adobe creative suite 4 procution premium: streamliing video …h20331. · final cut pro cs3 or...

Executive Summary

This report presents the findings of a market-specific benchmarking project con-ducted by Pfeiffer Consulting for Adobe Systems, combined with technology analysis of the latest release of the Adobe tools for video professionals.Market Situation. Video production, post-production and distribution are undergoing seismic shifts caused by fundamental evolutions in authoring tech-nologies and changes in distribution and consumption of videos, films and ani-mated content linked to the internet and digital distribution of content. In par-ticular, the maturation of high-definition digital video capture, and the vast possibilities of non-linear editing and digital effects production and motion graphics are driving fundamental changes of the professional video workflow.About Adobe CS4 Production Premium. Adobe’s latest suite of video-centric tools and technologies provides a highly integrated environment covering pro-duction and post-production workflows, motion graphics and effects production, and output to a variety of standards and output channels, including high-defini-tion video, Blu-Ray and DVD creation as well as output to web-standards such as Flash video.Key Benefits. Adobe CS4 Production Premium is a milestone release of Adobe’s video tools, that offers highly efficient non-linear editing tools, support for the majority of tapeless video formats, as well as Dynamic Link integration between After Effects CS4 and Premiere Pro CS4 (as well as several other pro-grams comprised in the suite). Integration of competing non-linear editing environments with Adobe CS4 Production Premium can significantly reduce bottlenecks in existing After Effects, direct-to-disc and tapeless workflows.Productivity. Productivity provided by Adobe CS4 Production Premium is sig-nificantly higher than with previous releases, based on a wide variety of produc-tivity and efficiency measures conducted for this project.

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Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The Adobe CS4 Production Premium Technology Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Productivity Impact of Tapeless Video and Direct-to-Disk Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Best of Both Worlds: Integrating After Effects and the Editing Workflow . . . . . . . . . 8

The Cumulative Effect of Productivity Gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium: Streamlining Video ProductionTechnology, productivity and workflow integration

Pfeiffer Report • Benchmark Analysis

About this Report

This report presents the findings of a market specific benchmarking project con-ducted by Pfeiffer Consulting for Adobe Systems, combined with technology analysis of the latest release of the Adobe tools for video professionals. Productivity measures, based on the Pfeiffer Consulting Methodology for Productivity Benchmarking, compared workflow productivity based on the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium with previous releases of the software or in some cases competing tools from other vendors. Workflow benchmarks and efficiency measures analyzed the productivity impact of features introduced in the latest release of the different software components of Adobe CS4 Production Premium as well as improved integration between the different applications. For details on the methodology used for the productivity benchmarks, please refer to the Methodology sidebar on the page 4.

Structure of this Report

This report is structured in 4 sections: The CS4 Production Premium Technology Platform (page 3) presents the dif-ferent components of the Adobe video production environment, as well as key results from the benchmarks conducted for this project. The Productivity Impact of Tapeless Video and Direct-to-Disk Recording (page 5) takes a closer look at tapeless video support in Adobe CS4 Production Premium. The Best of Both Worlds: Integrating After Effects and the Editing Workflow (page 7) analyzes the integration between After Effects and video editing soft-ware as well as integration of video and effects production with Adobe Photoshop.The Cumulative Effect of Productivity Gains (page 11) investigates the impact of cumulative productivity gains on return on investment.

About Pfeiffer Consulting

Pfeiffer Consulting’s mission is to provide unique high-level, international mar-ket intelligence and strategic consulting for both content and technology pro-viders. Pfeiffer Consulting is the publisher of the Pfeiffer Report on Emerging Trends and Technologies, an online resource on trends in the technology and content industry, as well as numerous specialized studies and reports. For more information, please visit: www.pfeifferconsulting.com.

Major Findings

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium is a mature and highly sophisticated editing and effects-creation environment that offers significantly increased productivity over previous releases.

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium natively supports a wide variety of tapeless video formats, including XDCAM, AVCHD, P2 and RED, eliminating the need to transcode and rewrap footage prior to editing.

t By exporting effects-ready projects to Premiere Pro, users of other editing solutions can increase the productivity of their effects workflow.

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium can integrate with other non-linear editing environments to increase overall productivity.

About Pfeiffer Consulting

t Pfeiffer Consulting is an independent technology research institute and consulting operation focused on the needs of publishing, digital content production, and new media professionals.

t Download the complete Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Benchmark Report at www.pfeifferreport.com.

Introduction

© Pfeiffer Consulting 2009

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium: Streamlining Video Production 2

An industry in flux

The video and film technology landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years, and changes are bound to continue as the next waves of digital technologies drive increasingly sophisticated content. Tapeless capture of high-definition footage is quickly taking center stage as the most efficient way to pro-duce footage for almost every segment of the market, but brings new challenges for video editing and special effects workflows. Add to this the proliferation of internet-based content and the constantly growing number of output channels and consumer devices that can access video and need to be catered for, and you understand that for video professionals, it is not exactly business as usual.

