I've just done a blog post talking about the software I find essential, but I'd be interested (for a follow-up post) on what other people use - especially if it's not the obvious (Premiere etc) but more obscure tools.
Essential software
- Thread starter ZolaScope
- Start date
I think if you want to go all the way and consider what should be Essential for any filmmaker to handle just about any kind of need, then the first thing you must have is the basic set of Adobe programs, even if you edit with something else.
Get Photoshop, as it can have useful linking abilities with both AE and Premiere Pro. Or if you'd prefer something else, Corel Painter or even GIMP will be quite helpful for creating elements from footage to use in an effects compositor.
Get After Effects or Nuke, as those seem to be the two most popular compositors. But again, AE is good when you want to pipe things directly from Premiere over to AE and back, and that can save you a lot of time when working through a long sequence of composite shots and color grading.
I think one program that should be a given for everyone is Davinci Resolve, because not only is it currently the most recognized color grading program, but it is completely free (minus 4K and Stereo 3D capabilities), and it has a built-in editor for those looking for a good free program to do minor edits with when they don't have something else. Very powerful tool.
For audio, Pro Tools is perhaps one of the best choices for its support and its broad scope of abilities, but Adobe Audition will handle most of your single track editing needs, which once again can be piped out through Premiere into Audition and back again.
If you want to get into 3D graphics and more complex vfx, then you cannot go wrong with Blender. It creates beautiful renders with a very user-friendly interface. And once again, it is completely free. I'm actually combining Blender with AE and the Video-Copilot plugin, Element 3D, to produce some fantastic shots with almost none of the render wait-time. All of the shadows, highlights, reflections, Ambient-Occlusion, and textural shaders are rendered in real-time: much like a game-engine I imagine. So the effects you can get will be comparable to say the PS3 or even PS4, but that's far better than trying to produce something in Maya, which more often then not, looks like PS2 graphics if you don't spend the time and the effort to get a very detailed model and a very well lit scene.
It's also useful to have a Particle System generator like the Trapcode Suite for AE on hand, as that can be far easier to control and manipulate than a particle generator in Blender, Maya, or Cinema 4D, at least as far as I've seen. And again, it's far more real-time than those other softwares.
And if you want to have a broad spectrum of cheap and affordable environmental assets for your green-screen backgrounds and such, you can't go wrong with DAZ 3D: where every 3D model, character, or environment only costs the purchase price. And then it can be used anytime, anywhere, for commercial and non-commercial reasons, as long as you don't use it in a video-game, and especially if its not open-source. Otherwise, you can use anything you buy in movies, artwork, and anything else 2D based. Which has to be one of the biggest life-saving bargains I have ever seen for Royalty Free assets.
So basically, I think if you have Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Element 3D (Video-Copilot), the Trapcode Suite (Red Giant), Adobe Audition, Blender, and DAZ 3D, you're pretty much set to do almost anything.
P.S.
Oh, and make sure you get a digital drawing tablet. Trying to Rotoscope, do color touch-ups, draw effects assets, or other complex gestural things can be an absolute nightmare if you try to only use a mouse.
Get Photoshop, as it can have useful linking abilities with both AE and Premiere Pro. Or if you'd prefer something else, Corel Painter or even GIMP will be quite helpful for creating elements from footage to use in an effects compositor.
Get After Effects or Nuke, as those seem to be the two most popular compositors. But again, AE is good when you want to pipe things directly from Premiere over to AE and back, and that can save you a lot of time when working through a long sequence of composite shots and color grading.
I think one program that should be a given for everyone is Davinci Resolve, because not only is it currently the most recognized color grading program, but it is completely free (minus 4K and Stereo 3D capabilities), and it has a built-in editor for those looking for a good free program to do minor edits with when they don't have something else. Very powerful tool.
For audio, Pro Tools is perhaps one of the best choices for its support and its broad scope of abilities, but Adobe Audition will handle most of your single track editing needs, which once again can be piped out through Premiere into Audition and back again.
If you want to get into 3D graphics and more complex vfx, then you cannot go wrong with Blender. It creates beautiful renders with a very user-friendly interface. And once again, it is completely free. I'm actually combining Blender with AE and the Video-Copilot plugin, Element 3D, to produce some fantastic shots with almost none of the render wait-time. All of the shadows, highlights, reflections, Ambient-Occlusion, and textural shaders are rendered in real-time: much like a game-engine I imagine. So the effects you can get will be comparable to say the PS3 or even PS4, but that's far better than trying to produce something in Maya, which more often then not, looks like PS2 graphics if you don't spend the time and the effort to get a very detailed model and a very well lit scene.
It's also useful to have a Particle System generator like the Trapcode Suite for AE on hand, as that can be far easier to control and manipulate than a particle generator in Blender, Maya, or Cinema 4D, at least as far as I've seen. And again, it's far more real-time than those other softwares.
And if you want to have a broad spectrum of cheap and affordable environmental assets for your green-screen backgrounds and such, you can't go wrong with DAZ 3D: where every 3D model, character, or environment only costs the purchase price. And then it can be used anytime, anywhere, for commercial and non-commercial reasons, as long as you don't use it in a video-game, and especially if its not open-source. Otherwise, you can use anything you buy in movies, artwork, and anything else 2D based. Which has to be one of the biggest life-saving bargains I have ever seen for Royalty Free assets.
So basically, I think if you have Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Element 3D (Video-Copilot), the Trapcode Suite (Red Giant), Adobe Audition, Blender, and DAZ 3D, you're pretty much set to do almost anything.
P.S.
Oh, and make sure you get a digital drawing tablet. Trying to Rotoscope, do color touch-ups, draw effects assets, or other complex gestural things can be an absolute nightmare if you try to only use a mouse.
For effects and compositing, I've used Blender for around 15 years. I learned After Effects about 5 years ago and it's been great until recently. The latest releases have been buggy and crash prone. I've switched over to Fusion from Blackmagic Design. It is right up there with Nuke as far as use in the industry and there is a free version available that will do pretty much anything an independent would need.
Not software, per se, but I simply couldn't live without Colorista. And Neat Video has saved me on more than one occasion.
I would add Particle Illusion to the special effects package and Boris Effects to special effects and title work.
Besides them, a good digital drawing tablet and touch screen with a stylus pen. But, these are hardware essentials.
And, for those looking to work in the TV industry one day, you must know AVID Media Composer as your editing software.
Besides them, a good digital drawing tablet and touch screen with a stylus pen. But, these are hardware essentials.
And, for those looking to work in the TV industry one day, you must know AVID Media Composer as your editing software.
That depends on your preferred NLE platform and what you deem essential. (Loads of people will never use particle FX and for a lot of people the simple title effects you can create i.e. in Premiere Pro suffice. But when moving into the action, SF, VFX or motion graphics domain a particle based effect is indeed essential.)
If you use After Effects, you don't need Boris Effects and for Particle Illusion there are plugin options like Red Giant's Particular.
I agree.
I can see where Particle Illusion could be more user-friendly and could provide immediate results for minor things. But it neither looks professional nor realistic when compared to Trapcode Particular and its three-dimensional work-space. Particular also likely has a lot more physics options to get the result you want when trying to create smoke trails, water spouts, welding sparks, and even just some snow.
Well, if you use Media Composer, AVID gives you Boris Effects with it. The rest of us have to get Boris Effects separably.
Particle Illusion has a great library of all sorts of Sci-Fi effects. That can be a time savor. A good digital tablet is essential for original designs for titles and special effects.
Particle Illusion has a great library of all sorts of Sci-Fi effects. That can be a time savor. A good digital tablet is essential for original designs for titles and special effects.