Correct way to use Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro

[name is already taken]

I have been using adobe premiere elements for video editing since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic for our organization. At this point, we are stepping up our production value and are going to be using a green screen for chroma key work. After some testing, I found the tool Keylight 1.2 in AAE is far superior to what is in AP Elements. That being said here is what I am looking to do:

General video editing and Audio editing (audio is just normalization and an occasional SFXs)

Chroma key work

Basic color and light grading (our camera is good but the operator isn't perfect (also me :P))

Syncing camera angles

Picture in picture work

Titles

I am wondering what the best way or combination of P Pro and AAE is to achieve this. Someone told me that AAE is really better for Chroma key, but I don't see any audio capability in AAE. 

Will a combination of the two programs be best for me? Will just AAE or P Pro work? 

Thanks for any help.

~Smith

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

After Effects is not a video editing app. It is a motion graphics, visual effects, and compositing app designed specifically to create shots or short sequences, and I mean short, that cannot be created in an NLE like Premiere Pro. 

Premiere Pro has tools built in to sync multi-camera angles using timecode or audio tracks. Premiere Pro can easily do picture in picture work and it is very capable of good chroma key work if your project requires about the same sophistication as a nightly local weather report. The only reason to mess with Audio in After Effects is to have a reference track. Mixing, eq and all of the other things you need to do with audio in a professionally edited piece are just way too cumbersome to do in AE.

Here's how I work. I cut in Premiere Pro. The entire sequence is cut and then the shots that need visual effect or compositing are named and color-coded in the Premiere sequence. If the effects or animation, or other things that I need AE to accomplish are fairly simple and will render at the rate of several frames per second I just use Dynamic Link for each shot or short sequence of two or three shots that need to be processed in After Effects. All you do is select the shot or short sequence you want to replace and right-click or use the menu to Replace with After Effects composition. 

If that shot or short sequence is going to be complicated at all, as soon as I have used Premiere Pro to add the shot to the saved dynamically linked AE comp, I return to Premiere Pro and undo the last action. Then I return to After Effects and complete the comp. I routinely have shots under seven seconds that have 10 or 20 layers that are required to complete the effects. These shots (comps) can take up to 3 or 4 minutes a frame to render, I redesign when render times start approaching 5 or 6 minutes, but most of them render at the rate of 10 to 20 seconds a frame. All of those complex comps are then sent to the Render Cue and rendered to a visually lossless Mezzanine format like GoPro Cineform (10 bit) or ProRez. I never render digital intermediates to a compressed MP4 format because the quality loss is way too dramatic for any work that a client is paying for. I use Render Garden to render my comps in the background and move on to the next shots. 

The renders all go to a specific folder that is imported into Premiere Pro. The file names match the shot that is marked in Premiere Pro and I just drop these shots above the originals in the timeline. If there are transitions I add handles (extra frames) to the shots so I have room to fiddle with the final timing in Premiere Pro. I NEVER keep dynamic link running on a complex composition that going to take a long time to render because the chance of failure and the slowdown in Premiere Pro is just not worth it.

Here is a section of a Premiere Pro project. By the way, sequences are limited to a scene in longer productions and I combine all the scenes in a final sequence for the whole movie. Again, this keeps the pieces manageable and it mimics the 10 minute time limit I grew up with cutting 35 mm film. 10 minutes is approximately 1000 feet and that's all that would fit on a Moviola or a Steinbeck editing table. The pink shots in the timeline are named and destined to be replaced with two clips rendered in After Effects. The work on those two shots includes Camera Tracking, Background replacement, Simulated depth of field, massive color correction, time remapping, and some digital makeup. 

The AE comps, one for both shots contained six or seven layers and each shot was rendered and placed directly above the pink shots in the timeline. This 15-minute short film had about 20 shots like this, only a couple of them stayed dynamically linked to Premiere Pro. 

One other thing I forgot to mention. None of the transitions and almost none of the effects you add in Premiere Pro will make the transition to After Effects.

This kind of workflow requires careful project and asset management, a good fule structure and naming conventions, and even though it sounds like a lot of extra work, it is way more efficient in the long run. This is exactly how Hollywood cuts feature films. The effects shots are marked and sent to the visual effects company so they can work their magic, and then the rendered (tests first then final) are replaced in the scene sequences.

I hope this helps. 

[name is already taken]

Literally have not even read it yet, first 3 lines I know this is the answer I am looking for. Thank you VERY much.