OT: Adobe Premiere or After Effects?
XoechZ
Posts: 1,102
Hello!
I have been searching for a professional software to work with my DAZ crated animations. There are 2 applications that catched my eye. Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. I have read a lot about both and watched some YouTube clips about both.
Now I just can´t decide which one to grab. The problem is that I cannot afford both, so I have to make a decision. I already know what Premiere does and what After Effect does. Both are great.
Can you help me to decide which one to grab for "postworking" DAZ animated clips?
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Comments
Well, editing and putting together "finished" video footage into one clip and save as one video file can also be done in less expensive, or even free software. I have done this in Hitfilm Express so far. So, if I have to decide between Premiere and After Effects, probably After Effects is the way to go, becasue here I can do things that I cannot do in other applications. I have watched some tutorials about After Effects and I think it is like Photoshop for videos. Absolutely stunning and endless possibilities.
Have you considered Sony (now Magix) Vegas either Pro or Studio (I have used/use both)
http://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/?utm_source=sonycreativesoftware&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=redirect&lang=us&prdt=vegassoftware
Since you can get these applications piecemeal for $20 each a month (with an annual plan), you can start with one and then add the other later if you think you really need it. If you think you might need only one of them for a limited time -- a month or two -- you can get them without the annual commitment.
Premier and After Effects integrate in ways other apps won't, but you could use After Effects standalone with most anything. AE has a basic editor in it, which may be all you need. Don't forget that both are provided as trial, and both need a more capable PC than average.
On the question if AE is worth it ... you can do these things with it:
Thanks for your answers. Since I do not produce whole movies with hundreds of single clips, Premiere would be kind of overkill. I will keep the free Hifilm Express for basic editing and go for After Effects for all that cool stuff. But before subscribing I will download the trial and see how things go. But as a long year Photoshop user I think I will find my way through it.
If you like Premier but think it's too much, there's always Premiere Express (like Photoshop Express). It's edited down, but still has all the main functions, and is cheaper.
There will always be these debates, but in the end, which you choose to learn and become expert in depends on your end-goals. If you think you'd like a commercial job compositing effects, then AE is more likely to help you land the position. The other tools, while producing good results in the right hands, don't suggest the skill set most of these firms are looking for. This has nothing to do with the quality or capabilities of the other programs.
However, if this is just for a hobby, it really doesn't matter what you use. Both are available as trials, so you can make up your own mind.
Also be aware of the third-party market and user support. One of the reasons Photoshop is so popular is that it has tons of YouTube videos, books, magazines, presets, templates, and other add-ins, both free and paid. AE doesn't quite draw the same numbers, but there are numerous sites that sell or give away templates and other goodies for it. These beat recreating everything from scratch.
I have and use both premiere and after effects cc and have used them in production environments for many years.
Hitfilm Pro 100%. I love it and it is very robust and feature filled. That said, subscribing to adobe cc gives you everything and over time the pricing is a good deal when compared to the old days when we had to spend 2400$ on the master suite and 800$ a year on upgrades.
Except we didn't have to buy every update - initially there were no restrictions, the last couple of versions had a restriction to last or last but one (or possibly two) for upgrades, they were going to switch to only the last version but in the end went to the ... whatever you want to call CC model.
If you get the full CC suite on an annual basis it's $600/year. Assuming they came out with new versions every other year, and you skipped a version, that's four years of subscriptions, at $2,400. That's more that buying the suite outright, even at the inflated price they ask for CS6 these days.
OTOH, a lot of people don't need the full suite, and Photoshop is just 10 bucks a month. I keep my old CS5 suite for things like Illustrator and InDesign, which I don't use as often. Then there's the fact that I don't have to come up with all that money at once.
There's no doubt Adobe makes more money on the subscription model. But as it's generally considered for business use, the cost of the software is minimal compared to the value of the output. That and you can write off the subscription straight out. Adobe is one of the few software that you can transfer to a new owner, so it keeps a depreciation value.