Adobe released version 5 of its Creative Suite collection back in May 2010, built around fourteen core applications in design, Web, and production suites, spanning the creative workflow across print, web, video, interactive, and mobile. For video production work, CS5 emphasized performance to meet the challenges of higher resolutions and editing with native file formats, moving Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop to full 64-bit applications on both Mac OS and Windows. Premiere Pro CS5 also added the GPU-accelerated Mercury Playback Engine for real-time HD editing and playback.

Now a year later, Adobe has returned with Creative Suite 5.5 - not updating the entire suite, but some key components including InDesign and Dreamweaver, plus significant updates to the video production tools.

What's New

The new CS5.5 Production Premium steps the core production tools to new 5.5 versions, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Media Encoder, Device Central, Flash Professional, and Flash Catalyst.

CS5.5 also adds the full Adobe Audition audio editor into the suite, replacing the simpler Soundbooth tool from CS5. Audition provides deep support for multi-track recording, nondestructive editing, and mixing (now including native multichannel support for 5.1 sound), plus audio restoration and effects. Plus, the new Audition is native on Mac and Windows, with a rebuilt multi-threaded playback engine to import and edit and apply effects in parallel. Adobe has also introduced a new subscription model, so you can download and run the tools you want on demand, and pay for them only when you need them.

The pricing of CS5.5 components stays the same (Production Premium for $1,699, After Effects for $999, Premiere Pro for $799, plus Audition for $349). But now subscription access to the entire Creative Suite Master Collection (Design + Web + Production) is available for $195 a month (or $129 a month with a one year subscription), the Production Premium suite is $129 ($85 a month with a one year subscription), and individual tools like Premiere Pro are $59 ($39) and Photoshop Extended is $75 ($49). The subscription model provides a way to get started and experiment with these tools, try out more elements of the full suite, satisfy temporary staffing demands, and stay current with the latest versions without additional fees.

Themes

The improvements in CS5.5 Production Premium extend themes that we have seen developing in previous versions of the Creative Suite.

Workflow and Tools

Adobe was already focused on editing directly in native file formats, without requiring transcoding or rewrapping, including professional video (Sony XDCAM, Panasonic P2, DVCPRO HD), DSLR video, and digital cinema formats. Premiere Pro and After Effects CS5.5 add new options for working with the latest RED R3D files and RMD metadata, and directly adjusting RED source settings.

As more footage is shot handheld, from digital SLRs to sports to mobile phones, the new Warp Stabilizer in After Effects 5.5 goes beyond stabilizing just camera position, using advanced Subspace Warp pixel analysis to also correct camera rotation, rolling shutter artifacts, and parallax effects from these imagers.

You can control corrections of position, scale, rotation, and perspective, and even choose to have the edges around the corrected frame cropped, or intelligently filled using information in adjacent frames.

After Effects CS5.5 adds new camera and lighting effects, with Camera Lens Blur for realistic defocused blur with depth-of-field soft focus and halos, and Inverse-Square 3D light falloff for a more real-world effect. Use the Create Stereo 3D Rig option to set up a stereo-ready 3D image pipeline to work with stereo scenes that use the After Effects camera. And for editors experienced with other editing programs, Premiere Pro adds keyboard shortcuts for many systems including Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro.