[Jon Hiseman]

I second all that Tom and have made bug reports and posts. Since the Adobe way is to compartmentalise functions into separate apps, probably for historical reasons, linking becomes crucial to any meaningful workflow, which Adobe recognised with the Dynamic Link protocol. Coming from Pro Tools, which in the bad old days used to strew files everywhere, Digidesign (long before Avid,) solved the problem by linking files to the session with a buried very long unique number. Nothing ever went missing again even when transferring very large files sets between studios.
Thinking about the Dynamic Link Protocol, maybe we could get Tom Cruise on the case…..

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

Thanks Dennis – that is a much better way to work, but the multi-cam monitor still has to be the active window or the cams don’t follow the sequence timeline. Following a multi-cam selection run, I go back to the timeline to check what I’ve done and finesse edits etc. I like to be able to see the cams updating all the time so that I can check what I may have missed. I would think that’s a far more intuitive way to work and of course that’s what FCP was all about. Having said that, this multi-cam system is definitely miles better. Just got to get my head round the odd way it thinks.
Thanks again.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

The simple answer for an existing workflow is render out in whatever is the editing frame size and editing codec assuming the original footage has not been down-resed to make editing easier. If Compressor will work happily with your codec, try CC MP and assess the result. If you are still unhappy, convert your final export from PPro to Prores (see below) which, of course, compressor loves.
The complicated answer:
In my experience you need to let the CC MP plug do as much of the lifting as possible.
The more you change settings away from your original footage as captured by the cam, the worse things will look, particularly if you are working with lower-end cam-compressed formats. However, you have to finish the project in a codec that compressor and thus the CC MP will feel comfortable with. In my experience Apple’s Prores is a fantastic codec that absorbs the qualities of your original footage and makes the best of any subsequent effects or grading work (check out Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse). It,s important to remember that each flavour of Prores only supports up to a certain data rate(Mbps) at any given frame size and frame rate. See this Apple doc and read all about it:

https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/professionalformatsandworkflows/index.html#chapter=10%26section=4%26tasks=true

So, choose the Prores codec best suited to your original footage and stick with it throughout.

If your original footage and final render are interlaced, there are settings in CC MP to note that, but the resultant mpeg-2 file viewed on a computer display (which is progressive) in say, Encore, will look a bit jagged. This is because the mpeg-2 file cannot be de-interlaced on the fly by the cpu, but a flag has been set in the file by CC MP so that any DVD player will de-interlace as it plays out. This is normal behaviour.
I try only to work now with cam-progressive footage but if my footage is interlaced, I import each complete file into FCP 7 and de-interlace using the Nattress Smart de-interlacer, then batch render out converting to Prores at the same time before importing the result into PPro. Although it’s time-consuming I do it on a ‘previous’ MacPro while getting on with something else. Running the workflow quickly on a short clip will help you determine what result suits you best.
I hope this helps.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

The solution to DVD encode problem – CinemaCraft MP encoder plug-in for Apple’s Compressor.
It’s dongle protected and not cheap, but it is incredible.
Output your edit at the highest quality. Don’t change the frame size.
The plugin completely takes over the encode job from Compressor.
Most encoders allow a 2 pass encode – but that means it is only doing one corrective pass.
The CC-MP allows up to to 99 corrective passes – though I have got great results from 10-20 depending on how many dark scenes there are.
And of course you let CC-MP do the frame resizing. It accepts both interlaced and progressive footage and outputs the DVD encode to either. Adobe’s Encore recognises the files as having been encoded and does not re-encode so you get a very fast DVD build.
This is the software version of the hardware encoder with which most of the Hollywood movies are DVD’d.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

[Kevin Monahan] “Hi John,
Forgive me if I’m missing something, but you can use travel matte effects, gradients, and blend modes in Premiere Pro very easily.

Unlike FCP, blend modes run in real time. In FCP, you always had to render anything with the blending mode changed. “

Hi Kevin
Forgive me if I go on a bit but I think its sensible to talk from actual real world experience.
The comments from FCP switchers regarding PPro’s poor compositing result from being used to doing very quick invisible fixes, on the original footage, on the fly, while editing. For PPro I have only found tutorials for titling, smoke and explosions etc,. But I am always fixing, fixing, fixing.

Two problems I encountered recently editing shows that have recently been shown on the BBC:
Music footage in Documentary; Stage – 4 musicians, keys of keyboard, cymbal; all over-lit for a couple of seconds by an excited stage lighting tec.
Wideshot cam op got bored and chose to join the action!
Resort to FCP in extremis – create 6 tight travelling matt areas – regrade individually. 8 mins start to finish.
2nd project – 15 mins 1979 film stored very badly – remove worst of scratches in two hours.
Resort back to FCP – duplicate 15 min clip to track above on timeline. change blend mode to travel matte luma – move clip 1 frame to the right – sandwich custom gradient and, cutting affected clip as you go, substitute advanced clip onto the tiny ares of damaged original. ( Very few blemishes last more than one frame.)

