Team sharing between Pr. Pro and AE - no dynamic linking?

[pamw43471601]

We would like to share team projects between Premier and AE but can't figure out how it works. No dynamic linking in Teams?

[Paul Young · Accepted solution]

Check out the latest release of Team Projects (shipped today) as it now has support for DynamicLink.

Paul

[gbattson]

Hey Paul,   

We have a team project created with the most recent release (Premiere 11.1.1 & AE 14.2.0.198) however with both the Premiere Team Project and AE Team Project open the "Replace with After Effects Composition" is not available.

We then converted the AE Team Project into a regular AE project dynamic linked to that and attempted to reimport that Dynamic Link into the Premiere Team Project but got this error:

Is there another method we should be trying in order to take advantage of dynamic linking? There doesn’t appear to be much documentation on how this specific feature is supposed to work.

Thanks,

-Gray

[Paul Young]

Hi Gray,

For DynamicLink the comps need to be created in the Team Project using After Effects. Then when you open that same Team Project in Premiere you will be able to use that comp as a DynamicLink.

Hope this helps,

Paul

[NickPapps]

Just to clarify: you have to first create an Team AE project first and then open it in Pr for dynamic linking to work? Seems like an odd workflow. Also, are there instructions anywhere that describes this workflow?

[PeterELee]

DynamicLink allows Premiere to render After Effects compositions, and After Effects to render Premiere Pro sequences, so its only activated when you open a comp in Premiere or a sequence in AE.

To use DynamicLink in a team project, you could start in AE, create a team project and put a comp in it, then switch to Premiere and open the same team project. DynamicLink would then be used by Premiere to display the comp. Or you could start in Premiere, create a sequence in a team project, then open the same team project in AE, etc.

In order for DynamicLink to work, you must have both After Effects and Premiere installed on the same machine, and they must both be from the same major CC release (i.e. it will work with the CC 2017 versions of both AE and Premiere, but the CC 2016 version of one can't create a DynamicLink to the CC 2017 version of the other).

[teofilo34717619pp99]

Hi, 

This is a great answer but it does not work even if I have the same computer, same versions, etc, etc...and this is the year 2024. 

[NickPapps]

Thanks Peter, this is helpful. But, the workflow still seems a bit foggy. Also, there doesn't seem to be any documentation for the proper workflow available.

With my team now, we have a sequence and someone now wants to add lower thirds, for example. When they open the project in AE and add the titles, the comp shows media offline. Strangely, when we remove the video layer and just leave the title, it works.

Ideally, we are looking cut a sequence in Premiere and have someone else add graphics in AE. Then, be able to drag the comp or graphic in the timeline back in Pr. Or have the graphics appear in the sequence that was originally cut. It doesn't seem to work that way. Can you explain the workflow?

[PeterELee]

Hi Nick,

The first thing to verify is that both After Effects and Premiere Pro are installed on each machine, and that each machine also has access to the same media files (this could be via shared storage, file syncing, cloned drives, etc.).

You can check that DynamicLink is working in general by opening a standalone project (.prproj) in Premiere then browsing to a standalone AE project (.aep) in the Media Browser. If the Media Browser in Premiere can display the contents of the .aep and let you import a comp, then DynamicLink is working properly. Simarly, After Effects should be able to import sequences from .prprojs using the Media Browser there. DynamicLink does not require Team Projects.

If DynamicLink is working on both systems, then one Team Project workflow would be:

1. Premiere editor creates a Team Project in Premiere, imports media, shares their changes, then starts editing a sequence.

2. AE artist opens the same Team Project in After Effects and creates a comp in the Team Project for the lower third using media from the Team Project and whatever effects and tools they want in AE. They can import other media into the Team Project as well, as needed. When they have a draft of the lower third (or the final version), they share their changes.

3. Premiere editor gets latest changes and now they can drop the lower third into the sequence they're working on, and it will be rendered in Premiere using the After Effects rendering engine. If the AE person updates the lower third, they just need to share their changes and the editor will pick them up when they choose to sync.

A couple of other notes:

- The AE artist can open the sequence in AE to play it or grab frames. If they add the sequence to a comp, though, that comp will go offline in Premiere. Team Projects only support one level of sequence-in-a-comp or comp-in-a-sequence nesting at this time.

- When the comp is imported or updated in Premiere, it will be displayed as "pending" for a few seconds while the DynamicLink is created.

- It's not a Team Projects feature specifically, but have you looked at Motion Graphics Templates for doing re-usable graphics like lower thirds? You can create a comp in AE and let editors change parameters you enable in Premiere, like text fields. Motion Graphics Templates are supported in Team Projects as well as standalone projects. See Create Motion Graphics templates | for more info.

[NickPapps]

Hi Peter, thanks for the great reply.

I'm beginning to understand the workflow except for one part. What if there is a particular shot that needs some VFX work? In this instance, would I open the entire sequence into AE and try and isolate the shot I would need to do the work on? Or is there better workflow for this? The sequence comes in as a long, single, unified clip inside of After Effects. Markers don't come through either.

Yes, using the Essential Graphics panel does seem like a great workflow in this case. I've used it a bunch already, just not in team projects yet.

[PeterELee]

Hi Nick,

That's an excellent question. The most foolproof way to extract a portion of a sequence for someone to work on in AE would probably be to mark the in and out points in Premiere and choose "Make Subsequence." That will create a second sequence containing just the sequence contents within that range. There might be other, better, workflows, but that's the one that occurs to me.

