Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 18, 2014. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
All 14 Creative Cloud software packages are receiving an update – including new mobile apps and, for the first time, Adobe hardware. The pen/ruler hardware for tablets is – at least in the demonstration – reasonably useful for design and illustration. However, the hardware will not arrive in Europe until later this year, and we will withhold judgment until then. New prices and workstation-bound licenses for schools and companies also apply across the cloud.
After Effects
AE now has a significantly improved tracker/keyer – the new algorithms are extremely efficient, particularly with compression artifacts, and were already convincing in initial tests. Spills are also filtered out better. The new "Live Text Templates" in AE are quick to create and can then be edited in Premiere.
Also interesting is the integration of Adobe "Kuler", Adobe’s color selection/palette tool/network, which enables consistent color selections (especially in design) and also helps compositing artists with industrial/commercial work – nothing could be easier than defining the customer’s CI in Kuler and using it consistently at every step. The Typekit integration is also fitting here, providing fonts and managing them across multiple instances and workflow steps. A second reference monitor (as an external device) is now possible with the Mercury Transit function. And plug-in manufacturers can add their own panels.
But the main point is the "closing of ranks" with Premiere.
Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro, which stands at the heart of the video workflow, now has "Live Text Templates", so text can be edited directly in Premiere (without switching to AE). Masks and tracking tools from AE are also integrated into Premiere – anyone can imagine why that speeds up the pipeline.
Also new is the "Master Clip Feature", in which effects can be applied to all instances of a clip. Handling large files has also been improved – including debayering for RED Raw. But probably the best new tool is the "Autosave to Cloud" function – intermediate saves are pushed to Creative Cloud in the background – so if the workstation kicks the bucket again in the middle of things, the current state is saved. Which would at least have spared me a few unwanted instances over the years of "Do it again – not as punishment, just for practice".
Speedgrade
Speedgrade now communicates with the other products via Direct Link, allowing faster work, and Premiere accesses the Lumetri engine – the effects can thus simply be switched on and off in the timeline. Conversely, Speedgrade has learned Premiere’s keyboard shortcuts, which enormously accelerates switching between the programs.
SG itself contains more scopes – for example, a new YUV Vectorscope. The Look Manager was also reworked by the Iridias team, and new SpeedLooks are included by default.
Media Encoder
Media Encoder CC (which will be covered in an intensive workshop in one of the next issues of DP) now also renders with GPU acceleration (using the Mercury Engine), integrates closely with Premiere, Prelude, After Effects, and Photoshop, and can now also directly incorporate watermarks, time codes, and above all LUTs. Media Encoder now also handles standard DCPs for cinemas, as well as AS-11.
Photoshop
Everyone’s favorite pixel editor has received new functions for Smart Objects and a preview when inserting fonts (clicking in the list generates a preview in the image – even while scrolling through).
"Content Aware Fill" has become even smarter and, in this iteration, also fills in the edges that are often left behind, allowing unwanted people to be removed from the image more quickly (or the fluffy windscreen that AGAIN protrudes into the picture from the incorrectly positioned boom pole).
There are also new Blur filters that enable direction-driven Motion Blurs using a curve – particularly interesting for visualization.
SDK
In addition, there are the first steps toward an Adobe SDK. So far it is known that Adobe’s SDK is a software library that developers can use to employ Adobe technologies to create mobile apps. The functions include browsing files in Creative Cloud and extracting elements from PSD files, Adobe’s Touch Slide software for drawing straight lines, and cloud services for image editing such as the Align and Content Aware Fill tools. Adobe Photoshop Mix already uses these new APIs and thus offers some of Adobe Photoshop’s best image-editing technologies.
Adobe Creative SDK was developed for creating iOS applications and is currently being tested by selected developers. A public beta version is expected to be available in the coming months.
Creative Cloud
Anyone who thinks they need these functions or is considering the upgrade is reminded here of the trial version of the entire package – at creative.adobe.com/de/products/creative-cloud, you can download the cloud software and the individual CC packages within it. And if you take a moment for the DP Reader Survey 2014, with a little luck you can win one year’s access to Creative Cloud. Click here for the survey.
