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Software review from CHL member Allen J. Clements of Otaku Motion Digital Media Group.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
On July 1st, Adobe released a much-anticipated upgrade to Creative Suite. When most people think of Adobe, they immediately think of Photoshop: just one application within Creative Suite's family of programs. While CS3 boasts integration and layout improvements across all programs, it includes few updates for the Adobe cash cow.
This was my first significant upgrade in a while, so I salivated when the Adobe Production Premium package arrived at my studio. The gigantic box contained a manual for each of the seven software applications, two DVD-style cases and a couple of attractive "sure-shot" cards for Adobe OnLocation (a recent Adobe acquisition that was previously called Serious Magic DV Rack).
I had heard a lot about OnLocation. Like Serious Magic DV Rack, it offers near-real time monitoring of digital video production and access to otherwise expensive and heavy equipment such as waveform vectorscopes and histograms. Judging by its cards, OnLocation reads focus, exposure and brightness information from the camera.
I hadn't expected the Flash video encoder to be a stand-alone program. (I guess I missed it in the product list.) The new compression/encoding package uses Sorenson Squeeze codecs that can encode high-quality video for Flash Player. CS3 also includes After Effects, Illustrator, Flash Animator, Encore, Premiere Pro and Soundbooth, a new sound editor which replaced last year's Audition.
Premiere Pro returns to Macintosh! Just like Soundbooth and Encore, however, the program isn't compatible with my G5 towers. (I guess it's finally time to upgrade.) OnLocation is only available for PCs, so I will have to wait for that as well. Apparently Mac users have had some success using Boot Camp to run the software and PC users have sworn by Serious Magic DV Rack for some time.
Apple's use of Intel processors has left some small video entities like myself in the dust, but at least I can run my core trio: After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop.
User feedback suggests Soundbooth is amazing. The program can spectrally analyze a sound clip or audio track from a video file, and it isolates noise in a way that is so user-friendly, users don't need a lot of audio experience. Soundbooth can boost volume and add editable effects and scoring. Naturally, it integrates seamlessly with Premiere, Premiere Pro and After Effects. Users can directly import After Effects projects as moving DVD backgrounds. For simple projects, Soundbooth lets users skip authoring steps and export video directly to DVD. Once again, I can't run this software on my computer until the new one arrives, but others seem to enjoy it.
Now for the Adobe Production Premium software I can run in my current configuration. After Effects' new animation tool, called the puppet, creates a mesh and places "push-pins" of various influence throughout the object. These pins can then be moved and keyframe-animated. If the original image is prepared carefully, this can produce powerful and realistic animations from photos, text and shapes.
Brainstorm, a new addition to After Effects, might inspire users to try something different. Though brainstorm reminds me of Photoshop's variation window, I don't think anything like this exists in previous CS applications. (Perhaps an addition in CS4?) You can set randomness as to how far off your beaten path you want to go. The tool shows users as many layer and effect variations as they prefer. Of course, the human mind has always been more creative. Bounce it off a friend or two.
3-D Per Character Text, another new After Effects feature, allows exciting text animations to move into the Z space. New vector paint and shape tools make onion skinning and cell-animation easy. Animators often use a third-party program for these tasks, and I'm sure they'll be happy to find the features all in one place.
Photoshop now has the ability to import and paint 3-D objects. It can also paint video frames one by one, retouching and pixel-level editing every frame. Adobe has gone one step further by adding smart filters, which allow users to edit and re-edit filters applied to a smart-object. This adds options and lessens the need to hit the "undo" command.
Aside from increased compatibility, Illustrator's most notable feature is Live Color. This lets users browse through favorite sets of colors and complements. Live Color is a great inspirational tool. Also in new in Illustrator, as well as all mask functions in other applications, is an expanding node feature in which the node you are about to select enlarges. Great for those complicated masking operations.
Photoshop's popular vanishing point filter can now be exported to After Effects. The result? 3-D emulation from two sides of a building, box or other flat-sided shape in 2-D pictures. Users can also import layers cross-application between Photoshop and Illustrator, which is nice for those who like to work with vector and bitmap in the same application.
The performance of Illustrator and Photoshop has been robust, but After Effects crashes at least once a day (again on the G5 platform). I suggest more ECC ram, a strong GL-based video card and certainly an Intel-chipset Mac or PC.
For those working in print and web, the Master Series offers the core software, the recently-acquired Dreamweaver, InDesign and more. The software is broken down into Design and Web Premium suites as well as individual purchases and upgrades.
Creative professionals will find CS3 a significant upgrade. The software retails for over $1,500, but a full suite upgrade costs about $600. The cost may seem steep, but integration and all-inclusive features make Abobe's CS3 worth the money.
For more information, visit www.adobe.com