Those Creative Cloud updates keep on coming, and at this years’ IBC, Adobe announced the new features that will have everyone in post production pressing the “download” button.
The major focus on this next batch of updates is touch. As more and more people are editing on the go on devices like the Surface Pro, this is the first release from Adobe to crack the touch barrier.
So let’s start with Premiere Pro, where the majority of the updates center around ease of use for users with touchscreens. Two fingers can be used to scroll through your bin, just pinch to zoom, and simple overlays on your clip provide you basic playback controls as well as in and out points. Once you drag it over to the playback monitor, where you place it will determine whether it’s an overlay or insert edit.
Premiere Pro CC – Touch Edit
But beyond the touch features, there’s plenty here for the rest of us: most notably, “optical flow time remapping” a.k.a. a pretty amazing new slow motion effect that previously would have required a plugin. Additionally, this release supports new formats like H.265, DHxHR and Open EXR as well as more room to tweak footage with a high dynamic range using Lumetri (introduced in the current release).
Finally, you can now send your video right to YouTube, vimeo or Facebook right out of Media Encoder. Awesome!
Premiere Pro CC – Post to Facebook
Over in After Effects, all the touch functionality is here, too, as well as the Lumetri color correction tool we got in the previous edition of Premiere. It is still recommended however that you use Premiere for most color correction since it takes advantage of the GPU there.
After Effects CC – Lumetri Effect
On the right hand side of the screen you’ll notice the panels (effects, character, paragraph, etc.) are now “stacked,” for easier navigation, particularly for the new touch users. This includes a “Libraries” panel, which also gives you access to a major new feature, Adobe Stock, that’s right stock footage that you can import right into your program with more ease then ever before. You can even replace a preview once it’s purchased with just a simple click!
After Effects CC – Libraries in Stacked Panels Workspace
Adobe Audition has a few major new tools that I’m sure a lot of folks will find super helpful. Most notably, “Remix,” intelligently takes a piece of music, finds some loop points, and will stretch it to fit the desired duration. So if you need a song to run exactly to 2:32, a few clicks will get you there now.
Audition CC – Remix
Additionally, you can generate speech from text for a scratch narration (which sounds slightly computerized) and “match loudness” allows you to set your output to match international standards for loudness based on where you’ll be distributing your work. This feature also pops up in Media Encoder thankfully!
And finally, the recent addition to Creative Suite, Character Animator, is entering it’s third “preview” edition, adding touch features to it’s arsenal as well as support for additional languages – French, German & Japanese specifically.
For more on this and other news
about Creative Cloud’s updates,
check the Official Adobe Creative Cloud Page.
Mark Colegrove
Mark Colegrove is the director of 2008's horror/comedy Isle of the Damned, which is self-distributed through his production company, Dire Wit Films. Based in Maryland, he currently produces corporate video and is working on his second feature, Driven to Succeed, a driver's ed comedy.