An increasingly fragmented production environment

Video production tools come in all sorts and flavors, and continue to grow and diversify, ranging from multi-million dollar hardware solutions to surprisingly capable software packaged with your home computer.

Adobe is playing a unique role in this marketplace, for a number of reasons. Adobe tools have been the cornerstone of every major aspect of the digi-tal content revolution that is reshaping our modern society. Even if it were only for Photoshop, After Effects and Flash, the company would be a leading software provider for the video production industry.

Major Points

t The video and film production industries are undergoing significant changes that redefine how video is produced as well as viewed. Adobe is uniquely positioned to address changes on both content creation and distribution sides of the equation.

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium is a milestone release that features mature and sophisticated editing, effects and administration tools as well as integration that strongly increases productivity.

t Pervasive metadata support offered by Adobe tools is a key component in creating content that can be intelligently leveraged on a variety of platforms.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Applyvideo transitions

to 10 clip sequence

Applyvideo transitionsbetween 3 clips

4.35

9.25

9.72

4.59

24.89

29.03

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

Premiere Pro CS4: Workflow EfficiencyTime in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Navigatecomplex nested

composition

Navigate5-level nested

composition

Search for assetwithin a

complex project

Search for assetwithin a

typical project

4.08

19.28

18.33

101.5

4.41

10.42

8.25

22.75

CS3 or older

CS4

After Effects Quicksearch/Composition NavigatorTime in seconds. Shorter is better.

Adobe CS4 Production Premium: Efficiency of the Production Enviornment

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium shows productivity increases with many common operations in the production workflow, both compared with previous releases of the suite and with competing products.

After Effects CS4 makes it significantly easier to navigate compositions and to find specific parameters in complex projects. The chart on the right shows the time necessary to navigate and search different types of compositions.

The CS4 Production PremiumTechnology Platform


3 Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium: Streamlining Video Production

As it is, Adobe’s software tools continue to grow and adapt to a constantly evolving marketplace. They leverage authoring and production tools that span the full gamut of digital content produced today, and provide the much sought-after integration with web and interactive distribution channels few companies—if any—can match.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium

For video producers, Adobe CS4 Production Premium is clearly a mile-stone release. While the company has offered key software for video pro-fessionals for a very long time—one cannot imagine modern digital effects or motion graphics production without After Effects—the current release of the video suite offers a maturity and efficiency that goes far beyond the previous releases.

In a highly competitive, increasingly fragmented production environ-ment, Adobe CS4 Production Premium has several key strategic advantages, even beyond the integration of key software packages such as Photoshop and

All texts and illustrations © Pfeiffer Consulting 2009. Reproduction prohibited without previous written approval. For further information, please contact [email protected] data presented in this report are evaluations and generic simulations and are communi-cated for informational purposes only. The information is not intended to provide, nor can it replace specific productivity research and calculations of existing companies or workflow situa-tions. Pfeiffer Consulting declines any responsibility for the use or course of action undertaken on the basis of any information, advice or recommendation contained in this report, and can not be held responsible for purchase, equipment and investment or any other decisions and undertakings based on the data provided in this report or any associated document.Adobe, Acrobat, Illustrator, InCopy, InDesign, OnLocation, Photoshop, Flash, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Version Cue are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Final Cut, Motion, Mac, Macintosh Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. OpenType and Windows are either registered trademarks or trade-marks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trade-marks are the property of their respective owners.

The Impact of 64-bit hardware: The chart shows the time necessary to complete 2 two-minute tasks (After Effects rendering, Photoshop filter) in parallel on a Mac Pro workstation, equipped respectively with 4GB and 16GB of memory. (See also the sidebar on page 4.)

Soundbooth CS4 allows users to work on several files at once. The chart shows the time necessary to equalize the volume of several sound clips, an operation that would previously have taken several steps for each individual file.

Soundbooth CS4: Equalize Volume of Multiple ClipsTime in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Equalize volume of10 individual clips

Equalize volume of5 individual clips

15.69

50.70

17.24

103.88

CS3

CS4

Impact of Available Memory on Efficiency of 64-bit SystemsTime scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Complete two2-minute tasks

in parallel(Photoshop filter,

After Effects render)

2 min. 53 sec.

4 min. 28 sec.

4GB

16GB



Methodology

This report is based on technology analysis and market-specific productivity benchmarks conducted by Pfeiffer Consulting for Adobe Systems Incorporated. It also includes elements from independent research and technology analysis projects conducted by Pfeiffer Consulting.

Productivity MeasuresPfeiffer Consulting conducted extensive, market-specific productivity and efficiency benchmarks of common video production and effects creation workflows, comparing features and productivity enhancements introduced with Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, as compared with the previous release of Adobe Creative Suite, as well as competing products.

Nature of benchmarksExperienced professionals performed segment-specific workflow tasks and assignments, defined in clearly repeatable steps and executed in a closely monitored way.

To ensure real-world results, no scripting was used for any benchmarks.

