@thecreativeone91 said:
@garak0410 said:
I have the elements versions of Premiere and Photoshop and they tend to do a pretty good job. I'd love the power of Premiere Pro but the learning curve is steep. As far as HTML coding goes, there are good alternatives out there so I guess it does then boil down to the artistic end of "IT" with the rest of the suite and so then this answers my question as far the value to me goes. But that said, it would still be nice to put on a resume that I know how to use the entire suite... 🙂
The elements versions are like toys of the full versions if those are working for your needs there's no reason to upgrade.
Premiere doesn't have a steep learning curve. Especially if you have used Final Cut Pro 7 (and older) FCP X is not the same, nor does it have the same feature set. Avid Media Composer/Symphony on the other hand the other hand as well as Lightworks and Resolve (technically color grading but, has a NLE) are complex to learn. Smoke and after effect can be complex as well to learn but they are not.
NLE's.Personally I see no value of the Creative Cloud right now, there are very few new features that aren't just "marketing fluff" from CS6. I have many seats of Production Premium CS5, CS5.5 and CS6.
Also have the specific software listed in the creative world on your resume isn't really a "hireable" trait. In the creative world it's about proven deliverable, and quality results every time that you can show. It doesn't matter what tools you used to create the work. That's like asking a artist what brand paint brushes he used to make a great painting before hiring them. "Sorry, We don't use those paint bushes here". It's assumed one can learn new tools, and in some cases pick their own. It's still a topic of discussion of course but has minimal impact. The Tools used aren't very important. Heck if someone can pick up cheap tools and make something great with it imagine what they can do with the really good tools.
Another thing to keep in mind with the creative cloud is with creative software there is extreme vendor lock in. You can use the deliverables (exports) of course. But for example PSD photoshop files while supported in other programs for import while be flat (no layers) making them useless and the same as a deliverable final image would be. Premiere Pro Projects can't be opened in other programs well either if at all. Sure there are industry standard EDL (Edit Decision Lists) which is just a CSV of edit points of the footage nothing more, It's from the print to film days so it doesn't support anything else. Also with Premiere you can't open newer projects with older versions of it, even opening and older project in a newer version will make you import it and save as a new project. While this vendor lock in is normal, when moving to a subscription model there are obvious concerns, where as something like a Word .Docx can be opened pretty well and supported in many programs (and also isn't ONLY subscription model).
The "Creative Cloud" (there is very little cloud about it as except some small amount of storage which can't really be used for serious professional work, really the only case where cloud storage will likely never be used.) is mostly there for adobe to get continual income without people skipping unneeded upgrades or having to work about adding ground breaking features to make sure people will want to upgrade. Some people say it's good because the initial purchase is cheaper (but it's only one month), long term it's a much more expensive model.
If you are just looking to learn you can just buy a month at a time and use it when you need it, keep in mind you will not be able to even view projects when you aren't paying. This has actually been a big deal for film projections on remote locations, as the software will deactivate even if you have paid if it doesn't phone home every 30 days. There as still many remote locations of the world that this is not possible. I know one major budget film that just bought more laptops installed in at the Home office and then mailed them over to the remote locations so they'd have new laptops every 30 days. a major added expense for sure.
Disclaimer: I'm part of Adobe's Product testing team.
Excellent response... gives me a lot to consider... thanks so much...