The tragedy of this story is that PPro could actually do this faster but for two key omissions in it’s arsenal.
Take the first music vid example.
In PPro duplicate the clip 6 times above the original (tracks 2-7) in the timeline (Alt Drag – yea!)
Select all six and drag from the effects panel:
A colour corrector of choice, the Luma key and either the 4-8-16 point garbage matte
Then individually set the threshold of all the Luma key plugs to 0.0, and the garbage matte points to position and grade the individual areas.

Except it won’t work

You can’t feather the mattes. Use the feather plug I hear you cry – no it feathers the edges of the whole clip only. Use the title tool – no you can’t keyframe individual matte points – only its original shape position and then only via the motion tab. Use AE – yes it can all be done in AE – no question, but its actually overkill and is much, much slower because of the way blend modes work – unless you are a serious full time AE guru. (One man bands seldom know everything about anything) Lastly, but not least, AE requires the dreaded round trip.

So, Whadda we want. We FCP switchers want quick fixes on the fly. Give us great choke, feathering and opacity controls in garbage mattes in PPro and most importantly give us a pen tool for unlimited bezier point mattes (OK – 40 point will do), resizable , feather-able and point key-frameable. All on the timeline and in the program monitor. When you have done all this in 50 mouse moves, show it to a photo of Steve Jobs and listen to the wind – then go away and do it in 10.
Actually, that last sentence is OTT, but I got more and more frustrated as I wrote this.

P.S

Go here to see all this aired in a 17 point thread in 2010
https://forums.adobe.com/message/2917573
The points were answered then by Todd with ‘just do it in AE’.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

[Alex Udell] “[Jon Hiseman] “So, delighted with the Clip duplicate, I immediately tried to duplicate a transition to another clip in the same way – not possible.”

but copy and paste does work with transitions….
“

Yes – That’s great if you want to set up a paste operation for 10+ Transitions but way too slow for a single shot.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

[Kevin Monahan] “Forgive me if I’m missing something, but you can use travel matte effects, gradients, and blend modes in Premiere Pro very easily. “
I appreciate that all the facilities are there in theory, but please point me in the direction of the tutorial that allows me to grade 8 different parts of a clip with a minimum of key stokes and keyframe them over time without resorting to the dreaded round trip. I’ve done it in AE but its really hard work.
Of course this is becoming a bigger issue. It seems to me that there is a response to requests(which is very welcome) but not the implications of the requests. Like many folk, I wanted Alt drag to duplicate. You gave it to us for clips but its fundamental to Mac that it works for everything. So, delighted with the Clip duplicate, I immediately tried to duplicate a transition to another clip in the same way – not possible. I don’t think I should have to put a request in for this. Somebody is just not joining up the dots. Sorry to sound so negative and I am really pleased with the improved feel of CS6 but…..

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

[FCP legacy has always been great for us in that it is actually very quick and simple to create visual effects, do simple overlays/compositing on the fly, all in as part of the main editorial process. This is often a requirement for the kind of work we do.]

This is the most interesting issue for me. Premiere Pro is very poor at doing even simple composites. In FCP I was able to identify 8+ areas on a clip, isolate them, re-grade them and blend them into a convincing whole in 30 mins. Impossible in PPro. The system was so simple; duplicate the clip above the original / sandwich a gradient in between, change the blend mode of the top clip and regrade it. The gradient had simple controls to isolate a portion of the clip. The killer part was that these could be stacked. I have had 15 of these sets of 3 tracks stacked in no time at all.

After Effects is an awesome piece of software but its slow at that level and, working between 3 locations, I have had endless problems with the round trip using Dynamic Link. Even with CS6 it does not work because of the fundamental path relationship with the file hierarchy.
Pro Tools solved this problem in the mid 90s burying a unique long identifying number in every region(clip). With thousands of regions, they never go missing for long, however you abuse the file system – and a clip thats been inadvertently moved will be automatically found in the background while you work. Adobe know about the PT solution because I spoke with an Adobe demonstrator at a recent CS6 Demo. He says it was being looked into and hopefully would be incorporated in ‘some future upgrade.’ Not good enough I’m afraid. If Adobe are certain that the round trip is the way forward, it has to be bulletproof – at the very least, by 10am next Tuesday morning.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

I seem to remember reading that AE 5.5 can open a AE6 project, but it will only work properly if you have not used any feature in AE6 that is not in 5.5. I would say this is dangerous. I believe the Video2Brain “new features in AE CS6” (Free video) mentions this. Check it out before you jump.

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.

[Jon Hiseman]

I tried to open a PPro 5.5 project containing 60 AE5.5 comps in PPro CS6. It never saw the comps and I couldn’t relink them all reliably.
So I opened my AE 5.5 project containing the 60comps in AE CS6. With the same plugs installed and updated where necessary, the project opened with no problems. I then saved the AE CS6 project with a new name and left it open. I booted up PProCS6 loaded the 5.5 project and was immediately asked where the AE 5.5 project was. I choose the AE CS6 file and all the comps linked very fast.
Both PPro and AE CS6 are much more responsive…..

I used to be Jon Hiseman but I’m feeling better now.