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Adobe began the week early with official launch details of Creative Suite 6 and Creative Cloud. The collection of professional tools are available for pre-order as of Monday and should ship within 30 days.
Pro videographer Larry Jordan published a preview on Sunday of Final Cut Pro X updates that Apple had promised him would come later in 2012. The current editing app should soon get RED camera support, letting it handle Redcode-capable 4K and 5K cameras like the Scarlet-X without transcoding first. Multichannel audio editing will be added to the pro video tool as well, although how this would work wasn't explained.
Adobe has formally unveiled Premiere Pro CS6, the next major upgrade of its video editing software. Among its changes is a radically different interface, for instance defaulting to a new "two-up" workspace in which the Source Monitor and the Program Monitor sit side-by-side, with Info, Effect, Project, Media Browser, Timeline, and Audio Meter panels below. Many of the program's panels have been improved in their own right, and Adobe has revised time ruler bars as well as markers.
Just a month after announcing a public beta for the program, Singular Software has brought its PluralEyes companion product to Adobe Premiere Pro for the Mac. The external tool can synchronize multi-camera, multi-take or dual-system audio with video clips automatically without any special preparation, creating both a master track and secondary collection of clips that remain in sync with the master audio, saving video editors many hours in post-production.
Video software makers Singular Software, fresh on the heels of an update of their PluralEyes companion to Final Cut Pro, have announced a public beta for PluralEyes for Adobe Premiere Pro for Mac. The software works with input from either the CS4 or CS5 versions of Premiere Pro.
Adobe has formally unveiled Creative Suite 5, the next generation of its flagship software collection. The new suite makes several major changes, perhaps most notably upgrading Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro to 64-bit code on Mac and Windows systems, improving speed on modern multi-core processors. Premiere Pro further supports acceleration from NVIDIA-based video cards, making it practical to edit in real-time or play back projects without rendering first.
Adobe is previewing a new scriptwriting application at NAB this week and has announced an update to Premiere Pro CS4. The new application, called Story, is being designed for collaborative scriptwriting for film and broadcast.
Red Giant has released Magic Bullet Quick Looks, a new set of color-correction plug-ins for video editors. The software represents a scaled-down version of Magic Bullet Looks, which provides a full range of tools for tweaking visual styles. Quick Looks eliminates most custom options in favor of over 100 presets, based on the cinematography of famous films and TV shows.
Digieffects has published a new plug-in collection, Simulate: Camera, intended for the video software in Adobe's Creative Suite 4. The plug-ins are intended to simulate various camera and film errors, which can add interest to footage that is otherwise too sanitized. Archive is used to reproduce various decay and contamination effects, while Overexpose is able to ramp up highlights and generate flickering.
With Adobe Creative Suite 4 launching next month, Boris FX says it will offer free updates to compatible plug-ins for Boris Continuum customers. The full list includes Boris Continuum Complete 5 AE, Final Effects Complete 5 AE, Boris RED 4.x, Boris FX 9.x, Boris Graffiti 5.x, Boris Blue 2.5, or any Boris Continuum Unit. The company specializes in 3D compositing and vector graphic products for broadcast, post-production, film and multimedia markets.
Adobe is calling the latest release of its ubiquitous Creative Suite a milestone -- but users expecting a radical change will probably disagree. CS4 is less about fancy new features, and more about workflow -- that is, making the products work better together. The Suite, officially unveiled Monday night, contains hundreds of refinements designed to "bring down the walls" in the creative process, by making it easier to move content between applications and by adopting a consistent user interface across the entire suite. Adobe has also added more web-accessible content and Connect Pro meeting software for instant communication between artists and developers. There are new features as well, but the real meat in this release is the improved integration, efficiency and collaboration tools.
RE:Vision Effects has published Video Gogh 3, the latest version of its video post-effects software. The software attempts to simulate the look of various kinds of paintings and illustrations, such as oil, chalk and watercolor. The third edition adds a variety of features, most notably the option for animated and custom brush sets, with user-selectable brush images and render styles.