All statements in this report are factual and can be independently verified. For in-depth discussion of the benchmark methodology, system configurations, and comprehensive benchmark description and results, please download the complete “Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Benchmark Report” at www.pfeifferreport.com.

The 64-bit Solution

While 64-bit workstations have become quite common in video production, software support for 64-bit hardware, allowing a program to access more than the 2GB a 32-bit application can use, is spotty at best.

Two Adobe applications currently offer native 64-bit support: Photoshop CS4 (albeit only on Windows), and Lightroom 2.

However, increased memory on a 64-bit computer brings productivity benefits—even without native 64-bit support. Even if individual processes cannot access more than 4GB of memory on a 64-bit system, they can use multiple chunks of memory to exceed the 4GB limit, avoiding the need to use virtual memory.

In our tests, conducted on a Mac Pro workstation, we compared the time necessary to complete two discrete tasks that each took just under two minutes individually (a complex Photoshop filter on a large image, and a rendering operation using After Effects), once using 4GB of memory, once using 16GB. Using the second memory configuration, the test took 40% less long than with 4GB of memory. (See chart on page 3.)

After Effects. Unlike its most direct competitor, Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2, Adobe CS4 Production Premium offers not only strong creative editing applica-tions, but also covers production management tools such as OnLocation, as well as pervasive metadata support, increasingly vital in modern video and film production.

As far as output is concerned, Adobe CS4 Production Premium supports a wide variety of formats and platforms, including high-definition video, DVD and Blu-Ray support as well as direct integration of the video production suite with Flash video and the Flash authoring environment. Last but not least, Adobe tools run smoothly both on Mac and Windows platforms, and allow transparent integration between both environments, as well as enabling easier integration with other tools in the post-production pipeline.

The power of integration

Beyond the intrinsic qualities of the individual tools provided by Adobe’s video suite, the most compelling aspect is the high degree of integration between the different components of Adobe CS4 Production Premium. Practically speaking, this means integration with web-design, interactive workflows, sophisticated graphic design; an increasingly fluid and streamlined environment combining and connecting all types of creative content.

It has become clear today that no production environment is an island anymore. While video and film production could live a relatively autarchic existence in the past, this is clearly not possible in today’s media environment. As distribution channels are becoming increasingly diversified and fragmented, content needs to be more and more integrated. Video producers have to confront multiple resolu-tion workflows, and deployment of their content in a variety of different ways.

Adobe CS4 Production Premium has a lot to offer to video producers, even if they use different tools for the core editing tasks. OnLocation CS4 can provide significant productivity gains for other editing solutions through direct-to-disk video capture, for instance. Or take special effects production: After Effects is one of the most widely used tools for sophisticated digital effects, yet no other editing environment can match the integration between After Effects, Photoshop and the video editing environment Adobe CS4 Production Premium provides.

And then there are metadata, of course. Adobe Creative Suite 4, as a whole, offers the ease of use and integration of metadata creation and manage-ment that media workflows are increasingly relying on; video production, it is clear, has become part of a much bigger picture.

Premiere Pro CS4: Speech SearchTime scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Search for point within10 interview clips of2 to 3 minutes each

Search for point in10 minute interview

16 sec.

1 min. 28 sec.

1 min. 35 sec.

9 min. 48 sec.

The Impact of Speech Search on Workflow ProductivitySpeech search is one of the most spectacular features of Adobe CS4 Production Premium. The feature allows users to translate spoken words into text that is inserted as metadata into a clip, thus making videos searchable, both for prodution purposes or for being posted on the web.For text-centric production environments such as interviews and documentaries, speech conversion offers very significant productivity gains. It also provides an impressive demonstration of the potential of pervasive metadata in video production.



Potential and challenges of the next wave of video workflows

There seems to be little doubt in the video production business that tapeless high-definition workflows are the way of the future. The convenience and efficiency these file-based workflows provide in non-linear editing environments are very significant, and cameras using high-speed memory cards or hard drives to store footage are available from the consumer level up to professional-level equipment used in broadcast environments. And the film industry is not far behind: while most Hollywood productions are still produced using film, digital systems such as the RED camera are gaining traction and offer quality and opti-cal sophistication that is beginning to rival traditional equipment.

Even in production environments that still use tape-based cameras, recording directly to disk instead of shooting to tape and subsequently importing the foot-age into the digital editing environment results in very significant productivity gains. (See sidebar and chart on page 6.)

Like most sweeping technology innovations, tapeless video comes with its share of challenges. Tape and film have been around for a long time, and there is a well-established understanding of the most efficient way of produc-ing content with these tools. Digital workflows, on the other hand, evolve con-stantly, and minor technology issues can have huge ripple effects in a production environment. The issues start with file formats. There is not, as yet, a single recognized standard for HD video, making it essential for software developers

Major Points

t Tapeless video production workflows offer flexibility and productivity in a non-linear editing environment that is redefining how video and film are produced.

