Adobe Announces Updates for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Character Animator

[MacRumors]

Ahead of the 2018 NAB media trade show, which starts on April 7, Adobe today announced its traditional spring update with new updates for several Creative Cloud apps, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Character Animator.

Adobe's aim in 2018 is to introduce new tools and improvements to allow its customers to streamline their workflows to save time.

"The demands and pace of video content creation are reaching levels we've never seen before. The time pressure on video professionals means the need for powerful and efficient creative tools has never been greater," said Steven Warner, vice president of digital video and audio at Adobe. "Adobe video apps like Premiere Pro and After Effects give them that power which, combined
with the services available in Creative Cloud, provide broadcasters, media companies, filmmakers and YouTubers a complete ecosystem to bring their stories to screen faster than ever."

In Premiere Pro CC, Adobe's video editing software for professionals, Adobe has introduced a Color Match feature, powered by its artificial intelligence engine Adobe Sensei. Color Match is able to take the color and light values from a reference image and then apply them as editable color adjustments to the current shot, all while intelligently adjusting for skin tones.

With Color Match, it takes just a few clicks and adjustments to match the colors of various video clips. For broadcast-quality content, the Video Limiter ensures color grading meets broadcast standards.

In the Essential Graphics panel, there are new tools for animating text and graphics, along with Auto Ducking improvements that are part of the Essential Sound panel and new options for tracking time codes with a Time Code panel.

There are new integrations between Premiere Pro and Audition, with Adobe introducing the ability to open Premiere Pro projects in Audition to select specific sequences you want to work on. A new Track panel has been added to allow users to better manage their projects, and Clip Spotting updates video previews in Audition in real-time.

Adobe After Effects CC, designed for motion graphics, offers a Master Properties option for seeding individual values to all versions of a composition, plus there's a new Advanced Puppet Engine for smoother, more realistic object movement. Adobe's data-driven animation tools have also been improved with support for spreadsheet files like .CSV and .TSV.

Adobe Immersive Environment, which now includes support for the Windows Mixed Reality Platform, is available in After Effects CC, allowing users to preview VR content with a new immersive workflow.

Character Animator has gained improvements that make it faster to create new characters than ever before with a new option to drag layers from the Puppet panel into the Triggers panel to refine existing behaviors or create new ones.

All of Adobe's Creative Cloud updates will be available starting today, with additional information on what's new available on Adobe's site. Adobe's Creative Cloud plans, which cover the complete range of Adobe CC software, start at $49.99 per month.

Article Link: Adobe Announces Updates for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Character Animator

 

[ikir]

Metal support?

 

[826317]

It's time for Adobe to start matching Apple's FCPX render times!

 

[theheadguy]

It's time for Adobe to start matching Apple's FCPX render times!

Anything Apple should do to match Adobe? Serious question.

 

[826317]

Anything Apple should do to match Adobe? Serious question.

Nope.

 

[devynbrew]

Metal support?

Adobe has added Metal 2 support to Premiere Pro but it's nothing spectacular given that Premiere seems to always shines best on my system with NVIDIA cards IMO.

Still, a number of bug fixes relate to their Metal support — so it's a good sign.

 

[RoobyRoobyRoo]

There's some Adobe haters here, but I use the Creative Suite every day for work (Premiere, After Effects, Media Encoder, Audition, Photoshop, and Illustrator for the most part) and I love the products. They have their share of issues, but I have yet to see an alternative that can match the whole package that Adobe offers.

 

[pier]

Anything Apple should do to match Adobe? Serious question.

If Apple introduced their own Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and a new version of Motion, that would be a really hard blow to Adobe.

 

[bsbeamer]

Be aware that these updates appear to be point-release style updates and do not install as new versions of the software. So if you want/need to keep old versions available, backup and clone your system drive before updating.

 

[motulist]

The number 1 thing I want Adobe to do is fix the goddam interface of premiere! It's a nightmare of unintuitiveness, hidden menus, functions that appear and disappear, etc.

