Adobe Creative Suite 4

With the launch of Adobe's latest major update to their mammoth package of end-to-end creative tools come many questions about new features, upgrade paths, and how many manuals they can fit in a box!   

The answer to the latter question is easy: none! (Adobe's manuals are now all available online and as separate document sets). The first two questions, however, need a bit more explaining...

Adobe Premiere CS4

Premiere has been going from strength to strength during the Creative Suite era, and the latest incarnation adds some serious weight to its toolset.

Speech search. Turn spoken dialogue into text-based, timecode-accurate, searchable metadata. Jump to a specific area of a shot by searching for keywords within the dialogue, then use keywords to quickly locate and display what you're looking for — or even cut video based on the script.

Tapeless camera support. Edit video natively in the latest tapeless formats, including AVCHD, P2, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD, without transcoding or rewrapping. Browse your drives and removable media from inside Adobe Premiere Pro to find, log, and import footage.

End-to-end metadata workflow. For greater project intelligence you can now easily add metadata to clips both on set with Adobe® OnLocation™ software and while editing using Adobe Premiere® Pro. Use speech recognition technology to create text-based metadata to help you organise your assets more efficiently. Pass the metadata through export for web publishing, enabling searchable video and helping to unlock new revenue streams.

Batch encoding in the background. Save time with Adobe Media Encoder, a separately- included software application that automates the process of creating multiple encoded versions of your source files and sequences. Manage priorities and control advanced settings for individual files.

Redesigned Adobe OnLocation CS4. Get critical monitoring information while you record directly to disk with Adobe OnLocation CS4, now cross-platform with a new Adobe-standard interface. Save time and take the tedium out of logging with shot lists and metadata-based project intelligence.

Industry-leading Blu-ray disc authoring. Maintain the pristine quality of your HD video all the way to distribution. Create high-definition Blu-ray discs with Encore CS4, working with the same interface used to create standard-definition DVDs and incorporating advanced Blu-ray features like pop-up menus, subtitles, and dual-layer burning.

Adobe After Effects CS4

A staple in most production workflows since version 6, AE is a true workhorse for animation, 3d composition and motion graphics. The new features developed for CS4 really put it ahead of the game in this market, with advances across the breadth of the software. 

Searchable time-lines/projects and easier nested comp navigation. Locate any element in a comp or project with the new QuickSearch. Quickly navigate between nested comps with the new Mini-Flowchart.

Independent keyframing of x, y, z values, plus 3D compositing improvements. Composite in 3D space more easily: keyframe x, y, and z position values separately and use the new unified camera that makes the After Effects camera tool work more like those in 3D modelling applications.

Compositions exported as layered projects. Export compositions as layered, XFL format projects that can be opened and edited in Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional software. Many After Effects assets such as text and Adobe Illustrator® artwork are preserved as vectors.       

Numerous interface and workflow tweaks. Work more efficiently with dozens of user-requested changes, including the new Auto Resolution setting that only renders visible pixels when zooming in and out of a comp view, streamlined memory, and multi-core processing preferences, to name but a few.

Mocha for Adobe After Effects from Imagineer Systems. Use this powerful 2.5D planar tracking application from Imagineer Systems to track the motion of elements — even in challenging shots where elements move off-screen or where there is motion blur/excessive grain.

Live Adobe Photoshop 3D layers import. After Effects® CS4 lets you move them, animate cameras around them, adjust lighting, and composite them with other elements.

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Photoshop has come on in leaps and bounds in its last 2 versions, with the most noticeable aspect being the video style editing it is now capable of. This has opened up a huge amount of options for the creative workflow, bringing all of Photoshop's touching-up and filtering tools into the editor's domain.

Revolutionary 3D painting and compositing. Now paint directly onto 3D models, wrap 2D images around 3D shapes, convert gradient maps to 3D objects, add depth to layers and text, get print-quality output with the new ray-tracing rendering engine, and enjoy exporting to supported common 3D formats.

Fluid canvas rotation. Now just click to smoothly turn your canvas for distortion-free viewing at any desired angle — no more tilting your head in the middle of painting and drawing.

Content-Aware Scaling Use the new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature to automatically recompose an image as you resize it, smartly preserving vital areas as the image adapts to the new dimensions. Get the perfect image in one step without time-intensive cropping and retouching.

Enhanced motion graphics editing. Edit motion graphics more efficiently with new single-key shortcuts, sync visual effects with specific points in an audio track using new audio syncing controls, and turn any 3D object into a video display zone.

Industry-leading colour correction. Enjoy dramatically enhanced colour correction with re-engineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that now intelligently preserve colour and tone details.

So there we go, a run down of what we feel are the major new features in the most popular CS programs for the broadcast market. We'll have some video examples of these new features as soon as we get a copy to play with!

For information on upgrade paths please contact our sales team on 0870 730 6969

In the meantime, you can see all the features and demos on Adobe's website: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

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