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium natively supports the leading tapeless video formats, including XDCAM, AVCHD, P2 and RED, eliminating the need to transcode footage prior to editing.

t The possibility to edit directly from the removable storage medium used by the camera provides increased productivity in deadline-sensitive editing situations.

0 300 600 900 1200 1500

0 300 600 900 1200 1500

Workflow Total(including render)

Workflow Total

3 min. 9 sec.

7 min. 44 sec.

13 min. 55 sec.

21 min. 45 sec.

Final Cut Pro

CS4

Tapeless Workflow Benchmark (Combining P2 and XDCAM Formats)Time scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Complete project(8GB SxS card)

Long clip(5 minutes)

Simple clip(60 seconds)

18 sec.

19 sec.

25 sec.

1 min. 58 sec.

6 min. 50 sec.

6 min. 53 sec.

8 min. 57 sec.

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

Import of 1080i 50i (HQ) Footage from XDCAM EX CamcorderTime scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

1 min. 19 sec.

1 min. 20 sec.

Productivity Gains of the Integrated Tapeless Video Workflow

Adobe CS4 Production Premium offers support for all of the leading tapeless video formats both in Premiere Pro CS4 and in After Effects CS4, including XDCAM, P2, AVCHD and RED. In addition to productivity gains linked to file import, Premiere Pro CS4

allows users to work with native video files directly from the memory card, eliminating the need to copy video to disk prior to editing. The chart on the right shows a workflow benchmark combining footage from both XDCAM and P2 camcorders in a single project.

The Productivity Impact of Tapeless Video and Direct-to-disk Recording



Direct-to-Disk with OnLocation

While OnLocation sports a rich set of options for managing shoots, the possibility of capturing footage from tape-based cameras directly to the hard drive of a connected computer is one of the features that will be attractive to many users of tape-based cameras, even if they are using competing editing programs such as Final Cut Pro.

Direct-to-disk recording saves the output from the camera directly to disk without modification, so users get the content in its original form without quality loss, eliminating the time-consuming importing process as well as the risk of dropped frames. The files produced by OnLocation CS4 can be directly placed in the editing environment, with no further intervention required, and let users go from shoot to editing without having to wait for the tape to be imported.

OnLocation CS4 (which now supports both Mac and Windows platforms) not only allows the capture, but the program helps manage aspects such as exposure and lighting to make sure different clips come in with exactly the same look, thus reducing the time to color correct individual clips to match them to others.

to support the largest possible variety of formats and vendors. Archiving footage is another challenge: there is no convenient master tape or roll of film that can be stored in a fireproof vault for preservation. Last but not least, video and film have become part of a much larger media landscape that ranges from the multiplex to your cell-phone by way of the internet, creating the need for reliable and efficient multiple resolution workflows.

Tapeless workflows with Adobe CS4 Production Premium

The latest release of Adobe’s video production environment tackles the challeng-es of tapeless video on a variety of fronts. As far as format support is concerned, Adobe CS4 Production Premium supports a wide range of popular tapeless video formats, including the XDCAM format developed by Sony, the P2 for-mat used by Panasonic’s professional camcorders, AVCHD (a specification devel-oped by Panasonic and Sony, and supported by a growing number of vendors) as well as the increasingly popular RED format.

Support for these file formats is provided not only by Premiere Pro, but also in After Effects. In addition to the productivity gains inherent in tapeless work-flows, Adobe CS4 Production Premium provides a more streamlined work-flow. Part of this is due to the fact that Adobe tools can natively work with these files while competing editing environments need to ingest and transcode file formats such as AVCHD before the editing process can begin.

But Premiere Pro CS4 offers another feature that can be strategically impor-tant in deadline-driven production environments: Adobe’s editing environment can work with native files directly on the memory card or even the camera hard drive, eliminating the need to copy files to the local workstation for editing.

Finally, Adobe CS4 Production Premium also offers the possibility of cap-turing video from tape-based cameras, using OnLocation CS4, so footage can immediately be used in Premiere Pro and other video editing solutions.

The productivity benchmarks conducted for this project document the efficien-cy gains linked to these possibilities (see charts on pages 5 and 6). Benchmarks measured not only the time to import footage from a variety of formats, but also analyzed the efficiency of the editing workflow, including workflow tests of mixed environments, building a short video from different file formats.

Beyond the editing process, the tight integration with effects production on one side, and output to a variety of different platforms and popular video for-mats such as Flash video as well as Blu-Ray discs on the other round out the Adobe CS4 video workflow.

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Workflow Total(including render)

Workflow Total

Final Cut Pro

CS4

Tapeless Workflow Benchmark (AVCHD Format)Time scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

3 min. 20 sec.

7 min. 13 sec.

8 min. 42 sec.

17 min. 17 sec.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Extract three3-minute segments

from sourcematerial

58 sec.

11 min. 31 sec.

11 min. 54 sec.

