Adobe CS4 Production Studio Premium review

This is all very well, but probably the biggest benefit of the new Production Premium CS4 suite is the extended integration between apps via Dynamic Link. The ability to edit in After Effects, and see the results in Premiere Pro and Encore immediately, really improved the CS3 workflow. Now things work in reverse, with changes made in Premiere Pro to one project showing immediately in After Effects. Similarly, Premiere Pro projects can be imported into Encore CS4 and Soundbooth with the same round trip editing ability.

This interoperation has also been extended in other areas. For example, 3D layers from Photoshop Extended can be manipulated as 3D objects in After Effects. You can export After Effects projects as files which can then be loaded in Flash CS4 Professional with layers preserved, so you can animate in After Effects then add interactivity in Flash for use on the web. And the ability to edit in Soundbooth now includes After Effects and Flash CS4 as well as Premiere Pro.

But it's not just pure features where this suite impresses; it's the value for money it offers. Though there is a significant, and unjustified difference between US and UK pricing (see here), the price of Production Premium is still highly competitive. It checks a few more boxes than Avid Media Composer 3, which has no Photoshop-grade image editing or Illustrator-grade vector graphics just for starters. And if you just use Premiere Pro and After Effects, the CS4 bundle upgrade is well worth the money, if only for the AVCHD support and Media Encoder. There really is very little you can't do with video using the software included in Adobe Production Premium CS4.

Click below for the reviews in full:

Adobe CS4 Master Collection
Adobe CS4 Production Studio Premium
Adobe After Effects CS4
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended
Adobe Flash CS4 Professional
Adobe Illustrator CS4
Adobe Soundbooth CS4
Adobe OnLocation CS4
Adobe Encore CS4

Author: James Morris