 

[826317]

There's some Adobe haters here, but I use the Creative Suite every day for work (Premiere, After Effects, Media Encoder, Audition, Photoshop, and Illustrator for the most part) and I love the products. They have their share of issues, but I have yet to see an alternative that can match the whole package that Adobe offers.

You probably assumed me to be a hater, I just wanted to say that I am not, I'm simply stating that render times for Premiere are ways behind FCPX.

 

[RoobyRoobyRoo]

You probably assumed me to be a hater, I just wanted to say that I am not, I'm simply stating that render times for Premiere are ways behind FCPX.

Sorry, I didn't intend to imply any specific individual was a hater, including you. I just meant that in general I know there are many people on MR who don't have a very positive opinion of Adobe and their stuff.
[doublepost=1522804682][/doublepost]

The number 1 thing I want Adobe to do is fix the goddam interface of premiere! It's a nightmare of unintuitiveness, hidden menus, functions that appear and disappear, etc.

Can you elaborate more on what specifically your issues are with the Premiere interface? I'm curious, as someone who spends a great deal of time in the program.

 

[MacNut]

If Apple introduced their own Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and a new version of Motion, that would be a really hard blow to Adobe.

Does Apple really care enough to do that. I think Adobe is safe.

 

[pier]

Does Apple really care enough to do that. I think Adobe is safe.

Apple cares enough to make Final Cut, Logic, and Motion.

If it offered a full suite of pro apps it would tie people even more with the Mac.

 

[MacNut]

Apple cares enough to make Final Cut, Logic, and Motion.

If it offered a full suite of pro apps it would tie people even more with the Mac.

Apple needs to care about the pro user first. A lot of people ditched Apple’s pro software for Adobe because they don’t care. Make a MacBook Pro for the pro user first. Unless they decide to really support pros they don’t care about a suite.

 

[AlumaMac]

Apple needs to care about the pro user first. A lot of people ditched Apple’s pro software for Adobe because they don’t care. Make a MacBook Pro for the pro user first. Unless they decide to really support pros they don’t care about a suite.

Aperture is also a good example of Apple not caring about pros. Can't imagine it would have cost much to keep that app competitive let alone officially compatible with current OS releases.
[doublepost=1522853770][/doublepost]

There's some Adobe haters here, but I use the Creative Suite every day for work (Premiere, After Effects, Media Encoder, Audition, Photoshop, and Illustrator for the most part) and I love the products. They have their share of issues, but I have yet to see an alternative that can match the whole package that Adobe offers.

That's kinda the point. There is no competition and so Adobe has no incentive to actually improve their products.

 

[bsbeamer]

My biggest issue with Adobe at the moment is the buggy Creative Cloud App that manages everything for installs of updates. It's better than it has been at times, but it's quirky and not exactly "stable" for what its main purpose is - installing (and authenticating) software. Don't care about the cloud storage features and do not really use them at all. Literally open the app to check for and install updates.

When I update a POINT-RELEASE, I should then not have to purge libraries, cache directories, preferences, and all settings just to open the application. That is what happened with this latest update. Terrible on Adobe's part. Pathetic support on top of it.

This latest release should not have been a point-release. It should have been a CC 2018.5 build across the board. Because it was not, previous versions have been overwritten (2018.0 with 2018.1) and there is no way to re-install the previous version. Good luck if you have (even accidentally) Dynamically Linked a Premiere Pro project or timeline with an AE project file. It will take 20+ minutes to open in the new versions and you'll think it crashed. Then you basically have to purge all references to the "missing" assets just so you can work with your files. Not exactly a seamless point-release upgrade or bug fix style release... Had this been CC 2018.5, this would not have been an issue and could still have opened CC 2018 applications

The sudden dropping of Muse without a viable alternative available is also on the top of the list. Don't want to hear about web-based solutions or anything like that. It was part of their software suite and if they developed another program that would EVENTUALLY takeover, they should have continued Muse in parallel with the new program, then phase it out. They botched this and pissed off their customer base.

While I'm at it, stop up-selling me on Adobe Stock. My clients cannot easily search it on their s***y corporate-issued Windows laptops and don't want to use it. They like the other stock websites that allow direct purchases they can manage.