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

On Location/Premiere Pro CS4: Direct-to-Disc Workflow TestTime scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

Tapeless Workflows and Direct-To-Disk

Tapeless production environments are quickly gaining ground, and can offer spectacular productivity gains. The chart on the left shows workflow productivity of an AVCHD-based workflow using Premiere Pro CS4, the first release of Adobe’s software to support the AVCHD format, compared with

Final Cut Pro. The chart on the right compares the time necessary to import footage captured to disk compared with the time necessary to ingest the same footage from a tape-based medium. (OnLocation CS4, which was used to capture files to disk, can also be integrated with other editing solutions.)



The hub of motion graphics

Few software products can claim to both have created an industry and developed a cult following, but After Effects is certainly one of them. It is also probably one of the most feature-rich and deep programs ever developed, and it occupies a central spot in video production as well as in Adobe’s Creative Suite.

After Effects has been a market leader in mainstream effects produc-tion for years, and its use is widespread and diversified. The program has been essential in creating award-winning movies such as “Waltz with Bashir” and Hollywood blockbusters like “Iron Man”, and it occupies a crucial position at the crossroads of video production, special visual effects, 3D animation and interactive content. Typical After Effects projects can count thousands of lay-ers, and interdependencies of elements that can make a complex web-site pale by comparison. In other words, After Effects is central to modern video production, and the integration it offers with the other components of Production Premium delivers concrete productivity gains.

The challenges of After Effects integration

While After Effects has been around for a long time, the integration with com-mon non-linear editing environments is less than perfect. It works, but it also contains some serious productivity bottlenecks.

Major Points

t After Effects CS4 is an essential part of the modern video production workflow that forms a hub between video production and interactive workflows.

t Adobe CS4 Production Premium offers tight and efficient integration between the editing environment and After Effects.

t Dynamic Link removes productivity bottlenecks between the editing environment and After Effects.

t By exporting edited, effects-ready projects to Premiere Pro, users of other editing solutions can increase the productivity of their effects workflow.

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Apply effectto 4-second clip

from editingsequence

using After Effects

30 sec.

1 min. 28 sec.

4 min. 52 sec.

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

After Effect/Premiere Pro CS4: Dynamic Link Workflow Time scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Move project fromediting applicationintoDVD programand make readyto burn to DVD

29.91

52.03

CS4

Final Cut Pro

DVD Preparation Workflow with Dynamic Link Time in seconds. Shorter is better.

The Multiple Facets of Dynamic Link

Dynamic Link can provide significant productivity gains when integrating different applications in a video production workflow. (See also the sidebar on page 9.) The chart on the left shows the time necessary to apply an effect to a 4-second clip in Premiere Pro CS4 with After Effects. (Since Final Cut

Pro does not support Dynamic Link, clips need to exported to After Effects, rendered, and re-imported.) The chart on the right shows the impact of Dynamic Link integration between Premiere Pro CS4 and the DVD /Blu-Ray authoring program Encore CS4.

The Best of Both Worlds:Integrating After Effects and the Editing Workflow



Dynamic Link

Dynamic Link, which was significantly expanded in Adobe CS4 Production Premium, aims at streamlining the exchange of assets between different components of Production Premium. Without Dynamic Link, each time a modification occurs in an After Effects composition that has to be reflected in the video editing software, the sequence needs to be re-rendered and manually updated in the editing software.

Dynamic Link, on the other hand, creates a connection between After Effects and Premiere Pro. If a composition in After Effects is altered, the changes are reflected immediately in Premiere Pro, and vice versa. If one creates a Dynamic Link between a Premiere Pro composition and Encore CS4, changes to the edited sequence show up in the DVD authoring environment.

Dynamic Link is supported between After Effects CS4, Premiere Pro CS4, Encore CS4 and Soundbooth CS4. Productivity gains are significant, especially when compared with other editing environments. In an effects-heavy Final Cut Pro project, for instance, it makes a lot of sense to export the Final Cut project to Premiere Pro CS4, to benefit from the tighter integration with After Effects CS4, once the basic editing is finished. (See charts on this page.)

Imagine that you have a video composition that requires some visual effects work, as well as motion design for titles and other elements. In most editing solu-tions, this requires rendering the composition to a unique movie file that is then imported into After Effects and enhanced. Once the effects are completed, they need to be rendered out to a movie file that the editing application can use, and have to be re-imported to replace the original sequence.

Even if they are only executed once, these steps are time consuming. When adjustments are needed either in the editing program or in the effects composi-tion (as is very often the case), the repeated rendering in order to get it right can take hours.

Adobe started to tackle this problem by introducing Dynamic Link, a technol-ogy that eliminates the need for rendering between several applications. (See sidebar.) While it requires powerful hardware to make best use it (playback of dynamically linked files can be jumpy), it creates a much smoother workflow situation that does not interrupt the creative process by repeated render-ing operations.

Integrating After Effects in mixed environments

Dynamic Link is an obvious benefit for workflows that are completely based on Adobe CS4 Production Premium, but even users of competing editing solu-tions can use the integration between After Effects and Premiere Pro in order to speed up their After Effects work.

