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Edit Review — Adobe Video Collection 2.5

Aug 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Frank McMahon

Software suite flexes new muscle, collectively and as individual programs.

Above are some of the 250 new text animation presets that ship with After Effects 6.5 in the new version of the Adobe Video Collection. Adobe introduces an update to its Video Collection, bumping it up to version 2.5. The bundle now includes Premiere Pro 1.5, After Effects 6.5, Audition 1.5, Encore DVD 1.5, and Photoshop CS. Adobe has always stressed the integration among its various products — in fact, this collection of video software has been available for a few years now.

But only in the past year has Adobe really tried to weld its disparate software elements into single-unit suites, most notably with the recent Photoshop-anchored Creative Suite (CS). Like Adobe CS, the Video Collection is now updated as a group. It's quite a bargain to upgrade Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Encore DVD for only $249, especially with the generous sprinkling of new features and streamlined interfaces. So what's new?

On a global level, those integration enhancements stand out. You can now import Premiere Pro 1.5 projects into After Effects 6.5 with markers, edits, effects, keyframes, and transitions preserved. You also can literally cut and paste projects between the two. In AE, just select your entire project, choose cut, switch to Premiere, and hit paste. Sounds simple, but it's amazing to retain features of both After Effects and Premiere Pro in the separate programs and bounce back and forth between the two.

Photoshop files now can serve as templates for starting projects in both AE and Premiere. After Effects allows you to change the text, layers, adjustment layers, masks, and more of your Photoshop file. Encore DVD 1.5 now lets you import a Photoshop file as a menu and allows you to alter all aspects of the PS file.

You'll also see new menus in some of the programs for directly moving between the suite's software components: Encore has an option to create an After Effects composition. After Effects has a menu selection to create an Encore template by adding and assigning menu buttons. Lots of hooks keep all the programs linked to smooth the workflow.

Individually, the programs all have many new features to offer along with streamlined interfaces. Premiere Pro includes an improved project manager that not only deletes files not in use but efficiently trims content down to exactly what is needed to save hard disk space. New Premiere audio features include a DeHummer, for removing noise such as video deck hum, and DeEsser, for taking the hiss out of vocals imported from footage or audio tracks. Bezier keyframes are now allowed on the timeline for silky-smooth transitions and correctly ramped velocity. Automatic Bezier is now included for a quick one-click fix. Your digital effects can now be saved as presets in the effects palette, so you can reuse via drag-and-drop effects you use often.

True realtime 3D effects and transitions are now included in Premiere. These take advantage of the newest graphics cards for speedier previews. A new group of correction tools — including auto levels, auto color, auto contrast, and shadows/highlights — have journeyed over from Photoshop and are now standard in Premiere. For those who have footage that needs a quick fix, these tools can save hours of tweaking. Also new is After Effects plug-in compatibility, Panasonic 24pa support, AAF/EDL import/export, and most importantly, support for high-definition formats (480p, 720p, 1080i).

Over in After Effects 6.5 are a bunch of new options, including a smarter disk-caching system for more efficient RAM previews, faster OpenGL, 60 new digital special effects (half of which are 16-bit), and FireWire previews. (Unfortunately, I could not get FireWire previews to work at press time, although they worked fine in Premiere Pro 1.5.)

I don't know who on the After Effects team is so obsessed with text, but the tools now allow just about any kind of animation you can imagine. AE 6.5 includes 250 new presets for text animation. I encourage playing around with these and also layering them, as some are simply amazing. One preset alone could save you an hour of creation. In addition, all text animations are instantly modifiable via parameters and keyframes. You can also use blend modes (like those in Photoshop) between characters, create animated traveling masks, animate individual words, and much more.

A few more welcome features include color and grain tools (Add Grain, Match Grain, and Remove Grain). Remove Grain does an amazing job of getting grain out of film transferred to video, and especially of removing video noise from DV productions. The tools do a great job of manipulating grain automatically, with plenty of parameters to tweak.

Color Finesse from Synthetic Aperture is now included as part of the After Effects package. This is a really well designed, feature-rich 32-bit system for adjusting your color space to match any kind of mood or correction scheme you want.

After Effects 6.5 includes a new scripting element for creating your own menus and parameter pages for the included tools. Its learning curve is a bit steep, but the power is there to create new Adobe menus and automated features.

Aside from improved interfaces, Encore DVD 1.5 and Audition 1.5 add many other features. Encore now allows you to customize your workspaces and save them for later use. The program includes specialized workspaces for working in different modes, such as timeline editing and menu design. An enhanced library palette organizes vector shapes, background layers, text layers, and layer sets. A new styles palette works much the same way, allowing drag-and-drop looks for shapes (buttons), text, and images. You can even create your own styles for repeated use.

In Encore DVD 1.5 you can create settings to control the viewer's DVD remote control, such as deactivating buttons. For example, you might want to deactivate Fast Forward for on-screen elements that are not to be scanned through, like logos and FBI warnings. Encore DVD 1.5 adds QuickTime support, but the catch is that Encore must encode the files to MPEG before you can move them into your project. Encore DVD now allows background transcoding in this new version, so you can continue working while video conversion happens behind the scenes.

Adobe Audition has been updated to 1.5 but unfortunately still uses the inherited Cool Edit interface. We will have to wait a bit before Audition looks and feels like a real Adobe program. However, naming conventions within the program as well as keyboard shortcuts are more in step with those of the other Video Collection programs. For example, audio files are now called audio clips in the Audition menus.

Interestingly, some of the biggest improvements across the Video Collection are in Audition, including support for ReWire and VST plug-ins. These two options alone open up a world of possibilities.

ReWire allows Audition to be a master or slave to other music programs (such as Reason, Live, and Sonar) and record the output of these packages into the Audition timeline, all in perfect beats-per-minute step. VST support opens up a world of plug-ins to Audition users. Audition can be set to find your plug-in folders and even use plug-ins from other music programs. Audition also has great support for DirectX, the other major music standard. The program now supports more video formats for scoring, including MPEG, DV, and WMV.

Audition 1.5 has a new pitch-correction tool for fixing slightly off-pitch files and recordings. Other new additions include Frequency Space Editing, auto pop/click elimination, studio reverb, 500 additional music loops (for a total of over 5,000 — one of the largest libraries of any music program out there), and a new integrated CD-burning mode.

I especially loved the new Vocal Remove tool in Audition, which does an amazing job of taking vocals out of songs. The new Clip Time Stretching is perfect for shrinking an overly long audio clip to fit a shorter video piece, while leaving the audio pitch intact.

For the upgrade price, the Adobe Video Collection 2.5 is a great buy. The programs are all rock-solid, and the added functionality across the board makes the new version of the Video Collection definitely worth the cost. The added integration among the programs allows smooth movement from one program to the next. Even if you mainly use just one of the included programs, it's still worth $249 to get the new Adobe Video Collection 2.5.

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BOTTOM LINE

Company: Adobe
San Jose, Calif.; (408) 536-6000
www.adobe.com

Product: Video Collection 2.5

Assets: Enhanced integration among all the software elements; HD support in Premiere Pro 1.5; 250 new text animation presets in AE 6.5; VST plug-in support in Audition 1.5; background transcoding in Encore DVD 1.5.

Caveats: Encore DVD's QuickTime support is limited — the program must encode the files to MPEG first.

Demographic: Editors and video artists who use at least one of these Adobe programs regularly.

Price: $1,499 for Pro version; $999 for Standard; $249 upgrade.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.