-Peter

[mrbarrett]

I'm having the same issue. I just tried the "make subsequence" route and it still shows us up a flattened clip inside of After Effects. Team Projects doesn't seem to be quite ready for prime time when going back and fourth between premiere and after effects using shared media between them. Just curious did you actually try the "make subsequence" or am I doing something wrong?

[PeterELee]

mrbarrett I'm sorry if this wasn't clear, but while After Effects and Premiere can both open the same Team Project, only After Effects can edit compositions, and only Premiere can edit sequences. The DynamicLink integration allows you to play sequences in AE and comps in Premiere, and to embed a comp in a sequence as "footage" or vice-versa. A Team Project makes it easier for editors and graphics artists to collaborate, but it does not bring the creative tools from one application into the other.

Creating a sub-sequence is just a way to select a portion of a sequence for a VFX person to work on in AE. It will act like a flattened clip in AE that can be added to a comp, etc, without needing a separate rendering step to get it out of Premiere and without needing to create intermediate media files.

If you want to access individual clips from a sequence, you would need to access them directly in AE as footage items. In a Team Project, users in both AE and Premiere have access to the same clips.

Can you explain more about the workflow you'd like to achieve?

[mrbarrett]

The workflow that would help me: If I'm working on a vfx heavy music video in Premiere and I have 5 synced green screen clips stacked together that I want to composite together in After Effects. A non team project I would just right click these clips in Premiere and "replace with after effects comp" which would then stack these clips into one After Effects comp. That's the biggest and most important feature I use in Premiere, the ability to send clips over easily to After Effects. This feature seems to have been stripped from a Team Project.

[PeterELee]

Ahh, got it. Thanks! I'll make sure we have a Feature Request to enable "Replace with After Effects Composition" for Team Projects in Premiere. The feature is, indeed, disabled right now in Premiere when working in a Team Project.

[Bob Mori]

Make this happen and you will be a hero!  Perfect workflow solution.

[mrbarrett]

yessssss!!!!!!

[gregl7]

The return of the "Replace with After Effects Composition" option within a Premiere Team Project would be really helpful, as it would not disrupt the workflow many of us are used to with stand alone projects. Also, [File -> Adobe Dynamic Link] is greyed out in my Premiere Team Project. I can see how using Media Browser might be more useful in importing AE comps (which btw doesn't work in my Team Project... most likely due to the AE file with which I'm sourcing being stand alone. It does allow me to right click and import, but nothing happens and no comp is imported).

I guess the issue surrounding the "Replace with AE comp" would be how Premiere Team Projects brings this clip into After Effects within the Team Projects environment.  It would have to open After Effects and potentially import the selected clip(s) as a composition, which may create a conflict mentioned by PeterELee :

"The AE artist can open the sequence in AE to play it or grab frames. If they add the sequence to a comp, though, that comp will go offline in Premiere. Team Projects only support one level of sequence-in-a-comp or comp-in-a-sequence nesting at this time."

Looking forward to intuitive improvements to the Dynamic Link workflows between Pr and Ae. Back to the basics, because it worked!

[WeAreMoose]

Adobe, is there any update on this??

Thanks

[PeterELee]

We just announced the upcoming release of our video tools, and I'm happy to say that the upcoming version of Premiere Pro now supports "Replace with After Effects Composition" in Team Projects (though I don't think it's called out in the press materials). Adobe Unveils Next Generation of Video Innovation at IBC 2018 | Adobe Newsroom

[valeriet21612865]

I just updated to CC 2019 and I'm trying to dynamic link between a premiere (team project) sequence and AE.  Both when I open the sequence in AE directly from Premiere AND when I create a corresponding Team project in AE first, it hangs up on "Loading individual asset descriptions" and I have to force quit both apps.  So it doesn't look like dynamic link is working after all...

[PeterELee]

Can you describe the steps you're following in more detail? I'm not sure what you mean by "when I open the sequence in AE directly from Premiere." Did you use "Replace with After Effects composition" in a Team Project to create an AE composition in Premiere? To view an AE composition in Premiere using Team Projects, you need to open the entire Team Project in Premiere. There's no way to import a single AE composition, as you can with DynamicLink and standalone projects. I'm not sure what would be causing the applications to hang. It's not an issue that we've seen here, as far as I'm aware.

[valeriet21612865]

Sure thing!  I'm highlighting an MOV clip in my Team Project timeline in Premiere, right clicking and selecting "replace with After Effects Composition," and then as AE attempts to open the clip, and goes through the checklist, it stops at "Loading indiidual asset descriptions" and both apps freeze up.

[PeterELee]

Thanks! Roughly how many media files are in the Team Project, and how long have you waited for it to load? Differences between AE and Premiere mean that Team Projects with many media files can sometimes take a very long time to load in AE, and AE will appear to be blocked while this is happening. Since Pr is waiting for AE in this instance, that may be why Pr is blocked, too.

Would you be willing to take samples of both processes using Activity Monitor, and PM them to me? If this Team Project contains lots of media, do you see the same issue if you try these steps in a Team Project containing only a few files?

Improving media handling issues with Team Projects in AE is one of our next big priorities.

[Bob Mori]

I think this is a perfect workflow solution.