Premiere Pro Versus After Effects: Which Software Should You Use?
If you’re new to video editing and compositing, you might be overwhelmed with all the different options for editing and creating content. There are both free and paid options available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Your choices become a bit more clear depending on the type of computer you have, but things still can be pretty confusing. While I won’t cover all the options available, hopefully clarifying the difference between two very popular programs will aid you in your decision making process.
Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro is used primarily for video editing. Video editing is the process of editing segments of motion video production footage, special effects and sound recordings into one unified project. In addition to video editing, Premiere Pro excels at footage and project organization, sound and audio management, spacial effects such as color correction, and limitless importing and exporting of several file types. When combined with the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite of applications, Premiere Pro unlocks unlimited possibilities for creating and sharing dynamic video content with the world.
What makes Premiere Pro the industry standard for video editing is its ability to work with almost any file type you can imagine. It goes far beyond your basic video files and allows the user to import native files from most of the programs included in the Creative Cloud Suite. This means you can work on a photo in Photoshop and open it directly in Premiere Pro without having to save or export that file in a different format before bringing it into Premiere Pro. You could use Illustrator to create your titles and lower thirds, Lightroom to organize and edit the still shots in your project, Audition to mix different sound recordings, and After Effects to create impressive 3D effects and transitions. On it’s own, Premiere Pro is a great application, but combining its video editing capabilities with the functionality of other available applications, gives users the opportunity to share their message in unique and scalable ways.
If you need robust video editing, footage organization, and multiple import and export options; Premiere Pro is the best program to work with. Premiere Pro allows you to create infinite layers and work with an infinite number of files within a single project. Because Premiere Pro is a file based application, there is no need to store all the files included in a single project locally in a specific location on your computer. Files can be stored on an external hard drive, in a cloud storage folder, or in a folder on your computer. Having these options are great for those working with a group or team. Each person can update and edit files as needed without creating file errors and conflicts with others working on the same project. Since most video projects consist of multiple components, it can be helpful to have different people working on different parts of the project in order to complete the project efficiently.
A common use for Premiere Pro is YouTube videos. Many people use Premiere Pro to organize their footage and create content such as tutorials, fashion look books, advertising campaigns, and video blogs. Because Premiere Pro can manage multiple file types in a single project, it works well for combining audio, video and images into a single output optimized for internet consumption. Most YouTube videos are comprised of multiple video and audio clips. A user can organize all these clips into a single video file, and upload it directly to YouTube using nothing but Premiere Pro.
After Effects
After Effects is primarily used for video compositing. Video compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into a single video scene. Compositing is used to create the illusion that all the included elements are part of the same scene. Basically, After Effects builds animations and complex special effects. If you are familiar with Adobe’s Flash application, you’ll find the principles of After Effects to be very similar. Flash uses scripts to create complex moving animations. These types of animations are what you would see on a cartoon or animated series. After Effects takes some of these same concepts and brings them to a more real world, video focused environment. Think of flying text across a web video, or introductory clips and chapter markers in movies. There are some basic video editing and organization tools such as color correction, green screening and composition layers, but all the editing and organization tools in After Effects are extremely limited compared to those found in Premiere Pro.
Like Premiere Pro, After Effects works well with a variety of file formats. The options for both importing and exporting files are geared towards animation. This may suggest that After Effects is less powerful than Premiere Pro, but the importing and exporting options are plentiful for the nature of the program. As you would expect, the Creative Cloud applications integrate well with After Effects. When it comes to working with Creative Cloud files, After Effects is on par with Premiere Pro. The seamless experience of working with Adobe’s native file formats makes it simple to create complex compositions comprised of a variety of file formats. There is also support for file linking and management, just like in Premiere Pro. You might be curious as to why anyone would use After Effects when Premiere Pro seems to have a larger set of features. The answer is simple: You can’t animate and composite effectively in Premiere Pro. Yes, there are some animation and compositing options in Premiere Pro, but they’re grossly lacking compared to those found in After Effects. Just as After Effects was not designed for video editing and organization, Premiere Pro was not designed for animating and compositing.
To reference the previous YouTube workflow; After Effects would be used to make the animations and transitions. Most introduction and title screens with flying or 3D animations were created using After Effects. These title sequences usually include the name of the YouTuber or channel and the tile of the current video. Some people use After Effects to create animations that appear throughout the video. An example of this would be custom annotations that appear during different sections of a playing video. Animations are also used in the end credits scenes. This is usually where you will see an elaborate “Subscribe” animation. After creating your animations, you would return to import and organize them in Premiere Pro.
A great way to work with After Effects is to animate vector art created using Illustrator. There are millions of great vectors here on Freepik, and there’s even a detailed tutorial on animating those vectors here.
The vector used in the tutorial works really well for animations. Scenes created using vectors are great for story telling videos and tutorials. A little imagination goes a long way!
Premiere Pro and After Effects are the industry standards in the the videography world. While most people tend to refer to them as rival applications, they really are intended to work together. The key point here is to choose the best application for the task you need to complete. If you’re editing footage, managing sounds, and organizing a media project, Premiere Pro is the application you should use. If you’re working on animations, complex 3D scenes, or time based media, After Effects is the program you should use.
