This appeared in this week's MacWeek. Interesting. I wonder when the folks at Macromedia will release Final Cut ...
PREMIERE TO TURN 5.0
Rewrite to sync audio and video, smooth editing
A new version of Premiere promises to bring new high-end capabilities to Adobe Systems Inc.'s video-editing software, sources said.
Due by late spring for the Mac OS and Windows NT and 95, Premiere 5.0 will reportedly represent a complete rewrite of the application's code base. While sources cautioned that all the features are not yet frozen, the new version will reportedly offer better audio syncing and feature a dual-monitor interface that permits the type of three-point editing familiar to users of high-end digital and analog video-editing systems.
In addition, Premiere 5.0 will offer a significant performance boost over earlier versions, add a variety of interface enhancements and feature hooks for the dual-stream architecture used by a forthcoming generation of high-performance video cards, sources said.
According to sources, the upgrade's new Monitor window will allow users to view the source clip as well as edited footage simultaneously.
In addition, the new version reportedly offers control over four data points -- in and out of the source and destination -- any three of which define the edit. Sources said this "three-point" approach to nonlinear editing is more intuitive and accurate than the system used in the current version of Premiere. "It's a model that's becoming standardized in nonlinear editing," one source said.
Meanwhile, Premiere 5.0 will mark the debut of a collapsible time line and a revised Navigator window, sources said. "The new time line is much more powerful," a source said. "You can either work collapsed, like Radius Edit or Avid [Technology Inc.'s nonlinear systems], or work with an unlimited number of tracks in the classic Premiere style." Users can collapse both video and audio tracks, and transitions will collapse automatically. Furthermore, when users insert or delete segments in a sequence, the new time line will "ripple down" automatically to reflect the revised composition.
While the current version includes a Go To command with a modal dialog box for navigation, sources said Version 5.0 will allow users to keep a project window open at all times; the time line and the Monitor window will refresh automatically as producers move through their projects.
The upgrade will also address long-standing complaints about Premiere's audio-sync capabilities. Sources said that while a rounding error in the current version's Construction window causes audio and video tracks to lose sync over time, the upgrade will be able to perform the complex calculations required to coordinate them seamlessly.
Meanwhile, all audio tracks in Version 5.0 will handle stereo data, sources said. Audio in the current version, by contrast, comprises a set of monaural tracks that users have to modify via pan filters. The upgrade will feature stereo panning as well as live control of a variety of keyframable audio filters, such as reverb and echo, sources said.
Audio sliders will offer proportional dragging, sources said; by holding down a modifier key, users will be able to move audio sliders in 1 percent increments.
Premiere 5.0 will provide a new slate of effects and titling capabilities, sources said. Rolling credits will be built into the title window, and users will be able to specify the direction and speed of title rolls.
While support for a dual-stream video architecture will not be implemented until a later revision of Premiere 5.0, the capability will eventually mean that the Adobe package will make it easier for board vendors such as Truevision Inc. and Pinnacle Systems Inc. to bypass QuickTime. With the new dual-stream boards, users will be able to access two sources of full-screen, full-motion video simultaneously.
Finally, the Premiere upgrade will represent a shift to the "unified" Adobe interface that has already made its mark on packages such as Photoshop, Illustrator and PageMaker. Sources said keyboard equivalents will be brought in line with other Adobe software, and the new version will feature the tabbed folders prevalent in Adobe's graphics applications.
Sources said they are excited about the revision, which they characterized as a major advance for Premiere as a professional video-editing tool.
"Editors have traditionally dismissed Premiere as a toy," one source said. "With this upgrade, Adobe has worked long and hard to overcome that impression."
Adobe declined to comment. |
