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AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Cutting Ties with Premiere

For many gamers creating content, Adobe Premiere Pro has long been the go-to video editing software. Its intuitive timeline-based interface, abundance of effects, and integration with other Adobe apps makes it an easy choice. However, as game capture and streaming have evolved, Premiere struggles to keep up. Its clunky performance and limited motion graphics capabilities have sent some creators running to After Effects instead.

While Premiere focuses on stitching clips together, After Effects excels at manipulating and compositing layers of video and graphics. For Spawn Wave Media's John Alvarado, AE's superior compositing tools were the impetus to switch. As he incorporated more on-screen text and images into his gaming news and review videos, laggy playback in Premiere made editing a nightmare. By moving his workflow to After Effects, he could composite motion graphics smoothly even at 4K resolutions.

For Rachel "Seltzer" Quirico's esports highlight reels, dynamic motion graphics are essential. While Premiere's Essential Graphics panel can incorporate text and shapes, it's no match for AE's deep toolset. The wiggle expressions, pixel motion blur and Camera Layers allow her to animate pro player names exploding onto the screen and logos disintegrating into particles. These kinds of flashy effects engage viewers expecting a high-energy experience.

While Premiere clings to traditional editing concepts, After Effects embraces more experimental workflows. Gaming personality Ross O'Donovan, animator Arin Hanson and editor Matt Watson produce the YouTube show Game Grumps. They often film unscripted sketches parodying games, then amplify the humor through tight cuts, green screen work and dramatic sound effects. AE's seamless integration with Photoshop and Illustrator gives them unlimited options to manipulate footage. As Watson told Streaming Media, "We can really push the envelope for weird effects and gags."

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - AE's Superior Toolbox

While Premiere Pro offers a standard set of video editing tools, After Effects boasts a deep well of compositing, animation, and motion graphics capabilities that outclass its sibling app. For gaming video creators looking to take their content to the next level, AE's specialized toolbox enables styles and techniques not possible in Premiere alone.

One of AE's biggest advantages is its unmatched typographic design and motion capabilities. The Character and Paragraph panels provide fine control over text formatting and animation. Gamers can craft dynamic lower thirds and titles with bold colors, outlines, drop shadows and other effects. Animate in and out keyframes, and text seamlessly glides, fades or zooms onto the screen. Use AE's graph editor to customize the velocity and influence for silky smooth motion.

AE's shape layers expand compositing options exponentially. Avid gamer Harris Brewis relied on simple PNGs for logos and icons in Premiere. By recreating visuals as shape layers in After Effects, he can scale, rotate and warp elements fluidly. The repeater tool quickly duplicates shapes, while trim paths cleanly animates a symbol on and off screen. Shapes can even morph from one form to another, allowing Harris to transition his channel's star logo into a shimmering crystalline form.

While Premiere offers only simplistic speed and time remapping effects, AE's Timewarp tools afford granular control over footage speed. Slow down intense multiplayer shootouts to analyze the action, or ramp up repetitive grinding to a thrilling pace. Smooth unpredictable changes in speed with easy ease in and out adjustments. And AE's Pixel Motion Blur introduces lifelike motion blur based on real footage movement.

AE's unmatched 3D compositing takes gaming videos into another dimension. Import 3D models and environments from Cinema4D and Maya, and composite them seamlessly with live footage. Use AE's Cineware and Cinema 4D Lite to create 3D text extruding, twisting and flying through virtual space. Add lights and shadows to 3D layers with After Effects' robust lighting tools. The possibilities to intensify gaming narratives in 3D are endless.

While Premiere provides only basic color correction, AE grants extensive control with Color Balance HLS and Curves tools. Create uniquely stylized looks like teal and orange or duotone gradients to brand videos. And ensure consistent skin tones and courts with advanced color management capabilities.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Dynamic Duo: AE + Encoder

While After Effects delivers exceptional motion graphics and compositing tools, it lacks built-in support for video encoding and compression. For gaming creators producing long videos at high resolutions like 4K or 8K, file sizes balloon astronomically. Exporting these massive files directly from AE is impractical. This is where a dedicated encoding app comes in.

