The best workflow for working between Adobe Premiere CS* and After Affects?

[Christopher Warwick]

I use Adobe Premiere and After Affects CS4. I import all my raw footage from The XH A1 using HDVSplit.

So now I have my .m2t files, all cut up into scenes.

Problem is, I want to edit using Premiere and mess around some more in AA. What is the best way for working between them? My concern is primarily compression.

For example, I use Twixtor to ramp up or slow down footage, but only have Twixtor for AA, not Premiere. Do I pull the m2t file into Premiere first, edit the VT and Export/output the footage into AA? If so, what codec do you use, settings best for After Affects. Then brining it back into Premiere.

I've heard that AA is problematic working with m2t and often crashes.

I know the two programs do talk to one another so it is possible, one can assume, to edit footage some more in AA through Premiere.

Any thoughts from vetern users out there would be helpful!

[Tripp Woelfel]

You don't mention whether you have the whole suite or just PP & AE. If you have the suite, Dynamic Link can make your life a little easier.

I use AE CS3 and use m2t files all the time. I don't recollect any time AE crashed because of them. AE crashes, as infrequent as they are, seem to be caused by running out of memory. I have 4GB of RAM on a Vista 32 machine using the 3GB switch.

[Christopher Warwick]

Hi Tripp,

Thanks for replying. Yes, I do have the full suite. I had version 6 before (premiere pro 2), so this is quite a leap for me and finding everything different in CS4. I do have dynamic link.

I'm running Windows XP pro (SP2... although I know they recommend SP3) on a dual processor 3 GHz machine (2 physical, 2 logical). I have 2GB RAM with the /3GB switch in boot.ini. Video Adapter is the Radeon X800XT. And although I have a Matrox RT.X100 card, they stopped supporting it after CS2, so everything takes an age to transcode/render (any tips for a new card?)

The main problem is I don't know the best way to work on VT between the two applications such that I can apply affects within the two applications. It is possible to do without exporting from one and working in the other?

[Tripp Woelfel]

I've never figured out a way to do it that wasn't what we Yanks call a kluge. I don't generally need to move whole timelines from one app to the other, so I've not delved too deeply into this.

I did this one minute piece in AE. 2009 Oxford Plains DVD intro on Vimeo It was just easier than trying to do bits in one app and more in the other. What works for me is planning what I want to do and then figuring out what app has the best tools and building an appropriate workflow.

What Adobe really need to develop a Dynamic Link capability where they actually link the applications and not just footage or timelines.

[Dan Mortensen]

I have been using CS4 for about 2 months now, and while I have my sequence open in Premier, I have discovered one of the dropdown menus a the top....(can't remember right now which one) but if you open it and move down to the bottom of the drop down, you will notice you can "Replace with After effects Comp". I usually make a split in the footage I want to send to AE, so you don't end up with a huge chunk to render. No worries though, the transitions are seamless. I usually have an AE project open (a new one and I title it to match with my Pr project), and it automatically makes a new comp in AE. Whatever parts of that clip you want sent to AE, make sure to highlight them before you click "replace with AE comp".....The Pr project will update automatically as you go make changes in your AE project. Just make sure the settings of both projects match up......Hopefully that helps!

Dan Mortensen