Onlocation CS4 can now edit multiple tracks of audio. Additionally, you can have the program change the volume of all the audio in all the clips in a timeline to a common volume, like -12 Db. This is a real benefit for low-budget filmmakers..
Other improvements show up in Soundbooth, where you can now edit multiple dialogue tracks at once. (Unfortunately, you can’t select a number of dialogue tracks in Premiere Pro and just import them all en masse, but you can build a multi-layer track inside of Soundbooth.) Another great improvement is the creation of an uncompressed, multi-layer audio document called the *.ASND format. This format is to audio what the .PSD format is to photography. Like the .PSD document, Premiere Pro will import the *.ASND document directly and use it as the audio track when you so choose. This can be a great way of creating an uncluttered audio field in your Premiere Pro timeline.
Encore CS4 will now allow you to export Flash compositions in HD sizes, as opposed to just the SD sizes of CS3..
Final improvements include the fact that Encore will now allow you to create HD-sized Flash documents (as opposed to the CS3 version, which could only generate Flash documents that were 640 px by 480 px in size), the fact that Flash has a highly improved animation structure (that is starting to resemble After Effects much closer), and the fact that Flash will now allow you to add “bones” to illustrations to further simplify animation. (In layman’s terms, Bones make animation easier in a similar way to how the Puppet tool facilitated animation in After Effects CS3.)
Dynamic Link has been polished tremendously in the new version of CS4. One of the big improvements comes in the fact that you can drag a clip straight out of Premiere Pro into Encore without rendering out an intermediate video clip.
For the last improvement, I’m going to mention something you probably won’t read in any other periodical, because most people won’t think to mention it. However, it’s rather important, so I wanted to bring it up. The folks in the Flash department redesigned Flash so that everything INSIDE the Flash program is actually displayed IN the Flash environment. Previously, when you used Flash and you saw a preview, you were seeing it inside a visual programming language that wasn’t actually Flash. That’s the reason that when you actually exported Flash files, they would often look somewhat different than they had in the Flash program. (Very similar to the way HTML files look different in Dreamweaver than they do when you observe them in Internet Explorer or Firefox.) Well now, when you create your animation in Flash, you’re seeing it EXACTLY as it will look on the internet. Again, this isn’t something you’ll see mentioned in most reviews, but it’s something important to notice because it shows how much work Adobe has put into polishing and perfecting its products in the CS4 line.
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