Pairing After Effects with Telestream's Encoder software is a dynamic duo for gaming video production. Encoder efficiently compresses and encodes AE comps while retaining superb visual quality. It supports a massive range of codecs from H.264 to Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD, allowing creators to target any platform and optimize for streaming sites like YouTube and Twitch.

Popular YouTuber jacksepticeye relied solely on Premiere for exporting, struggling with long render times. By switching to dynamic rendering with AE and Encoder, his 4K exports now take a fraction of the time. Encoder harnesses the power of his multi-core processor, encoding faster than real time. He can deliver 4K videos to fans much quicker thanks to the duo.

Encoder's preset export templates provide one-click encoding tailored for different services. Gaming personality Scott Manley uses the YouTube 4K template for his Kerbal Space Program tutorials. Encoder automatically applies the optimal codec and compression for YouTube's 4K specification. After exporting a 20-minute tutorial, Encoder uploads directly to his YouTube account. The automation simplifies his workflow while ensuring the best quality for viewers.

For esports organization Cloud9, high volume video production demanded an efficient encoding solution. They switched from Premiere to AE with Encoder to accelerate their weekly battle reel edits. Encoder's watch folder capability allowed their team to drop comps into a monitored folder. Encoding would trigger automatically and deliver files straight to their video team. By eliminating manual encoding steps, the dynamic duo fit cleanly into their rapid production workflow.

Encoder's built-in notifications also provide peace of mind. Gamers can confirm encode completion via email or Slack. And in the event of a crash or error, Encoder will flag the issue so renders aren't lost. With tight upload deadlines, trouble notifications help creators quickly resolve issues.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Saving Scrub Time

Scrubbing through footage to find the perfect moment can be one of the most tedious parts of editing gaming videos. But After Effects offers innovative tools to save creators valuable scrubbing time. For fast-paced videos like gaming montages and esports highlights, quickly locating critical moments in long recordings makes all the difference.

After Effects' Source Monitor panel adds powerful scrubbing capabilities not found in Premiere. Its Mini-Flowchart presents a bird's eye view of footage, allowing editors to easily spot spikes in motion. Click and drag to skim rapidly to moments of action. The Flowchart Marker tool goes a step further by automatically inserting temporal markers at peaks in the waveform. Jump between markers with a single click to hone in on kills, explosions and other key events.

For LA-based YouTuber Julius Darko, these scrubbing aids are essential for his multiplayer FPS highlight reels. He used to waste hours blindly skimming hours of raw gameplay in Premiere. Now in AE, he leverages the Flowchart and Markers to breeze through footage and pull epic headshots and multikills. The time saved leaves more room for polishing his visual effects.

The Flowchart isn't just useful for high action gaming. Variety streamer Annemunition relies on it when editing her laidback simulator streams. She frequently refers back to conversations and events from earlier in lengthy 6+ hour broadcasts. The Flowchart provides a map to scrub through and find funny interactions or memorable moments from her streams. The marker tool pins all the key timecodes so she can easily arrange them into video highlights.

AE's Source Monitor takes scrubbing efficiency even further with its Snapshot tool. During scrubbing, pressing Shift+F5 grabs a quick static frame of the current view. Gamers can snapshot moments of interest as they scan through footage, then easily return to those frames later. There's no need to tediously scrub back and forth to find where a specific scene occurred.

Las Vegas-based editor Jamal Green relied on Premiere's inefficient scrubbing when assembling gaming montages for his clients. The imprecise tools slowed down his workflow tremendously. By switching to AE, the Flowchart, Markers and Snapshots empower him to breeze through client footage pulling the best moments. Now he can pump out more gaming edits in less time, growing his client base.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Maximizing Motion Graphics

With gaming content, motion graphics transform videos from flat recordings into dynamic visual spectacles. After Effects provides a phenomenal toolbox for animating text, shapes, and visual effects that capture viewer attention. While Premiere includes options like keyframes and Essential Graphics, AE takes motion graphics possibilities to the next level.

For creator Leonardo Malaman, epic animated intros and outros are key to branding his content. In Premiere, he struggled to animate his cyberpunk neon logo realistically. AE’s graph editor gave him fine control over animation curves to perfect the futuristic glitching and flickering effects. The wiggle expressions and motion blur made the animated shapes and lines feel alive. His AE motion graphics skills enabled a distinct animated identity that wows viewers.

