Adobe unveils long-awaited new features for Creative Cloud

Adobe yesterday announced plans for the Creative Cloud collection and Adobe Anywhere platform, revealing that they will add features to optimize editing environments and expand the systems used by the broadcast industries.

Upcoming updates will bring significant and promised new features (more than 150) to Creative Cloud’s built-in video toolset, such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade, Prelude, Media Encoder and Story Plus.

Adobe Creative Cloud

First, native support for Ultra HD, 4K and higher resolutions, as well as RAW and HFR (High Frame Rate) formats, has been extended, making it easier for users to work with the latest cameras without having to go through tedious transcoding.

From this update Premiere Pro and SpeedGrade will be fully connected, so it will be possible to open Premiere sequences in SpeedGrade quickly or carry multitrack timelines back and forth. The results will be seen as effects within Premiere Pro, maintaining an integrated workflow and using Lumetri Deep Color Engine technology.

Adobe’s editing system is one of the biggest beneficiaries. Apart from color improvements, editing will be streamlined thanks to changes in the multicam and subtitling tools, new features in audio monitoring and in the overlays available for the image. In addition, the new version will have improved performance due to a new GPU debayering of the Cinema DNG format for real-time playback and OpenCL support, which will provide the speed and power needed for the most demanding projects.

With the new SpeedLooks it will be possible to better match color spaces in SpeedGrade, even when dealing with different camera formats. New mask capabilities have also been included, allowing multiple masks to be added to each color layer, giving you more control over complex looks.

In After Effects, the “Mask Tracker” tool has been added, capable of automatically tracking frame-by-frame across an entire composition to be applied to masks and effects.

In Media Encoder there will be new synchronization settings that will allow synchronizing application preferences between multiple computers, via CC; and in Story Plus new production planning features have been included, providing powerful scheduling and reporting tools to manage productions efficiently, making it easier to modify and share lists between productions and users.

Adobe Anywhere

The Adobe Anywhere platform will also be upgraded. This Adobe system enables collaboration between different members of large virtual teams in different locations. It is now open to visual effects and motion graphics with After Effects and enhances sports and live broadcast production with the ability to edit media in Premiere Pro while the file is being recorded.

Also announced were iPad apps for Adobe Anywhere, for viewing productions and playing back footage from a server; and Prelude (called Live Logger), for logging notes, events and other data, synchronizing with on-set timecode (via compatible wireless generators) and then bringing this metadata into the footage.

All these changes are expected to arrive on October 15, with no additional costs for Creative Cloud members as promised a few months ago with the launch of the new model. However, during the IBC 2013 trade show (September 13-17) it will be possible to see the corresponding demonstrations.