On May 7th Adobe released Creative Suite 6, and it’s pretty clear that their eyes are keenly focused on video production. While we’re still in the process of writing our review of the software suite, here are a few of the features we’re think video producers everywhere will be excited about.

Adjustment Layers in Premiere – Here’s the situation. You’ve edited together a very complex sequence of shots which features a drunk stumbling from home from a night at the local watering hole. The sequence is composed of several point of view shots cut tightly together, and sprinkled with wide shots of the person walking down the sidewalk. You want to make sure every POV shot is blurry and de-saturated so the viewer can see the world as the drunk sees it. Before, our only solution was to either apply the blur and de-saturation effects to each clip individually, or nest each chunk of shots and then apply the effects. Adjustment layers change this. They work just like they do in After Effects. Simply place an adjustment layer over the shots you want to affect, then apply the effects you want to the adjustment layer. It will transfer those effects to every clip underneath it in Premiere’s timeline. Now, if you have to change the amount of blur or desaturation, you only have to change the settings on the adjustment layer(s) and not each clip or clips inside of a nested sequence. To me, this feature is about six versions late, but better late than never!

3D Text (and Basic Shapes) in After Effects – Have you ever needed to do simple 3D text when working in an After Effects project? Unfortunately, After Effects could never do true 3D. Rather, it could place 2D objects in 3D space. That means if you wanted 3D text, you’d have to put 2D text in a 3D composition, duplicate it about a hundred times, then offset each layer’s Z position by one pixel. What a pain! Alternatively, there was a way to use the Shatter effect and turn off force and gravity to give pre-composed text a bit of extrusion. Still not very efficient. Finally, Adobe has added an extrusion option within the settings of 3D text/shapes. For those that only need very basic 3D tools, this may save you from spending a couple grand on 3D software.

SpeedGrade – Okay, this isn’t so much of a feature as it is a complete product. Adobe aquired IRIDAS, and included it in the creative suite for the first time in this sixth version. The first thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t really feel like an Adobe product. The user interface is way different. Additionally, quite a few Adobe UI conventions that are ubiquitous in Adobe products aren’t there. The software itself, however, is great. Dedicated color grading software is being used more and more frequently outside of Hollywood. DaVinci, for example, can now be purchased for $1000 on OS X, where it used to be a $20,000+ system only. It only makes sens that Adobe wants to get in on the action. Considering the price for Adobe’s Creative suite hasn’t risen any (in fact, the Creative Cloud option looks like it’ll save you money), having a dedicated color grader is a welcome addition!

Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list of new features. There’s tons more to look forward to in CS 6, so keep an eye out for our upcoming review!

In a move that will be applauded by many (including this editor), Adobe was the first software company to focus a release an update to their editing software that focuses on COMPATIBILITY! Yes, even with other software packages. This newest update to Premiere Pro CS4 allows you to exchange projects with Avid and Final Cut Pro systems. While I don’t expect that every single effect, color correction, or special properties will come through the process perfectly, even simple timeline exchange with cuts and dissolves would be an incredibly useful feature to have in your NLE. And Adobe deserves some respect for being the first out the gate with this type of upgrade.

In addition the 4.0.1 upgrade provides support for the RED camera’s R3d files directly, with no transcoding necessary. Greatly simplifying what was once a pretty unnecessarily complicated Post process when shooting with RED. This latest upgrade adds to Premiere’s support of AVCHD, P2, HDCAM EX, all natively making it the current king of compatibilty among all the editing programs out there. If your camcorder can shoot it, it looks like Premeiere can edit it.

In addition there were stability enhancements  and full support for 64 bit systems included in this release. You can read the full release below:

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The wait is over, Adobe has announced the immediate availability of CS4, the largest release of software in the company’s history. Adobe has pretty much updated all their flagship applications, the new features of which, you can find out in our previous post. The Production Premium bundle will be of most interest to Videomaker readers, with new versions of Premiere, Encore, Soundbooth, On Location, After Effects, Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator ready to go out the door today.

We’ve been playing around with the Beta for a while, and we’re taking a look at the final versions right now, and with so many apps to review, it looks like we have our work cut out for us.

Read the Press Release Below:

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