The software’s deep capabilities empower truly eye-popping animations. Popular Twitch streamer Harris Heller harnesses AE’s shape layer Repeater and Radio Waves tools to animate his logo exploding and reforming into abstract geometry. The detailed configs for Repeater replicate shapes in complex patterns, while Radio Waves generate mesmerizing undulations across the frame. By combining these tools with dynamic cameras and lights, Harris creates a psychedelic introduction that captures the vibe of his channel.

AE’s unmatched 3D compositing abilities allow gaming creators to animate text and logos in full 3D space. Fortnite YouTubers use Cinema 4D Lite within AE to extrude and rotate 3D versions of popular emoticons and skins sweeping onto the screen. The dimensional text layered over clips stands out boldly, pulling viewers into the video. Other creators use Element 3D to animate 3D player models acting out memes and jokes for unique skits. The models add a lifelike element impossible in Premiere.

For gaming personality Joey Kaotyk, AE’s motion tools help build hype for upcoming releases. He animates text twisting and fading as it reveals key details and speculations about a game. Joey blends glitch effects, pixelated distortion and camera shakes to make the text feel part of an uncontrollable digital world. These energetic graphics tease what’s to come, generating excitement within his community.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Advanced Audio Editing

While video effects grab most of the attention, finely crafted audio is equally important for engaging gaming viewers. After Effects provides advanced audio editing capabilities that outshine Premiere Pro, allowing creators to mix polished sound that matches the energy on screen.

For Toronto-based editor Kelvin Choi, audio is crucial to amp up the intensity when producing frag movies and esports highlights. He uses AE's Multi-Track mixing capabilities to layer sound effects reinforcing big moments. As a player gets an epic sniper headshot, Kelvin accentuates the moment with a thundering shotgun blast sound effect. When a monster gets slain, he mixes in an explosive crash for extra visceral impact. Complex audio multi-tracking brings his visuals to life.

AE's built-in Audio Equalizer also allows for subtle audio tweaks that keep viewers hooked. Popular Apex Legends YouTuber Zeus Editz carves out clarity in chaotic gun fights by selectively boosting weapon sound effects in the mix. When a item gets picked up, he accentuates the iconic inventory sound by increasing mids and highs. These nuanced adjustments ensure important audio cues pop rather than get drowned out.

For extended gaming sessions, inconsistent audio can be grating for audiences. But AE's Compressor tool evens out volume. full-time Twitch streamer Anna uses the Compressor to smooth out the peaks and valleys going from quiet looting to deafening firefights in Escape from Tarkov. The normalized audio keeps her long streams pleasant and comfortable to listen to.

AE even enables advanced dialogue editing not possible in Premiere. Irish animator Jacksepticeye uses the software's Noise Reduction effect to clean up background interference and microphone popping while preserving his charming voice. The DeNoiser effect Lifetime setting tailors the noise filter specifically to his recording equipment. Jack no longer wastes time manually reducing background noise in Premiere.

Other creators transform voice performances with pitch-shifting. Variety streamer Fuslie utilizes AE's Pitch Shifter to deepen and distort her voice for comedic sketches. By pitching herself down she can voice male characters and monsters in game parodies. Pitching up produces a hilarious chipmunk effect as she pokes fun at other streamers. This creativity expands the humor she brings to videos.

Finally, AE's powerful Stereo Mixer grants precise control over the spatialization and directionality of audio components. Fortnite machinima creator Infekt harnesses the Stereo Mixer along with 3D positional audio effects to immerse viewers within videos. As characters move through virtual worlds, their voices pan from side to side matching their screen position. Off-screen sounds like footsteps emerge from rear speakers, surrounding audiences with life-like audio depth. The immersive sound design pulls viewers deeper into the storytelling experience.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Exporting for YouTube

Optimizing exports for YouTube's platform is critical for gaming creators distributing video online. The right encoding settings ensure fast upload times, maximum quality for viewers, and efficient compression for affordable storage. While Premiere Pro offers only basic export presets for web video, After Effects paired with Telestream's Encoder software provides advanced control over exporting for YouTube.

