Premier vs Vegas
 

I have been sitting with Premier CS3 ready to go for months, but not taken the time to install it. I am experienced with Vegas and working full time in the field, and just hate the idea of learning a new program, especially if there are no real advantages...

The main thing I wish for that I don't have the ability to do in Vegas is to create animated menus, where buttons fly in, or images fly in, etc. Can this be done with Encore? If so can this be done without going to AE?

To anyone that is experienced with Vegas, are their any great features that Premier has that are missing in Vegas?

Thanks for any feedback.

The learning curve for Premiere is a little steeper to achieve the same high production value results from Vegas to Premiere. It is a little harder to position clips on the timeline because they don't auto-crossfade. Audio compressors are harder to use in Premiere, they usually have no straight forward presets. I have not seen a 3D Source Alpha keyframing in Premiere and there is a limit for track audio effects. The only thing Premiere has an advantage to over Vegas is built-in DVD burning (Vegas still needs DVD Architect). Vegas' major advantage over Premiere is advanced in-timeline compositing, whereas Premiere needs After Effects to do the same.

Jack, thanks for the great information.

Any suggestions for a DVD authoring program that offers animated, super cool menus?

I'm so tired of the static menus of DVDA...my friends all use FCP Studio and make the most amazing DVD menus...If it weren't for it being on a Mac and the ridiculous cost, I'd switch in a heartbeat just for the cool DVD menus they can do...

You can make custom menus in After Effects :)

Appreciate it Mitchell. You know, I got desperate for something unusual and elegant this morning and created a really nice menu myself today. It's not 3d, but it is really nice.

AE is still on my list of things to do....

I was a strong proponent of Vegas, but in recent years, I like editing in Premiere more. It feels more robust to me, more Avid-like. But YMMV.

That is, the editing. On the other hand Vegas is infinitely better written application. It`s more realtime, faster, more lightweight and half as costly.

Vegas has a user friendly interface. If i make simple projects I use Vegas. However, if I do a project which need multiple sequences, I use Premier. Both editing softwares are good. They have their advantages as well as disadvantages. One thing cool about premier is that you can easily create multiple sequences.

The real strength of Adobe lies in the way their products interact, get their production combo and there is virtually no limit in what you can achieve. Because Adobe has a specialized software for each task it just does everything better. Like Jack said about the advanced in-timeline compositing of Vegas which premiere doesn't have, After effects does this but that's just a fraction of what AE can do more and better then Vegas.
Vegas is a great piece of software which is a good "all in one solution" but it cannot reach as far as Adobe does. Just take the way encore and photoshop work together if you want to make your own dvd menu's, I don't see that option in Architect or how you can take in AE compositions into premiere without having to render first.
But then again if you only look at what it costs vs possibilities Vegas wins hands down, for it's price there is not much that can compete with it.

Really, that's sad. I'm a Vegas user, but when was making the choice a long time ago to change from Pinnacle, I demod premiere 5,6 or something, and found it very nonuser friendly. I was thinking of demoing CS3, but I may shy back now. Love vegas, just wish it had a few more special effect options.

Steven - as someone who edits with PPro CS3 everyday (it's capturing footage as I type this), I would really encourage you to check it out. It's very easy to learn, and when bundled with all the other Adobe production products, it's quite powerful.

Adobe offers a 30 day free trial - can't beat free!

Thanks Eric. I'm thinking of upgrading my production suite in a year or so. I would really like to do more with titling etc, and I'm sure the Adobe suite can pull that off without a sweat. Thanks the info.

Steven, if you want to make custom titles, lower thirds and mograph stuff, After Effects is hands down the best tool you can get. Nothing else comes even close.

But, you can work with AE AND Vegas, there is no difference at all. You probably won't use Dynamic Link, it's slower in the long run than simple "old school" rendering with alpha channel.