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When the producers of 'The Simpsons' wanted to do a live animated show, Adobe needed to add a new feature to make it possible, and you will reap the rewards.

New Software Spotlight: Adobe Creative Cloud for Video, June 2016

Adobe has released an update to its Creative Cloud platform. In this release are a number of new features to its video-centered platform including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Media Encoder, and Adobe Audition.

The goal for Creative Cloud for Video in this release is to give you everything that you need to create stunning videos faster and better. Powerful tools, the ability to ingest video faster, and better collaboration will give you a much more efficient and productive workflow. For more information or to check out the various membership plans, visit Adobe Creative Cloud.

Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015.3

Adobe Premiere Pro is a real-time, timeline-based video editing software application widely used within the film and video industry. Adobe Premiere Pro CC reduces the complex process of video production by integrating multiple products such After Effects and Audition to make each step of video production more efficient, giving you more time to work your story.

New features include the ability to edit just about any kind of video. You can work with high-resolution formats all the way up to 8k, and this includes RED Weapon. New lightweight proxies let you ingest video while watching your edits, without slowdowns. You can import your footage and Premiere Pro will create proxies that you can use to edit with. With one click you can switch between the original data and the proxy view, clean and simple.

Enhancements to the Lumetri Color tools give you greater control over color and light. You can now target and adjust specific colors using HSL secondaries. This lets you make subtle shade adjustments and gives you finer grading control. You can also apply color adjustments easily in the panel so that you can see what they will look like.

There are a lot of other enhancements to this release, such as new keyboard shortcuts and a range selecting feature that lets you scroll the timeline to select additional dips outside of the current view. Virtual Reality (VR) workflow features give you tools to work with new VR technology. You can move around inside spherical media using monitor controls or by click-dragging on the video for a preview of the playback sequence.

Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects

After Effects CC 2015 (13.8)

After Effects CC is digital motion graphics and compositing software used by motion graphic designers, visual artists, and video editors. It can be used in both film and video post-production. It uses a system of layers organized on a timeline to create composites from still images and motion footage such as from video files.

It has become the industry standard for visual effects and motion graphics because it offers flexible tools for preparing dynamic media. It integrates well with other tools used in the industry. You can find imagery created in After Effects in everything from motion pictures to cell phones to websites.

This version brings you the ability to make everyday chores faster, improving performance from import to final render. Using the GPU, Adobe has begun accelerating many of the most popular effects. In addition, the new Maxon Cinema 4D export options have been enhanced. There is now a live round-trip workflow that works with Cinema 4D Lite, which is included with After Effects.

You also get Character Animator Preview 4, a rigging system for character animation that allows you to bring expressive characters to life via artwork. New features here include easier puppet tagging – you no longer have to name layers for them to work correctly. You also have more realistic behaviors to add more personality to your work.

Adobe Character Animator
Adobe Character Animator

When the producers of The Simpsons wanted to do a live animated show, Adobe needed to add a new feature to make it possible, and you will reap the rewards. Realtime live animation enables a live feed to be fed over a Syphon client, and now it is integrated into Character Animator. To use this feature you will need the 2015.3 version of Adobe Media Encoder.

Other features include enhanced video and audio playback, effect rendering on the GPU, Lumetri Color effect improvements, Gaussian blur effect improvements, additional native formats, the ability to add compositions to Adobe Media Encoder with render settings, Library panel improvements, and much more.

Adobe Audition
Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition CC 2015.2

Adobe Audition CC is the latest release of the comprehensive Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) production solution from Adobe Systems. It features a multi-track, mix/edit environment that you can use to create your own music, record and mix a project, produce a radio spot, clean up audio, and compile and edit a soundtrack. In fact it is your own personal recording studio.

By using Audition in conjunction with Premiere Pro you can enhance and create the sounds that will be used in your video. You can send video sequences from Premiere Pro directly to Audition and view the video in its native format with no need for file conversion. The resolution and frame rates will remain the same and you don’t have to render to play the video.

The new Essential Sound panel gives you a complete toolset for mixing your audio. This gives those with limited audio-editing experience (such as many video editors) to handle that editing without engaging a professional sound engineer.

You can also export your edited audio directly to Adobe Media Encoder, giving you a linear post-production workflow. Just select your destination format and preset, and your project will start rendering in the background while the files for it are being prepared.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership is US$49.99 per month, with an annual contract. A special introductory offer of US$29.99 per month for existing CS individual customers is also available, and you can subscribe to individual items as well. If, for example, you only use Adobe Photoshop, you can license it for $19.99/month. There is also a photography membership priced at $9.99/month available to anyone.

As with all of the updates since the era of the subscription model began, this is a great update. It provides you with a lot of new features along with improved performance and enhanced power. The continuing effort to improve interoperability also continues to bring an even better workflow. Normally I would say I very highly recommend this upgrade, but if you have a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, then you already have the upgrade.

About T. Michael Testi

Photographer, writer, software engineer, educator, and maker of fine images.

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