 

[Brien]

The number 1 thing I want Adobe to do is fix the goddam interface of premiere! It's a nightmare of unintuitiveness, hidden menus, functions that appear and disappear, etc.

My main gripe with these newer versions is how long it takes to turn off 'idiot mode'. I don't need video tool tips, flyovers, welcome screens, tips of the day, highlighting new features etcetera.

 

[RoobyRoobyRoo]

That's kinda the point. There is no competition and so Adobe has no incentive to actually improve their products.

I don't agree that Adobe isn't improving their products. They could be better, as any applications could, but all things considered I think they are very solid and I like the continuous, regular updates they get.

 

[AlumaMac]

I don't agree that Adobe isn't improving their products. They could be better, as any applications could, but all things considered I think they are very solid and I like the continuous, regular updates they get.

Great.

 

[Brien]

My biggest issue with Adobe at the moment is the buggy Creative Cloud App that manages everything for installs of updates. It's better than it has been at times, but it's quirky and not exactly "stable" for what its main purpose is - installing (and authenticating) software. Don't care about the cloud storage features and do not really use them at all. Literally open the app to check for and install updates.

When I update a POINT-RELEASE, I should then not have to purge libraries, cache directories, preferences, and all settings just to open the application. That is what happened with this latest update. Terrible on Adobe's part. Pathetic support on top of it.

This latest release should not have been a point-release. It should have been a CC 2018.5 build across the board. Because it was not, previous versions have been overwritten (2018.0 with 2018.1) and there is no way to re-install the previous version. Good luck if you have (even accidentally) Dynamically Linked a Premiere Pro project or timeline with an AE project file. It will take 20+ minutes to open in the new versions and you'll think it crashed. Then you basically have to purge all references to the "missing" assets just so you can work with your files. Not exactly a seamless point-release upgrade or bug fix style release... Had this been CC 2018.5, this would not have been an issue and could still have opened CC 2018 applications

The sudden dropping of Muse without a viable alternative available is also on the top of the list. Don't want to hear about web-based solutions or anything like that. It was part of their software suite and if they developed another program that would EVENTUALLY takeover, they should have continued Muse in parallel with the new program, then phase it out. They botched this and pissed off their customer base.

While I'm at it, stop up-selling me on Adobe Stock. My clients cannot easily search it on their s***y corporate-issued Windows laptops and don't want to use it. They like the other stock websites that allow direct purchases they can manage.

Oh man, this so much. Tired of the force-feeding.

Every time I get a new PC at work I spend at least an hour or two going through and turning off libraries, TypeKit, the "learn" panels, removing the cloud sidebar, uninstalling unwanted apps, etcetera. Then on top of that you have desktop managers for Autodesk, Red Giant, and everything else and it becomes a nightmare.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

It's time for Adobe to start matching Apple's FCPX render times!

On Windows can because of the driver situation. macOS doesn't give third party apps access to the GPU encoder and it doesn't exist in the drivers. I heard FCP does have access to the hardware encoder.

 

[Michael Scrip]

There is no competition and so Adobe has no incentive to actually improve their products.

And yet... this in an article about Adobe doing exactly that.

I've been a Creative Cloud subscriber since 2012... and I've received updates a couple times a year for all their major products.

In particular... there have been at least a dozen updates for Premiere Pro in the last 5 years.

There was a fear that Adobe would stop updating their software once they trapped everyone into paying their monthly fees.

But that hasn't been the case at all.

It used to be an "update every two years" model. Now it's continual updates. I'm fine with that.

 

[pier]

My biggest issue with Adobe at the moment is the buggy Creative Cloud App that manages everything for installs of updates. It's better than it has been at times, but it's quirky and not exactly "stable" for what its main purpose is - installing (and authenticating) software. Don't care about the cloud storage features and do not really use them at all. Literally open the app to check for and install updates.

Yeah it's really bad.

I wrote this rant a couple of years back and the situation isn't a lot better today.

https://medium.com/@Pier/dear-adobe-creative-cloud-sucks-55c6197030c0