On Fri, 22 Dec 2000 10:50:56 -0500, "TJM" wrote:

>I wanted to get any feedback on whether Adobe Premiere & After Effects are
>worth the immense amt. of time to learn & master them? Does the end justify
>the means?
>
>I have owned Premiere 5.1c for a couple yrs. and I just got After Effects
>4.1 Production Bundle. Both apps have a steep learning curve, but seem to
>be able to do whatever ideas you may have for video. However, I would hate
>to spend countless hrs. of frustration trying to learn & master these apps
>only to find out there is a better product for editing & compositing
>desktop video.
>
>Are they worth the time to learn? Any alternatives for consumer-level
>applications? I want to someday upgrade to Win2K and dual P4's....do they
>take advantage of the increased CPU power?

I take it you have P-5.1c, but have not used it? (I
won't ask about getting AE - it is much less obvious
in operation...;-) If you have not started with Premiere,
I suggest first trading in the dual-small-window arrangement
for a single full-sized preview window (assuming enough
screen real estate - you can just do it on a 19" monitor,
or a sharp 17" with res. set just above 1024x768 [better
is a dual 17/19" monitor arrangement, though...]). Go to
the upper right of the preview window and click on the
triangle to change to "single-view", then stretch the
window to the appropriate full-res size for your captures.
Then draw in the sides and top and bottom to minimum before
losing the full-res preview size. Next, hit the upper
right triangle on the timeline window and select the
view that looks like a film strip, and choose the largest
size for the images. Now you can make all your editing
decisions (order of clips, lenghts, transitions
characteristics, special-effects tracks, filters,
frame animations [motion-tool], etc.) right there on
the timeline, in a very intuitive way. When in doubt,
right-click with the mouse on tracks to get options.
Use the triangles at the left ends of tracks to
open or close them to get access to level-setting
"rubber bands". Use the purple bar to set areas to
export or render audio and/or video footage ("Enter"
key starts the rendering...). "Scrub" the timeline
time scale with mouse with left button held down to
see the particulars on the time line (hold the "Alt"
key while scrubbing to see filters, transitions, etc.
without first rendering changes. 'Speriment! Try all
the menu items, and take notes. You will go through
all the options much sooner than you expect, once you
get started - and it will seem easier than you thought
it would be...! ;-)
AE is another matter....;-(
Have fun!