Premiere Pro CS4 can import Final Cut Pro projects as XML files that pre-serve the structure and links with the original footage. In other words, it is possible to complete the bulk of editing tasks in Final Cut, then hand over the project as an XML file to Premiere Pro CS4 and start the After Effects work using the tight integration between Adobe applications to speed up effects pro-duction. Practically speaking, this process makes sense in a revision-intensive effects workflow, where many round-trips between After Effects and the editing program are required. Some of the rendering time is of course still necessary; but in a Dynamic Link workflow it occurs at the end and can be executed as a back-ground task, and therefore does not interrupt the creative process.

In addition, Dynamic Link also works between Premiere Pro CS4 and Encore CS4, meaning that a whole editing project can be dynamically linked to a DVD/Blu-Ray interface, or exported to Flash.

Finally, integrating Final Cut Pro editing with the Adobe Suite of tools also allows Final Cut users to access the Blu-Ray authoring features of Encore CS4, without having to migrate their whole editing workflow to Premiere Pro.

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

After Effectsworkflow project

(Total)

41 min. 31 sec.

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

After Effect/Premiere Pro CS4: Dynamic Link Workflow Time scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

2 min. 14 sec.

4 min. 13 sec.

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Final Cut projectexport to

Premiere Pro CS4,Dynamic Link withAfter Effects CS4

ConventionalFinal Cut+

After Effectsworkflow

41 min. 31 sec.

2 min. 46 sec.

Final Cut Pro Integration with After Effects Time scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

Effects Production in a Mixed Environment

The productivity impact of Dynamic Link in effects production can be significant, since the user is not required to render a clip to bring it into After Effects, and then again to re-import it into the editing application. Chart on the left: the time necessary to complete the editing phase of a multistep effects projects (using After Effects) on 5 clips in a project, then revising two clips a

second time). Chart on the right: the same project, first executed in Final Cut Pro and After Effects, then exported from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro, and completed using Dynamic Link with After Effects. Benchmarks include the time necessary to export from Final Cut Pro into Premiere Pro. Figures do not include the final rendering of the completed project.



The role of Photoshop in video and film production

Photoshop is certainly one of the most widely used tools in creative workflows around the world, and the program has become a cornerstone not only for digital imaging and publishing professionals, but for video professionals as well.

The scope and variety of Photoshop’s applications in a video production is con-siderable and ranges from simple retouching operations on individual frames, to sophisticated rotoscoping, or retouching entire video clips, text effects, to highly sophisticated image processing tasks. Like After Effects, Photoshop is a world unto itself, and belongs to the extremely rarefied group of technologies to have become a verb in everyday language.

The integration of Photoshop with video editing applications varies greatly. While all of them support basic layers, alpha channels and text, support for more sophisticated features in popular video editing applications is scarce. Not surprisingly, Adobe beats its competitors in this game (see sidebar) offering for instance support for layer styles such as drop shadows in Premiere Pro.

But the most sophisticated integration Photoshop enjoys is with After Effects, which treats Photoshop files as a perfect complement to the compositing and animation workflow, and allows users to animate practically every aspect of an imported file: text in an imported Photoshop file can be edited without requiring a round-trip to original application; parameters of layer styles such as drop shad-ows can be animated in very sophisticated ways; 3D layers can be manipulated in 3D space. In other words, After Effects and Photoshop provide a kind of synergy that only very few program environments can offer, and constitute a powerful integrated toolset for animators, motion designers, and visual effects profession-als around the world.

Support for Photoshop features varies widely between different applications common in the video production workflow. After Effects CS4 allows users to access and animate almost every conceivable aspect of even very sophisticated Photoshop documents, including native import of 3D layers. On the other end of the spectrum, Final Cut Pro supports only basic features of Photoshop files.

Photoshop, Video Editing and Effects: Who Does What?Photoshop CS4

Extended After Effects CS4 Premiere Pro CS4 Final Cut

t Pixel Data• Can be imported as a composi-

tion with editable Layer Styles or merged layers as footage

• Can be imported as separate layers, separate layers in a sequence or as a merged flat image

• Separate layers imported in a folder by default

• No other import options

t Alpha Chanels • Supported • Supported • Supported

t Adjustment Layers• Fully editable

• Can be individually animated

• Visual information displayed if imported as merged image

• Not editable

• Not recognized

t Layer Styles• Fully editable


• Displayed

• Not editable• Not recognized

t Text Layers• Fully editable


• Can be animated as a separate layer

• Not editable

• Can be animated as a separate layer

• Not editable

t 3D Layers• Fully editable

• Can be animated in 3D space• Displayed as 2D image • Displayed as 2D image

t Video Layers • Supported • Supported • Not supported



ROI can be a subjective notion

While in some sectors of activity, the exact meaning of return on investment (ROI) can be very clearly understood and easily defined, this is far from being the case in creative industries in general, and in particular when the invest-ment in enabling technologies is concerned.