Popular Fortnite YouTuber Dakotaz struggled with lengthy upload times and compression artifacts when exporting 4K videos from Premiere alone. The bloated H.264 files took ages to upload to YouTube, delaying when fans could view the latest videos. Pixelation and banding also crept into his uploads, degrading quality. By switching to After Effects and Encoder for exporting, he was able to shrink files drastically while enhancing visual quality. Encoder's advanced encoder settings like CBR and multi-pass encoding compress files smaller without compromising detail. Faster 4K uploads and pristine image quality make his hard work shine for viewers.

Encoder's platform-specific presets tailor exports precisely for YouTube. Variety gaming streamer Valerie Rose uses the YouTube 4K preset for her channel's highlight reels and animated intros. The preset automatically configures 10-bit H.264 encoding along with YouTube's preferred codec profile and level. Encoder adds the vital metadata so YouTube recognizes the 4K resolution. The optimized settings guarantee the fastest encoding and upload speeds possible for her style of content.

For channels uploading lots of longform content like let's plays and walkthroughs, storage on YouTube can quickly become costly. But with Encoder, creators can encode high-quality video that maximizes compression for affordable storage. Popular Minecraft YouTubers Pixelriffs and ZloyXP utilize two-pass VBR encoding in Encoder to shrink massive raw gameplay recordings by over 50% with no visual compromise. Encoder's advanced psycho-visual encoding techniques analyze each frame, optimizing bitrate while preserving detail gamers need to see. The compact video requires significantly lower storage, helping their channels stay within budget.

Beyond encoding settings, Encoder provides additional YouTube-ready features. Its Share tab allows creators to enter video metadata like titles, descriptions and tags during encoding. Encoder adds the info directly into the export, saving time later. The software also enables directly uploading finished videos to a connected YouTube account. LA-based editor OmarEmar builds supercut-style Fortnite montages for pro players. From within Encoder, he exports and uploads the videos in one smooth process. Automating the upload eliminates manual steps, allowing him to deliver videos to clients rapidly.

AE Over OP! Ditch Premiere for After Effects When Editing Your Next Gaming Vid - Level Up Your Workflow

For gaming video creators, transitioning from Premiere to After Effects can feel daunting at first. But with the right approach, it's an opportunity to level up editing skills and achieve a new level of visual storytelling impossible in Premiere alone. Adopting an experimental mindset and taking advantage of AE's vast capabilities will transform workflows for the better.

Many experts recommend starting small and mastering AE's core tools like masks, shape layers and basic text animation. Simple usage of wiggle expressions or adding basic flow to animated shapes can already enhance videos beyond Premiere. Once comfortable with these elements, move on to more advanced techniques like motion tracking, 3D cameras and visual effects. Rome wasn't built in a day, so spend time getting comfortable with AE's workspace and take on new techniques gradually. Great motion graphics design requires patience and practice.

However, diving right into complex projects can speed up learning too. Veteran YouTuber Peter McKinnon advises challenging oneself by ambitiously storyboarding an animation project in AE. Pushing the boundaries of skills forces you to problem solve and discover new techniques hands-on. Referencing AE templates and tutorials helps overcome hurdles along the way. The satisfaction of completing an ambitious project builds confidence to take on even bigger creative ideas.

Many creators spotlight the value of collaborating with motion graphics animators when transitioning to AE. Esports videographer JuiceBubble teamed up with animator Supervaeje to design animated intros for his frag movies. By sharing storyboards and bouncing ideas off his partner, JuiceBubble envisioned fresh visuals impossible alone. Supervaeje handled animating the complex visuals frame-by-frame. This freed JuiceBubble to focus on filming and editing the main highlights. The partnership allowed both creators to play to their strengths and deliver next level content.

Networking with other AE power users can provide inspiration too. Gaming YouTubercombinatron attended Adobe Max and connected with motion graphics gurus Zengel and School of Motion. Learning their philosophies on animation design opened up bold new directions to explore. Staying plugged into the AE creative community exposes techniques and concepts to continuously push skills forward. Surrounding yourself with talented creators introduces ideas you'd never uncover in isolation.

Finally, taking advantage of the wealth of AE training content online, like Video Copilot or School of Motion tutorials, can provide structured learning. Many top broadcast motion artists like Angie Taylor and Evan Abrams generously share their skills through training resources. Dedicated courses to master expressions, 3D lighting, and other complex techniques will provide foundations to meet any creative goals in AE. Investing in quality training pays dividends in launching workflows to new heights.