In its annual Creative Cloud Fall Update, Adobe has unveiled a suite of new tools and enhanced features for Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Frame.io.
These updates focus on several key responsibilities for video editors, including the growing importance of color management.
As the post-production landscape evolves, editors face tighter deadlines and budgets.
Whether working on short-form or long-form content, the pressure to deliver faster while taking on more responsibilities has increased.
This includes managing color and overseeing the entire production process from start to finish.
Image Credit – Adobe
Color Management in Premiere Pro
To meet these demands, Adobe has significantly enhanced the color management capabilities in Premiere Pro, equipping editors with the tools needed to handle the unique color science of each project.
The new system is designed to be intuitive and automatic, allowing video editors of all experience levels to achieve their desired color and aesthetic without extensive technical knowledge.
This system handles gamut and color setup without the need for LUTs (Look-Up Tables) and is centered around the Lumetri color panel.
It utilizes an extended color space that goes beyond the traditional Rec.709, providing editors with a broader dynamic range and better use of log data.
The Wide Gamut Color System is based on the ACEScct color space, allowing seamless transitions between Rec.709 SDR and PQ or HLG HDR formats.
It supports a wide range of formats, including RED, ARRI, Sony, Canon, ProRes RAW, and log formats from Panasonic, Fujifilm, Nikon, Leica, DJI, and GoPro. For the first time, Adobe Premiere Pro offers comprehensive color management for raw video data.
Once the original camera files are imported into the timeline, Premiere Pro automatically normalizes the footage and applies appropriate color settings.
Editors can easily toggle these adjustments on or off, customize the settings as needed, or switch to a wider gamut color space to maximize the raw and log data.
This provides more precise color control and a broader dynamic range for increased detail, especially in extreme light conditions.
Editors can also use Adobe Dynamic Link to share color management settings with video effects teams, ensuring consistent color, brightness, and image fidelity without losing resolution.
Image Credit – Adobe
A New Properties Panel
Adobe has also introduced a new Properties Panel in Premiere Pro, making the app more accessible to beginners while streamlining workflows for advanced users.
This context-sensitive panel displays only relevant properties and settings, eliminating the need to navigate through complex menus.
Users can batch-edit dozens or even hundreds of clips simultaneously, adjusting properties and applying changes that ripple through the timeline.
This panel is designed to adapt to specific workflows, whether focusing on visuals, audio, graphics, or effects, enabling users to work more efficiently.
Adobe has further improved performance with faster playback through hardware-accelerated AVC and HEVC codecs, and ProRes rendering is now three times faster for quicker exports.
Additionally, support for raw camera formats from Sony, Canon, RED, and ARRI has been expanded.
The updated interface includes both dark and light modes, as well as a high-contrast option.
Controls and widgets have been redesigned to create a more modern, consistent look, and overall performance has been enhanced for a more responsive user experience.
Image Credit – Adobe
Adobe After Effects Enhancements
Adobe has continued to develop 3D workflows within After Effects, allowing for smoother integration of live-action footage with embedded animations and 3D models.
Improvements in shadow casting and depth mapping make these interactions more natural, reducing the time spent on setup.
The update includes 33 new animation presets, offering modern styles with simple controls for creating animated countdowns, infographics, and more.
After Effects now shares the same redesigned, streamlined interface as Premiere Pro, and it benefits from hardware-accelerated UI improvements, resulting in up to four times faster performance on certain systems.
The 3D ecosystem has been expanded with the introduction of Substance 3D Painter, which allows creators to apply realistic textures and lighting to 3D models.
Substance 3D Painter offers access to over 20,000 fully licensed 3D materials, models, and lighting assets, making it easier to create high-quality CGI shots. Depth of field effects can also be added to enhance the realism of CGI assets.
Since Substance 3D Painter is nondestructive, editors and visual effects artists can experiment with layers, textures, colors, and shadows without fear of losing their work. Painter also integrates seamlessly with Illustrator files, allowing updates to flow directly into After Effects compositions.
Image Credit – Adobe
Adobe Firefly Services and an Upcoming Generative AI Update
Adobe has expanded its Firefly services to include advanced speech tools for audio repair. These features enable users to remove unwanted background noise, fix poorly recorded dialogue, and enhance overall audio quality.
The new batch processing capabilities reduce the time spent on tedious audio cleanup tasks. Firefly can also translate spoken dialogue into multiple languages with lip-sync capabilities while preserving the original speaker’s voice.
Additionally, Adobe has announced that generative AI for video is in development, which promises to further extend the creative possibilities across all stages of production.
Availability
The updates for Premiere Pro and Firefly are currently in beta testing, with general availability expected later this fall. The After Effects updates are already available for users to enjoy.
Users interested in trying the new features in Premiere Pro can access the Premiere Pro Beta Website to sign up but are advised to back up their projects beforehand as any changes may not be backward compatible.
Adobe will also be featuring the update at the Adobe booth during IBC 2024 in Berlin from September 13-16, 2024.
[source: Adobe]
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