Vaunted "Help me, I'm a noob" thread.

[knowyouremeny]

Ok. Bear with me here...

I'm doing a documentary... because a documentary needs to be done about a particular subject, but nobody's doing it... so I've taken on the burden of this task. The problem is that... while I have lots of computer experience, I don't have much A/V experience.

I'll need a digital video camera (money isn't a big deal, but I don't want to go over $3k)... if anyone could forward me to a [populated] forum that discusses those, I'd appreciate it.

That said, I'll need editing software on my computer, and I'm sure a few of you could help with that.

Can somebody tell me what the differences are between all of these programs (Priemiere, Elements, After Effects, Ulead, etc.)? I know they have similarities, but I doubt Adobe has 3 copies of the same program, so if you could explain them a bit, I'd appreciate it. :p

I definitely need to be able to:
- edit on a frame-by-frame basis
- zoom on still images and across frames on actively running video (how is this done? keyframes?)
- use layers, add [animated/moving] text, apply masks

So I'm sure these are somewhat common functionalities of video-editing software, but I downloaded a trial of Ulead, which is now expired, and I pretty much didn't notice anything that gave me the ability to do any of these things. Just seemed like a program that allowed me to crop and merge video segments, but then again, I only tinkered with it for about 5 minutes.

By the way, I'm under the impression that if I want to create a 3-d video... as in... with models, textures, etc. (a 3-d, computer-generated simulation), none of the aforementioned programs will do that, right? I need something along the lines of 3d Studio Max for that and then I take the video it generates and bring it into video-editing software, right?

Thanks in advance.

[knowyouremeny]

ok... good news. I looked around a bit more... answered a few of my questions... but I saw this software, and it seems good: http://www.puremotion.com/buy/editstudio.htm Anybody know if there's anything that I've listed that this software doesn't do? I noticed the pro version does keyframing, which is nice. I really, really need that. Is there anything a more expensive program such as Adobe Premiere can do that this piece of software can't?

What does their dvd-lab software do? Do I really need that? http://www.puremotion.com/buy/dvd-lab.htm Seems like something I could find out on the web for free, right?

[karmatized]

im no camera guru but my advice would be Premiere, after effects and photoshop bundle to cover all the fields.

Premiere for fine detailed editing, After effects for Keyframing of just about everything including difficult masking and croma keying

And photoshop for rotoscoping needs.

Thats probily one of the biggest things about using the adobe tools the fact that you can export FLM format and bring dirrectly into photoshop for editing on what looks like a filmstrip and save it back out compleatly readable as a movie to premeire or after effects...

The cross software compatibility is primo in the adobe bundle
If you wanna do special effects i wouldnt go any other way

If you want to do 3d work then its a toss up between 3d studio max or maya

personally im a maya man my self

movies done in maya include SPIDERMAN, LORD OF THE RINGS AND KING KONG

And movies done in 3d studio max, uhhhhh lol i knew theres a few, lol but like i said im a mayaman

[Ian in Northampton]

Just a thought, from someone who knows nothing about Pure Motion, so I may be about to do it a major disservice. The great thing about Premiere - and I'd be surprised if Premiere Elements didn't do everything you want (check out the free trial) - is that its popularity means there's a huge infrastructure of informal support available. That may not be true for lesser known software, technically wonderful as it may be.

[miwhel]

puremotion is a good little app, and inexpensive, therfore it lacks some features you may appreciate.

I have been using Adobe apps for some years now, and they work well.

be careful of premiere if the finished project is to be over 30mins, keep a back up COPY of the project saved regularly (don't rely on autosave only)

That said premiere has got better at handling bigger projects over the years, but better safe than sorry.

[knowyouremeny]

So... if I were to use Adobe... I'd want Premiere and After Effects?

What does Elements do?

[Alan Mills]

Originally Posted by knowyouremeny So... if I were to use Adobe... I'd want Premiere and After Effects? What does Elements do?

Elements is short for either 'Premiere Elements' or 'Photoshop Elements'. Both are cut-down, or Lite, version of their 'Pro' counterparts.

My understanding is that unless you consider yourself up at the Prosumer level then Premiere elements will do just fine. It will even allow you to design and make menu driven DVDs as well, which is more than Premiere Pro did up till a couple of weeks ago, when the latest version came out.

[knowyouremeny]

Originally Posted by Alan Mills It will even allow you to design and make menu driven DVDs as well, which is more than Premiere Pro did up till a couple of weeks ago, when the latest version came out.

I was actually going to ask about that! :lol:

So what version of Premiere Pro are we talking about? What's the latest version?

[LukeD]

Premier pro V2.

[knowyouremeny]

Originally Posted by LukeD Premier pro V2.

Yeah... that's what I was figuring, but I found versions 6.5 and 7 on pricewatch... sorta weird.