How to combine Premiere and After Effects in editing

zvi · #1 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 10:59 AM

Hi!

I'm new at editing, although I've been editing for years as a hobbie with simple programs like MAGIX (which is GREAT!) and Ulead (Not so great), but now I'm getting into the serious stuff.

My question is, what is the correct way to combine work from After Effects to Premiere Pro? Say, I'm making a video with after effects. Ok, so I captured the raw stuff in Premiere and I'm ready to edit. Now the only way I can think to go on from here in order to insert After Effects (please correct me if I'm wrong), is to:

1. cut out the clips you want to add Effects too...
2. Export them as .avi clips...
3. Import them into After Effects...
4. Do the effects...
5. Render and Export them back to a .avi file (with the applied effects)...
6. Import the finished clips back into Premiere Pro...
7. Put them in the timeline where you want them.

Is this the way to do it?

Thanks!

FNG · #2 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 11:04 AM

thats the way i do it, it sounds like a long winded way but i am pretty sure that is the way to do it

Alan Mills · #3 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 01:39 PM

If you use Production Studio you get an invisible app called 'Dynamic Link' which manages this for you. you can insert an AE project on your Premiere timeline and have both open at the same time. Change the clip in Ae and it automatically changes with no need to re-render in Premiere pro.

That is the 'correct' way of doing it. However, it is only available to you if you buy both apps as part of Production Studio. If you didn't then are stuck with doing it the long way as described above.

If workflow is important to you and you haven't bought either app yet then consider PS. It costs less than the two bought seperately and you get sound editors, dvd authoring and Photoshop thrown in for nowt as well.

zvi · #4 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 08:28 PM

Thanks for the information. Are you saying that there isn't even a way to Import it (AE) to Premiere before rendering (or at least just saving before exporting)? Just like you would Import a saved psd file that you did in photoshop as a sequence, and the Premiere keeps the layers seperate so you can work with them in the timeline.

Alan Mills · #5 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by zvi

Thanks for the information. Are you saying that there isn't even a way to Import it (AE) to Premiere before rendering (or at least just saving before exporting)? Just like you would Import a saved psd file that you did in photoshop as a sequence, and the Premiere keeps the layers seperate so you can work with them in the timeline.

I believer you can import a project from one into the other but if you use an AE effect that you do not have in Premiere then that effect will be lost - unless you use dynamic link then they both share the rendered copy from memory.

Without production studio your best bet, I reckon, is to render to a lossless (AVI) format and then import that into the other tool.

bert6280 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-13-2007, 10:19 PM

Tis a pity that Adobe don't supply their Dynamic Link thing as standalone software. I have PP 1.5 and AE 6.5 and I'd love to be able to have them work in combination.

Alan Mills · #7 (**permalink**) 02-14-2007, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by bert6280

Tis a pity that Adobe don't supply their Dynamic Link thing as standalone software. I have PP 1.5 and AE 6.5 and I'd love to be able to have them work in combination.

This dynamic link is (was?) one of the all-new selling workflow features of Production Studio which is the suite of progs including Ppro v2 and AE v7 so wouldn't work for your versions anyway.

Makes you wonder if there's anyway of installing it stand alone. Curious. When i remember I'll have a look on my installation disks and see if it has an installer of it's own. If there's no seperate installer then it somewhat implies the stand alone versions of PPro and AE are different to those in the prodcution studio.