ROI is essentially a matter of approach: what exactly is considered a valid return on investment? While a decision maker in a bottling plant may have a clear idea of the return a specific technology investment may bring, the situation is much less clear-cut in a publishing house, advertising agency, or video production company—essentially, any company where the goods sold depend on creativity and not just production capacity.

Perceived ROI also varies considerably depending on the size of an operation: Smaller effects studios and creative agencies frequently value the creative edge a new tool provides more than they do calculated cost savings, and thus base their equipment decisions on available funds and immediate usefulness; in larger operations such as agencies or media groups, the cost of deployment and training will factor heavily in any decision to purchase or upgrade creative technologies.

The Impact of the User Interface on Productivity

The Cumulative Effect of Productivity Gains

Major Points

t Even seemingly minor productivity gains on frequently repeated operations can lead to significant return on investment.

t The ROI projections provided in this report are based on extensive benchmarks and productivity measures conducted with Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium.

t The ROI projections derived from the cumulative effect of productivity gains can easily reach thousands of dollars per workstation and per year.

All text and graphics © Pfeiffer Consulting 2009.


0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Video editingworkflow efficiency

(Average of11 benchmarks)

Premiere Pro CS4: Editing and Workflow EfficiencyTime scale in seconds. Shorter is better.

2 min. 29 sec.

6 min. 3 sec.

4 min. 24 sec.

CS4

Final Cut Pro

CS3 or older

Adobe CS4 Production Premium in general, and Premiere Pro CS4 in particular, offer significant productivity gains over previous releases of the software.This chart shows the average of eleven individual productivity measures of efficiency features introduced with Premiere Pro CS4. The program is over twice as efficient as the previous release of Adobe’s non-linear editing program. Final Cut Pro was also significantly slower then Premiere Pro in these benchmarks.

The invisible gains

There is one factor, however, that is almost universally underestimated when analyzing return on investment: the considerable cumulative effect of small productivity gains in everyday operations that a new software release can bring.

Let’s take a simple example: Each time you use the Composition Navigator or Quicksearch in After Effects to find elements of a composition you save a few seconds (or minutes, in the case of complex compositions). Over the course of one month, these features can save you several hours. Each time you use OnLocation CS4 to capture video directly, you save over a minute for every minute of footage. Depending on the quantity of footage you pro-duce, this can save you hours every week. And we are only considering a few isolated feature.

Once one starts adding up the individual productivity gains provided by a variety of efficiency enhancements and features introduced in Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, it is clear that the returns on investment can be very significant. (There is one caveat, however: to benefit from these efficiency gains, it is necessary to adopt the improvements a new release offers. Not surprisingly, users who continue to work in old ways will see much less increase in productivity. But that risk is small, since most efficiency improvements in CS4 require little or no learning.)

Every click counts

It is a widely accepted fact in productivity research and ergonomics that every click counts, and every trip to the menu bar slows the user down. If one works in an office environment without particular time pressure, these gains may seem insignificant, but in highly competitive, deadline-driven businesses such as advertising, media production, and publishing, even seemingly minor productivity gains are immediately useful.

The bottom line

Pfeiffer Consulting has analyzed the data from the productivity benchmarks to establish the impact of productivity gains on return on investment. The effect of these minor time savings are compounded over days or weeks and translate into major productivity enhancements. The result is greater profit-ability and the confidence to deliver the finished product within a tight dead-line. Adobe CS4 increases the productivity of average users by provid-ing efficiency gains in a large number of everyday operations. The ROI can very easily reach thousands of dollars per workstation per year.

These ROI projections show that significant ROI can be derived from pro-ductivity gains in every one of them. In some workflow situations, the ROI impact of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium can be in excess of $10,000 per year and per workstation.

The ROI of Final Cut Integration

You use best what you use most. Familiarity with a well-known tool, knowing what one can achieve, and how fast it can be done, is essential to get a job done on time and with the best possible result.

It is for this very reason that the loyalty to their tool of choice by seasoned users is very significant, even when presented with an attractive alternative. Who wants to change their e-mail client?

The situation of Adobe CS4 Production Premium in the context of video production workflows is a strange one, since the suite combines some market-leading tools and technologies (Photoshop, After Effects, Flash) with others that challenge widely used products. Premiere Pro has matured into a very capable non-linear video editing program, one that is more productive than Final Cut in many of the tasks benchmarked for this project.

Yet the primary value proposition Adobe CS4 Production Premium brings to Final Cut Studio users is not that of a replacement of their tool of choice, but rather as an extension. Adobe’s suite of tools offers integration with crucial media technologies that no competitor can match, and connects video production with the world of interactive design and internet distribution that media producers increasingly require.

In other words, it is possible to benefit from this integration (Dynamic Link between a variety of programs, Flash export, Blu-Ray support, direct-to-disk capture of footage, etc.) without giving up one’s established video editing workflow.

