Adobe overhauls Premiere Pro, After Effects with tighter integration for video pros

Graphics software giant Adobe on Wednesday spoke at the annual NAB show in Las Vegas to reveal new versions of the video editing apps in its Creative Cloud suite, including significant upgrades for Premiere Pro and After Effects, making them part of a more cohesive, tightly integrated suite of products.

Premiere Pro CC is set to gain a slew of new features and tweaks, including the ability to edit After Effects compositions without switching applications, a change designed to speed up editing. Editors will also be able to take advantage of a new dynamic masking and tracking function to make blurring faces and logos easier. 

In addition, the new version will leverage Creative Cloud more heavily, providing facilities for automated backups and real-time synchronization between applications and teams using Adobe Anywhere. 

After Effects CC's keying features will also be enhanced to provide better keying results when video has been compressed, and Adobe has integrated its Typekit typography-as-a-service offering. This will allow After Effects users to choose any Typekit-enabled typeface for use on the desktop.

"Broadcasters, filmmakers, corporate publishers and video professionals today are expected to relentlessly keep up with new formats, frame rates and distribution methods," said Adobe product executive Steve Warner. "Customers who have switched to Adobe Creative Cloud from alternative offerings tell us that Adobe apps and solutions give them a significant advantage. And with hundreds of new features and enhancements added with regular releases over the past 12 months, we continue to raise the bar with faster workflows for video pros."

Several supporting apps will also receive updates, including Story CC, Audition CC, Prelude CC, and SpeedGrade. Most of the changes revolve around enabling faster editing workflows, though SpeedGrade — software that helps editors with color correction — will also add support for OpenCL on the Mac Pro.

Adobe has been focusing extra attention on its video editing suite in recent years in an attempt to win back customers who had previously switched to Apple's Final Cut Studio. Many of those same customers were angered by the changes Apple made to Final Cut Pro X, and the two companies have been battling for hearts and minds in the years since its release. 

Premiere Pro and After Effects are available part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, a subscription product that gives access to Adobe's entire software lineup for $49.99 per month. Discounts are available for educators and students, who start at $19.99 per month, while those upgrading from older "boxed" versions of Creative Suite can pay just $29.99 per month for the first year.

Users signing up now will be able to upgrade for free when the new versions of Premiere and After Effects ship "in the next couple of months."

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