alexschwindt.blog

adobe announces new production premium CS6 suite

Yesterday Adobe announced the forthcoming Production Premium CS6, which will include new versions of Premiere, After Effects, Audition, Encore and Photoshop. Versions 5 and 5.5 both represented major milestones in terms of features, performance and stability. In fact, the increased stability of CS5.5 was a big part of why I finally decided to make the jump to a total Adobe workflow.

So do the new features of Production Premium CS6 represent the same leap forward in visual storytelling..?

a final cut editor goes adobe

Those of you who are regular reader of this blog will know that while I started out on Sony's Vegas, I really became a filmmaker using Apple's Final Cut Pro suite. Sure, by 2009 it was starting to get a little long in the tooth, but that was ok because what it lacked in horsepower it made up in stability and usability.

Even better, FCP was THE industry standard. Its enormous market share meant that third-part hardware and software makers could invest huge amounts of time an effort into FCP-compatable add-ons, knowing that if they created something good and useful a sizable market would be open to it. There was a lot of security there for aspiring filmmakers.

Then Apple had to go and laid the epic goose egg that was FCP X...

early reaction to Avid Media Composer 6

I had a chance to watch the live stream of today's announcement from Avid of their new version of Media Composer 6. Avid previewed this software late last spring in order to try and capitalize on Apple's misfortune, but today's preview answered a lot of lingering questions surrounding the software. So what are some of the things we learned today, and what does that mean to filmmakers like you and me? Is Avid serious about gaining back all the editors and business they lost to Final Cut over the past decade or so?

creating websites with Adobe Muse

As a rule, people who like design do not like writing code. In my experience, people who like writing code do not like project management. But we all want websites that are powerful, functional and beautiful. Enter Adobe Muse.

Designed for with graphic artists in mind, Muse allows the user to design a website with simple interfaces and established design tools. Of course, Muse isn't the first software to attempt this trick. Many of use have invested copious amounts of time learning WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) web software over the years, only to be disappointed with weak, compormised, non-functioning end results.

Would Muse lead to the same let down..?

incredible deal on media software

When it comes to filmmaking and media production one of the most common questions I get is what software I create with.  That used to be a more complicated question, but thanks to some industry craziness I can now give a very simple answer: Adobe Production Premium CS5.5. 

Sometime soon I'm going to write a more comprehensive review of the Production Suite, but for now I'll just say that Adobe has proven the old adage that chance favors the prepared mind.  For the first time ever Adobe finally has all of their assets running at full steam, and their timing couldn't be better. 

Speaking of timing, you have approximately three weeks to take advantage of the best software deal I've ever seen from Adobe...

great filmmaking websites

Last week a had a great time leading the filmmaking workshops a Leadership Institute.  I've been teaching these workshops for three years now, and I'm just blown away by how much filmmakers and video producers have changes in that time.  When I started out everything I taught in the classes was "brilliant"; now I have to be on my toes to make sure I'm one step ahead of many of these artists who are attending these workshops!

One of the things I always try to make sure I'm offering is a great set of resources for the people who come out.  In my opinion, one of the best resources I can hook producers up with (and the one I would want from other filmmakers) is a list of website where we can continue to learn and grow as artists. 

So here's the places I go to hone my craftiness...

why i design in grunge

I've spent about 40 hours over the last three days editing video in a very clean, bright, corporate style.   While the video's been rendering I've been thinking about why it is that my personal design 'voice' always seems to trend towards grunge.  (If you don't know what I mean by grunge, click on the image to the left)