frezeframe
08-02-2011, 02:50 AM
I love the idea of Adobe's Dynamic Link. The idea that one can select a clip in Premiere and instantly work on the same clip simultaneously in After Effects, is amazing. Then if I want to change something in the future, I can change it in After Effects, and it updates in real time on my Premiere Pro timeline. Simple, smooth; no more exporting, then importing, then exporting, then importing... it's all one dynamically linked unit.
Or is it?
Dynamic Link, I discovered, doesn't have a very big bandwith and is not designed for heavy jobs. Here's an example:
I'm working on this project with lots of shaky footage. I stabilized 109 separate shots in After Effects using the Warp Stabilizer.
This worked great in the beginning. However, after I stabilized the first 20 shots, it took After Effects upwards of 4 to 5 minutes to save the project. (as you may know, every time you import something into After Effects, it auto saves.) So my work-around for this was to create separate After Effects projects, because After Effects gets too bogged down when a single project has too many stabilized shots.
When using Premiere, I would import the shots that needed to be stabilized into After Effects by right clicking on the clip in the timeline and clicking "Replace with After Effects Composition." Then I would apply the Warp Stabilizer in After Effects and it would update in real time using Dynamic Link. Pretty cool right?
The issue:
After I had stabilized over 100 shots, I noticed that a lot of the shots I stabilized were offline. The only way to re-connect them was to open the After Effects project they were linked to. Which is fine, I guess. I'll just leave After Effects running in the background so my footage won't go offline.
However, because After Effects will only allow you to open one project at a time... this is now a major problem. Like I said above, I had to use many After Effects projects for this job because it would start to bog down and sometimes crash, after 15-20 shots being warp stabilized. So now I'm left with a project with the majority of the files offline and the only way to reconnect them is to open the After Effects project they were assigned to... but I can't open multiple After Effects Projects...
So why does After Effects have to be running for my footage to stay online?
This is because Dynamic Link is only linking the two running projects. If you shut After Effects down (or if it crashes)... the compositions in your Premiere timeline go offline. The technology is not quite where I thought it was.
I can't wait for the CS 6 or 6.5 versions of Dynamic Link to see if they can widen it's capabilities because it's a game changing idea. You know the editors of The Social Network used After Effects to edit the movie? I'm dang skippy they didn't use dymanic link!
Or is it?
Dynamic Link, I discovered, doesn't have a very big bandwith and is not designed for heavy jobs. Here's an example:
I'm working on this project with lots of shaky footage. I stabilized 109 separate shots in After Effects using the Warp Stabilizer.
This worked great in the beginning. However, after I stabilized the first 20 shots, it took After Effects upwards of 4 to 5 minutes to save the project. (as you may know, every time you import something into After Effects, it auto saves.) So my work-around for this was to create separate After Effects projects, because After Effects gets too bogged down when a single project has too many stabilized shots.
When using Premiere, I would import the shots that needed to be stabilized into After Effects by right clicking on the clip in the timeline and clicking "Replace with After Effects Composition." Then I would apply the Warp Stabilizer in After Effects and it would update in real time using Dynamic Link. Pretty cool right?
The issue:
After I had stabilized over 100 shots, I noticed that a lot of the shots I stabilized were offline. The only way to re-connect them was to open the After Effects project they were linked to. Which is fine, I guess. I'll just leave After Effects running in the background so my footage won't go offline.
However, because After Effects will only allow you to open one project at a time... this is now a major problem. Like I said above, I had to use many After Effects projects for this job because it would start to bog down and sometimes crash, after 15-20 shots being warp stabilized. So now I'm left with a project with the majority of the files offline and the only way to reconnect them is to open the After Effects project they were assigned to... but I can't open multiple After Effects Projects...
So why does After Effects have to be running for my footage to stay online?
This is because Dynamic Link is only linking the two running projects. If you shut After Effects down (or if it crashes)... the compositions in your Premiere timeline go offline. The technology is not quite where I thought it was.
I can't wait for the CS 6 or 6.5 versions of Dynamic Link to see if they can widen it's capabilities because it's a game changing idea. You know the editors of The Social Network used After Effects to edit the movie? I'm dang skippy they didn't use dymanic link!