So adobe updated After Effects to version 18.4. The July 2021 update has the following features:
Improved Default Property naming in Essential Graphics Panel.
Support for MKV Files.
Automatic default audio device switching on Windows.
And it looks like Multi-Frame Rendering has remained in the beta for the moment.
Nothing too monumental here, unlike the Premiere Pro update today.
So I woke up way too early today because the air conditioner is not working too well, and I was too hot to keep sleeping and low and behold Adobe has updated Premiere Pro to Version 15.4!
This update brings the amazing Speech to Text out of Beta and into the normal version and out of the Beta program which I have been running for a bit. This quickly became my favorite feature when cutting testimonials, and I am so happy that i is available to all. It also includes new Transcript Editing Tools and the ability to Generate Captions Automatically.
And adds native support for Apple M1 Computers which was previously only available in the beta.
Other new features of Note:
New Titling and Caption Styling Tools.
You can now upgrade Legacy Titles to Essential Graphics. ARE YOU LISTENING AVID?
Color improvements with Tetahedral LUT interpolation. And the beta now includes a colorized vectorscope for more detail in grading.
The Speed of Saving of Team Projects has improved thanks to a new file structure. And in the Public Beta is progressive project loading to work faster, and improved media relinking.
You can now also label colors and clip names and have the option of limiting changes to the current sequence or applying changes to your source media.
On Windows you get automatic Audio Device Switching.
And CUDA and OpenCL have been discontinued completely in favor of Metal on the Mac.
Looking forward to running it through it’s paces, this is huge news.
As an editor at some point you are going to fill your hard drives, and before they get too full you are going to want to clear up some space and to do that you need to see exactly what is filling them up. To do that I have 2 really good paid utilities that you can use to see exactly what is taking up so much space on your mac. These are WhatSize and DaisyDisk.
Now I have been using and continue to use WhatSize as my primary, mainly because I prefer it’s interface. It is more expensive at $14.99, but it has a 30 day trial and works on Big Sur just fine.
And it also includes a graph form interface if that is your thing, though I prefer the lists view which I find makes much more sense.
DaisyDisk on the other hand is all built along it’s graph view, which is very pretty, but I do find it much harder to use than the column view of WhatSize.
It is very pretty, but column view just makes more sense to my mind.
As an added bonus it also works on M1 Macs already.
Both programs take a bit of time to scan a disk and then give you the results. As I have said I prefer WhatSize, but that is entirely your decision and you can try them both out before you buy, so…
Either way being able to delve into your files and find out what is taking up so much space on your hard drives in a quick and easy way is tool every editor and graphics artist should have in their tool belt.
Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac has a great article Comment: Apple’s inflexibility on flexible working seems likely to backfire, is really worth a read. I don’t see this as just applying to Apple but to the entertainment industry as well.
As an editor sure some interaction is great at times, but for the most part I am in a dark room by myself and I am so much more comfortable at home, and even better not having to drive. And I can work on my own computer which is set up exactly like I want. Now certainly there should be some discussion about equipment rentals since we won’t be in the office using their gear or bay (or need to have as many editing bays).
And yes there is something to be said for live screenings, but I really do want to setup a remote workflow so like the one Sofi Marshall talked about and I posted about. Often times just screening for someone will make me as an editor see stuff that I need to fix, and I think doing a remote session would solve this in most cases.
Sure sometimes editors will need to screen in person, but with Covid-19 and mask mandates returning to Los Angeles on Saturday I don’t want to be in an office even fully vaccinated. And with me having had open heart surgery, I seem to catch everything I come in contact with.
I stumbled across this video and was literally blown away. Great tips, and a must listen.
And you can check out his site Creative Video Tips, and his tutorials are awesome, you can also see his videos directly on YouTube. Well worth the time to check out if you use DaVinci regularly.
Jenny List at Hackaday has a report on the fact that the last remaining analogue ntsc transmitters have finally gone off the air. So now it is all broadcast digitally.
It is just too bad we can’t get rid of Standard Definition video all together, and raise the bit rate of HD Cable signals to make it look better. It is so compressed it looks terrible right now. As someone who cuts commercials and direct response I would also love to to see it go so I could stop doing 4:3 Centercut graphics on a 16:9 image for the SD broadcast.
You learn something new every day, I didn’t actually realize that this was now built into the Mac OS, as I have always used A Better Finder Rename (and awesome app with more power than this, but it costs $22.95 unlike this tip but if you do check it out also check out A Better Finder Attribute it’s companion app).
So check out this article by Macolm Owen at AppleInsider.
Every editor will need to batch rename files at some point, and the fact that it is so easy to do in the finder now is an amazing thing.
And it is on by default, though you can return to the new method if you want to (but why would you). She is also reporting that the tab bar will make a return on iPad OS 15 in a future beta.
I had posted about this and was using it in Safari Technology Preview in Big Sur. A new version hasn’t been released, but I will take a look at it once it comes out, to see if it is improved. Now if only Apple would add the option of tree style tabs, ha one can only dream.
Knights of the Editing Table have updated their awesome keyboard launcher Excaliubur for Adobe Premiere Pro to 1.1.3.
Here is the Change Log for this app that you will quickly find to be indispensable. For current users you download the update from the Excalibur settings app within Premiere Pro.
Sequence module:
– Add Marker to Clip
– Target Video/Audio Tracks
– Mute Video/Audio Tracks
– Lock Video/Audio Tracks
– Sync Lock Video/Audio Tracks
Selection module:
– Select Clip Above/Below
– Extend Selection
– Select All Clips after/before Playhead
– Invert Selection
– Select All Disabled Clips
Preferences module:
– Display Color Management
– Snap playhead in Timeline
– Selection Follows Playhead
– Linked Selection
– Transparency Grid
– Show Rulers
– Show Guides
– Snap in Program Monitor
Other:
– Multiply, divide, percent operations are added for Position/Scale/Rotation and etc
– Excalibur Settings could be open from a search bar
– “Copy Frame to Clipboard” didn’t work on some macOS machines
– “Export Media/Selected Clips” in a search bar used project location as an export path. Now it defaults to Premeire Pro last used export path (which could be controlled with Compass)
– Unnecessary undo step was performed for Duration/Speed command if duration/speed couldn’t be changed or was the same for an affected clip
– Effect presets that used “Vector Motion” (part of Essential Graphics) added additional “Vector Motion” effect instead of changing values of an existing one
– Optimized “Nest Clips” command
– Optimized “Paste Clip on Same track” command
– Optimized preloading of a search bar
– Enter pressed multiple times in a search bar caused Excalibur to execute command multiple times
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This app really is amazing and will guaranteed speed you up within Premiere. My biggest problem is working on other machines where it is not installed! Honestly I might be buying multiple licenses when I eventually have to go back to working in an office instead of working from home.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of Apple’s addition of Lossless music up to 24bit 192hz and Spatial Audio (a new Dolby Audio suround mix for stereo headphones, here with Apple’s proprietary chip), but my big problem is finding what music is available. Sure there are Spatial Audio playlists, but no Lossless Playlists but I would like to be able to search by album and spatial or lossless to find music to listen to.
And yes I know most people can’t hear the difference with Lossless, but if it is mixed well I have an Emotiva XDA-1 DAC a good headphone amp and nice headphones, so it does sound pretty damn good.
And I have been impressive with Spatial Audio, at least well mixed spatial audio and my PowerBeats Pro headphones. It does sound pretty damn impressive for bluetooth headphones, much like Dolby on my headphones on my XBOX. Pretty impressive when mixed well.
And there lies the problem, make it easier to search for Apple! I know they are all for simplicity, but simplicity at the cost of functionality is not worth it.