Adobe needs to do something about 3rd party Plug Ins to make it easier to upgrade

With the release of Adobe Creative Cloud 2014, we have yet another set of programs installed in our computers, which is nice, as the last version will keep working for old jobs (and when plug ins have not been rewritten yet), but it makes for a pain in the ass in getting plug ins working again.

After Effects has so many places plug ins can be installed. In your Library folder and in the Plug ins folder in it’s application. So you have to painstakingly either re-install all your plugs in or go through and copy plug ins over between versions.

Photoshop used to do this well, with a 3rd Party plug-ins folder. So when you installed a new version you could just point Photoshop to this folder, and all your 3rd Party Plug-Ins would be there. Of course in true idiotic fashion they removed this feature.

And sure, some old plug ins will not work, but they could do a browser style plug in checker, which checks if your version works, and you could have a way to force them to work (or at least try to work) if it doesn’t know (as is possible in browsers like Mozilla Firefox).

This would just make everything so much easier and smoother with every upgrade! And since all CC users are in Creative Cloud, they will getting all the new updates, and likely implementing them!

Please Adobe do something about Plug-In Management and do it soon!

VideoCopilot with Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2014, Element 3D not working yet

Update on VideoCopilot Software and Adobe Creative Cloud CC 2014. Looking over at the Forums, it seems that everything except Element 3D is working with Creative Cloud 2014. And according to Andrew Kramer’s Twitter Feed, they are working on it.

With Red Giant working, and everything but Element 3D working, most of my plug ins are good. Now time to check on Re:Vision plug ins!

Having a ton of issues installing Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 on my home computer, SugarSync again looks to be involved

Am having a ton of issues with installation of the latest and greatest update of Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 on my home computer. No problem at work. And I love how the new versions install as new Apps (though this of course creates plug in issues, and having to re-install plug ins to make them work), but it leaves the old version untouched, so you can keep working with old version on current projects.

Well first off I am still having issues with CS6 updates. I have 8 CS6 updates that just will not install. They error out every time, and I have even tried downloading the individual installers and running them, but they just won’t update, and I am not sure why.

As for CC 2014, well first I have been getting a ShellExtLoader error message, and to quit the program to continue, but quitting the app using Activity Monitor kept the error coming. I think this is the fault of SugarSync, which I had forgotten to turn off. So after quitting SugarSync, I tried the installs again, but have kept getting failures on many apps, though not all of them. Really wish those two companies would get together and fix this issue, though I have been considering dropping SugarSync anyway, since it does not have the iOS interactivity of DropBox, and with iCloud looking to be improved with iOS8 and Yosemite, I might be able to replace a lot of it’s functionality that way.

My final solution has been to quit Creative Cloud, then use XtraFinder to launch it as Root, and run the installs. This has mostly worked (had to do it a few times to get the installs working) and I think I am all installed except for the aforementioned CS6 apps.

And unfortunately Red Giant has not yet updated it’s plugs ins for CC 2014 yet, so…

Lightworks has released a Mac Beta of it’s free editing software!



Lightworks the open source editing software with a venerable history has now released a public beta of the Mac version of the software. It is version 12.0.a

Lightworks is free, though to get the Pro version, it is either $7.99 a month, $79.99 a year or you can buy it outwirght for $279.99. And for serious editing you will want this, since not only does it include other export optins, but it allows you to use Hardware I/O from BlackMagic, AJA or Matrox. It also allows project sharing and the ability to set project locations.

I have never tried lightworks, but need to give it a try. It certainly betrays it’s feature editing roots in that it can only work with one frame rate for the whole project. So if you need to import footage of a different frame rate you will need to convert it first.

Lightworks includes a lot of videos on their web site to get to know the program and learn how to use it.

A free or at least inexpensive cross platform editor is a great thing, but I need to play before I see how it actually is.

Looks like a Bluetooth LE Adapter will not enable handoff in older Macs

MacRumors is reporting that Bluetooth LE Adapters do not add Handoff support to older Macs.

If this happens in the final release (which seems likely) it is really shitty of Apple, and just a way of trying to get users who want the feature to buy new Macs.

Especially annoying when something like the IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter adds full Bluetooth LE support out of the box without software. So it looks like it is a physical lockout on the part of Apple on older machines instead of a technical issue.

Hopefully if it is the case someone will release a 3rd party hack that enables this very cool feature.

StudioDaily has a first look at the new Adobe Creative Cloud Video Suite Features

StudioDaily has a great first look at the new features being released with the latest Creative Cloud release.

Effects Masking and Tracking within Premiere Pro sounds like an awesome addition, as are Master Clip effects, which will make color correction a breeze.

As for SpeedGrade the direct link to Premiere Pro feature where you actually open your timeline in SpeedGrade would seem to answer about half of my issues with SpeedGrade. Now they just need to get some curves going in there.

The ability to apply filters per mask in a layer will greatly speed up effects, and simplify timelines. And the Live templates features is very very cool. Where you can set text lines in After Effects to be editable by an editor within Premiere to quickly make lower thirds and the like based on a graphical template.

All in all it sounds great, and I hope the download is available soon!

What Machines will OS X Yosemite’s Handoff work on?

Macgasm has a chart, and it shows may users won’t be happy.

Handoff is the very cool new feature where with OS X Yosemite, you will be able to hand off things from iOS to your Mac, such as composing an e-mail or looking at a web page. And even answer phone calls from your cell phone via your mac and it’s microphones.

That’s a no for non 2013 MacPro’s. Hopefully a 3rd Party bluetooth 4.9 adapter will solve that (or some 3rd party software), as it shouldn’t matter if it is built in or via a 3rd party adapter. Or at least we can hope!