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Thoughts on editing software

L

legstud

Hey ya'll

What are your thoughts on editing software? We're trying to decide between Adobe Creative Suite Premium, Final Cut Studio, or some combination of individual products (e.g. Final Cut Pro + After Effects + Magic Bullet + Soundtrack/Soundbooth).

If we went with the individuals, how is it moving from one product to another (like Final Cut to After Effects)? Or is it best to stay within a family of products (Apple vs. Adobe)? Any thoughts on special effects, pros/cons of one family over another?

Thanks!
Tom
 
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It looks like I'm a bit late to the discussion, but my two cents:

I use CS5 and FCS on a daily basis and am pretty fluent in each. CS5 is an infinitely better product than Final Cut. The only reason I keep it around is some clients prefer it because it's what their existing system is based on.

CS5 is already 64 bit. On the same computer, I can do tons of stuff realtime in it. In final cut, if I do ANYTHING, it has to render. CS5 IMO is much easier to learn, and a way more powerful group of products.

Final nail in the coffin for FCS, Apple announced not too long ago that future versions of Final Cut are going to be aimed at consumers/prosumers instead of professionals.

Try the demos of both, but here's what i've seen.

Premiere vs Final Cut - Premiere is way more powerful and can do more things with less rendering. It can mix formats better and offers more effects/tools to work with.

After Effects vs Motion - no comparison, motion can't do 10% of what AE can do and with all the free learning available online as well as plugins available, AE wins by a longshot.

Encore vs DVD studio - while not as powerful, DVD studio does have a lot of prebuilt stuff that is great on the fly. encore has a bigger learning curve here, but can do A LOT more including BluRay.

Photoshop and Illustrator Vs nothing - Well duh :) apple doesn't offer this type of software in the FCS.

After Effects/Premiere for coloring vs Color - adobe doesn't offer a dedicated coloring program but it doesn't need to. Color has an awful learning curve and can't do you can't do in AE or Premiere

Soundbooth vs Soundtrack - I don't know, I'm not an audio guy :)

Adobe Media Encoder vs Compressor - pretty close, AME has more presets and seems to run a bit faster.

After Effects vs Live Type - adobe has no text only animation program, but After Effects has plenty of presets that do similar things and let's face it, all the stuff live type does is silly anyway.

Am I forgetting anything?

And no, I don't work for Adobe :)
 
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PaulGriffith said:
CS5 is an infinitely better product than Final Cut.
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Swings and roundabouts, innit? Adobe's DVD software looks a bit better than Apple's (which I've never used), but the only one I've used and preferred is After Effects.

In final cut, if I do ANYTHING, it has to render. CS5 IMO is much easier to learn, and a way more powerful group of products.
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64 bit nature of CS5 does have its advantages definitely. If Final Cut has to render every time you do something, you haven't set it up properly. Not sure it's fair to criticise it because of user error.

Final nail in the coffin for FCS, Apple announced not too long ago that future versions of Final Cut are going to be aimed at consumers/prosumers instead of professionals.
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Not sure where you got this from, but I keep up with Apple news fairly regularly, and have heard nothing of the sort. Next update has supposedly been postponed until 2011, but it's certainly not being aimed at consumers - why would they, with iMovie and Final Cut Express?

I think you have a lot of fair criticisms of the Final Cut suite, but you've made it a far more one-sided fight than it really is.


Cracker Funk said:
:lol:

I'm still curious about Avid. Is nobody using it these days?
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It never seems to have had much of a following amongst indies, especially not compared to Premiere and Final Cut. Just too expensive, maybe?
 
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Here's something else to throw in to the mix (pun incoming...)

Sound.

If anyone is like me, they are terrible with sound and have to hand it off to sound-pros who knows what they are doing. Those peeps are almost certain to be using ProTools... and they'll be wanting it in one particular format; OMF.

Adobe suites still don't have proper OMF support. I stopped upgrading at CS4 (lol, swore to stop at CS2), because I can't get what I need with another upgrade. I'm not quite desperate enough to jump to Apple yet (no moolah for all the gear & software needed, at once), but I sure ain't been happy with Adobe for the past couple years. (For this specific reason, mind you. Video-wise, it's awesome)

For the most part, though, the consensus is right. It's mostly a flavour (and comfort-zone) preference.
 
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I agree with just about everything Paul said previously. I use After Effects every day, and Motion has nothing on it. IMO, FCP and Motion feel like toys compared to the Adobe Suite.

A good workflow will eliminate any problems moving clips between applications, regardless of what software you use.

I'm a fan of Adobe, but I use Vegas on my projects because its fast and the audio tools are good. Its cheap too.
 
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chilipie said:
If Final Cut has to render every time you do something, you haven't set it up properly. Not sure it's fair to criticise it because of user error.
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It's set up right, and it's on a great system not really lacking in it's hardware. It's just 32 bit limitations and what not. The Video system that CS5 uses is superior, they redesigned it from the ground up.


Not sure where you got this from, but I keep up with Apple news fairly regularly, and have heard nothing of the sort. Next update has supposedly been postponed until 2011, but it's certainly not being aimed at consumers - why would they, with iMovie and Final Cut Express?
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http://www.appleinsider.com/article...unch_rumored_for_apples_final_cut_studio.html

Apple's press release about the dumbing-down rumor was that the new release will be "awesome". They've done it with other software before, and considering most of the money is from consumer products it's a smart business move. But again, I guess it's not for sure.


I think you have a lot of fair criticisms of the Final Cut suite, but you've made it a far more one-sided fight than it really is.
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I honestly think it's a pretty one-sided win :)

I haven't used Vegas since Sony bought it. When it was Sonic Foundry I found it a little cumbersome. I come from a video background and it was developed by audio guys though. I do know some audio guys that dabble in video from time to time that love it because it operates the way an audio guy is familiar with.

Avid has always seemed like cost more than it was worth. The rumor is that since it was one of the original NLE's and the "big boys" learned it that the only reason it's still around is because once someone learns a suite they don't want to change. I haven't used it though :)
 
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