago.

Basically it looks like for Single Pass encoding Compressor is faster, but for Multi-Pass (though it defaults to single pass) or resized compressing Media Encoder is faster, and it looks better at lower file sizes, though Compressor has more ability to customize settings.

The article is certainly worth a read, especially for all those who do a lot of compression.

David Fincher has moved to Premiere Pro CC for his film GONE GIRL

Studio Daily is reporting that David Fincher’s new film GONE GIRL is being edited on Premiere Pro CC. And we already know Saturday Night live is using it for it’s pre-done segments.

Lets hope this is moment like when Walter Murch used Final Cut Pro 3 to cut Cold Mountain. That really pushed Final Cut Pro more mainstream. And since I have seen so many big companies moving back to AVID of late, it is great to see something high profile like this, to push Premiere Pro, which I really prefer to AVID, especially for Graphics heavy projects, like Direct Response which I mostly cut of late.

Not that Premiere doesn’t have it’s issues, but overall it is a very impressive program, and it’s integration with After Effects really makes it even better.

Adobe has announced an upgrade to the Creative Cloud Video Suite for NAB

Rich Young a the ProVideo Coalition has the news on this exciting next release of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Video Suite.

Looks like Adobe is taking aim at the finishing power of AVID with the ability to add effects to Master Clips in Premiere, as well as edit Text from After Effects Projects within Premiere.

Scott Simmons has a more extensive look at Premiere.

And as for After Effects, the effects on a per mask basis is pretty exciting, as it will change the use of layers and adjustment layers within After Effects.

Chris and Trish Meyer look deeper at After Effects.

Looking forward to it. The fast update cycle is pretty awesome. I would like to see AVID come close.