Steve Forde at Adobe

Thought I would post a couple thoughts since I have been receiving a TON of email asking for comment on the FCPX release etc.

First – let me say this:

Before coming to Adobe my preferred tool for editing was FCP. Premiere CS4 was installed as part of master collection. Back then every time I had to use it, I didn’t like it – It wasn’t better than FCP and it did things differently – so I ignored it.

Then jump ahead in time and I am interviewing for the job as AE product manager, and I was honest in my interviews of what I thought about Premiere when asked about it. Where they had me though? – I hadn’t even tried the latest version.

So I tried Premiere CS 5.

Sure it ‘felt’ a little different. There are small things that annoy me such as project settings at the beginning. But then it just worked. OMG. It REALLY worked…fast.

In CS5 Adobe had done a complete rewrite of the guts in Premiere to 64 bit on both MAC and PC, and listened to users about how the application should change – dozens of changes throughout the application to make it ‘just work’.

My point is: If Adobe focus was so clear that it was willing to put that much of an investment into re-architecting an application that was being dismissed or ignored by many – that showed to me that Adobe was VERY serious about winning in the professional market, seat by seat. Frankly, that was what helped me make up my mind to join the company. When I joined I found out how strong the acceptance of Premiere had been in the time I was ignoring it.

To all those asking me for comment on the launch of FCPX, I have none. What right do I have to publicly comment on the hard work any vendor does in creating software and bringing it to market?

What I CAN comment on is our software and how we bring it to market. Adobe has and will continue to focus on EARNING the right to be your tools of choice as you tell your story, and deliver professional content. We know that not all is perfect, but we will LISTEN, engage in dialogue and constantly improve our software. We will also innovate in ways that will continue to streamline workflow and unlock creative potential.

In short – we are here to compete for your business, and we believe we can win.

S.

The last blog post on Warp Stabilizer for sometime – PROMISE!!

That being said – when we launched CS 5.5 at NAB this year in Las Vegas, a number of users were asking for a comparison between AE’s new Warp Stabilizer and the just announced stabilization feature of FCPX.  The great news – both work entirely in the background allowing you to work in the application completely unhindered by the analysis and stabilization of footage.  As you can tell – this is a sign of all things in the future.  Compute intensive tasks being done in the background so it doesn’t get in the way or make you ‘wait’.

I wanted to post the results now that we can test the software in an ‘apples to apples’ fashion (pardon the pun).  The clip is the same as what I used in the warp stabilizer sneak peak on Adobe TV.

Both AE’s Warp Stabilizer and FCPX stabilization were left to the default settings of stabilization and rolling shutter removal. – no tweaking was done whatsoever.

Here it is: AE Warp Stabilizer is the bottom clip, FCPX the top.  The focus of this test is the quality and fidelity of the stabilized image. The clip is looped and should be viewed at full screen.

S.

Right after NAB 2011 and launching CS 5.5, a few of us from Adobe flew from Vegas to the F5 conference in NYC to not talk about tech – but just watch what people actually created with it.  Was very cool overall. (although a couple presentations just didn’t do it for yours truly)

A few of them were absolutely amazing.  Watching the construction of a Rube Goldberg machine for OK Go, and some Dutch guys HONESTLY articulate how they do things (and hope to not get fired), were a couple of real highlights for me.

A real standout though was this swedish movie called ‘Press, Pause, Play’.  Very interesting take on the ramifications that tech has made media creation accessible to – ANYONE.  It’s cool, opportunistic, thought provoking and downright scary as hell for anyone whom has an interest in creating media.  Had a particular impact on me as I work on a small part of the tech that made this radical change in expression and communication possible.  I fall into the optimist category after watching it – but not everyone agrees with me.

• F5
• OK Go – Rube Goldberg Machine
• Press Pause Play

S.

OK – so this blog will not always be about Warp Stabilizer (promise).  But – I just finished reading Vincent Laforet’s sum up of how he used different gear and techniques to really max out his new RED Epic.  A BIG component he felt was how Warp Stabilizer in AE CS 5.5 changed how he shoots – which is dramatically cool from my perspective.

• RED Epic – 5K and HDRx

S.

I really dig mashing things together for purposes that nobody ever intended, and creating something entirely new as a result. Adobe guru Karl Soule pointed me to this older tutorial on AE Tuts+ making a cool use of ‘radio waves’ (that perhaps was never intended).

• Creating an Ethreal Morphing Letter Canvas

It’s a pretty advanced tutorial that can take awhile to ‘get’ – but the result is definitely cool.

S.

Back before CS 5.5 was announced I did a little sneak peak video (found here) on a new feature called ‘Warp Stabilizer’.  Wow – what a cool response.  Interestingly enough, I didn’t cover an important piece of the technology called synthesize edges.  THEN – a user in the UK along with some folks here at Adobe did something with the technology we NEVER intended when we designed it.

Definitely caused some jaws on the floor here on the AE team, and I wanted to show it to you here…

 

S.

Hello World.  Just wanted to ‘finally’ get my blog up and running.  Going to throw on here whatever I happen to find interesting, or driving me crazy.  Obviously, this my home in the Adobe blog-o-sphere so will be posting a thing or two about After Effects as well.

S.