And it’s under these circumstances that the return on investment of Adobe CS4 integration with Final Cut can be very significant. Handing off an effects-ready video project to Premiere Pro can save hours of rendering time. Capturing footage directly to the computer hard drive significantly reduces the time a Final Cut user needs before editing can start once a shoot is completed. Integration with Encore CS4 also allows Flash export and Blu-Ray support for video projects, opening up completely new distribution perspectives for video producers.

All text and graphics © Pfeiffer Consulting 2009.


About the ROI Projections The ROI projections on the following page have been calculated using a simple methodology. The top half of the table presents the features taken into account, and calculates the number of seconds saved by one individual operation over a previous release. In addition, these time savings are mapped to the hourly cost of a creative professional.The lower half of the table uses the same features and time savings, applies a reasonable weekly frequency of use for each feature, and calculates the savings based on hourly rates.Finally, the bottom of the table presents the cumulated cost savings of all features included in the table over a month and a year (based on 20 workdays per month and 220 workdays per year).



The figures presented in this table are average values of groups of several benchmarks. To see the list of individual benchmarks and results, please refer to the Appendix of this report.

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Incremental productivity gains (Return on Investment generated by individual operation)

Video Editing Workflow t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Effect to Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 17.90 8.58 9 .32 52.09% $0.26

t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Multiple Effects (Average of 3 benchmarks) 52.38 33.60 18 .79 35.86% $0.52

t Premiere Pro CS4: Remove Effects (Average of 2 benchmarks) 31.81 4.70 27 .11 85.23% $0.75

t Premiere Pro CS4: Change Speed of Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 35.92 6.41 29 .51 82.16% $0.82

t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Trans. to Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 17.07 4.47 12 .60 73.79% $0.35

t Premiere Pro CS4: Speech to Text (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 338.14 55.94 282 .21 83.46% $7.84

t Soundbooth CS4: Adjust Volume of Multiple Clips (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 77.29 16.47 60 .83 78.70% $1.69

Direct-to-Disc Workflow t OnLocation CS4: Import Footage (Average of 3 Benchmarks) 543.78 9.21 534 .58 98.31% $14.85

t OnLocation CS4: Direct-to-Disc Workflow Test 691.41 57.99 633 .42 91.61% $17.60

After Effects Workflow t After Effects CS4: QuickSearch Parameters (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 59.94 11.68 48 .26 80.52% $1.34

t After Effects CS4: Navigate Project (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 15.50 7.42 8 .08 52.13% $0.22

t After Effects CS4/Premiere Pro CS4: Dynamic Link 88.20 30.11 58 .09 65.86% $1.61

Digital Imaging Workflow t Photoshop CS4: Workflow Efficiency (Average of 7 Benchmarks) 26.84 15.20 11 .64 43.37% $0.32

t Photoshop CS4: OpenGL Support (Average of 7 Benchmarks) 12.11 7.91 4 .20 34.65% $0.12

t Photoshop CS4: User Interface Efficiency (Average of 3 Benchmarks) 19.91 9.99 9 .91 49.80% $0.28

t Bridge CS4: Image Management (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 47.31 21.92 25 .39 53.66% $0.71

ROI projections (based on incremental productivity gains)

Time saved (seconds)

Number of occurrences (Per week)

ROI (1 hour @ $100)

Video Editing Workflow t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Effect to Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 9.32 25 $6 .47

t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Multiple Effects (Average of 3 benchmarks) 18.79 25 $13 .05

t Premiere Pro CS4: Remove Effects (Average of 2 benchmarks) 27.11 20 $15 .06

t Premiere Pro CS4: Change Speed of Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 29.51 10 $8 .20

t Premiere Pro CS4: Apply Trans. to Multiple Clips (Average of 2 benchmarks) 12.60 10 $3 .50

t Premiere Pro CS4: Speech to Text (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 282.21 2 $15 .68

t Soundbooth CS4: Adjust Volume of Multiple Clips (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 60.83 5 $8 .45

Direct-to-Disc Workflow t OnLocation CS4: Import Footage (Average of 3 Benchmarks) 543.78 3 $45 .32

t OnLocation CS4: Direct-to-Disc Workflow Test 691.41 3 $57 .62

After Effects Workflow t After Effects CS4: QuickSearch Parameters (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 59.94 20 $33 .30

t After Effects CS4: Navigate Project (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 15.50 20 $8 .61

t After Effects CS4/Premiere Pro CS4: Dynamic Link 88.20 10 $24 .50

Digital Imaging Workflow t Photoshop CS4: Workflow Efficiency (Average of 7 Benchmarks) 11.64 25 $8 .08

t Photoshop CS4: OpenGL Support (Average of 7 Benchmarks) 4.20 20 $2 .33

t Photoshop CS4: User Interface Efficiency (Average of 3 Benchmarks) 9.91 20 $5 .51

t Bridge CS4: Image Management (Average of 2 Benchmarks) 25.39 5 $3 .53

Total ROI generated/week $259.19

Total ROI generated/month $1,036.76

Total ROI generated/year $11,404 .37

CS4 Production Premium: Return on Investment Scenarios (Per Workstation)

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