Editors new to Premiere Pro will find a lot of great features, and for previous users (especially those who held off on getting Premiere Pro CS5.5 because of the relatively few updates over CS5) now may be the time to upgrade, as Premiere Pro CS6 offers up many new slick features designed to speed up your work flow.
Finally! NewTek is hitting it’s stride again with Lightwave 11. In my review last year about Lightwave 10.1, I’d commented enthusiastically about my conversation with Lightwave user and evangelist, Rob Powers. He’s been in the trenches with Lightwave on multiple film productions and has been able to bring that common-sense utility and passion for workflow quality into the forefront. I’d enjoyed getting reintroduced to Lightwave (LW) and rated it very highly. But also apparent was where it was lagging in what is now ‘standard’ abilities in competing software. LW 11 is now engaging those ‘standard’ features into version 11 and NewTek is doing it with a very sharp eye towards user friendliness.
It’s a plug in designed to blend frames, and it has enough options to keep you happy. It’s not just about slowing down or speeding up. You can change frame rates in general, taking 30fps footage and getting a better 24fps output is certainly a great option, this should work for converting any frame rate you require. As far as I know, the amount of frame rate changes you can implement to clip is limitless, given your OK with waiting for a long render to create new frames. The amount of controls given to each keyframe is pretty impressive.
Monsters is a pretty high-end set of plug-ins. Atmospheric effects like Raindrops for example are meant to seamlessly integrate with live-action footage and give the impression that you rented a $10,000 rain machine on your low-budget shoot. Everything here looks pretty convincing, and unlike many other plug-in sets, there are very few “throw away” effects. GenArts clearly spent a lot of time making these look great.
There is definitely a lot to like about Setkick. While not especially aimed at the Indie or Microfilmmaker, its functions and capabilities will certainly enhance the production process of both low and high-end projects.
Lightroom 4 is a bit of a different upgrade to the popular platform. For the first time we see significant shifts from the editing and workflow side to the distribution, social media, and print side. The interface has largely stayed the same, save minor additions and new modules. This installment doesn’t bring significant changes in editing performance; it expands your options regarding how you want to edit your pictures.