Probably one of the most difficult choices in video processing is choosing between Premier or After Effects software. A search on the Adobe site can give us good clues to answer this question. Of course, these two softwares seem to have a lot in common technically and are generally similar in many ways; But abilities do not always determine superiority. Due to the subtle differences between the two, they can be better introduced in different situations. As such, examining the key differences between After Effects and Premier will help you better understand the advantages of either software in different situations, and will have a positive impact on your final decision.
Timeline
There are many differences between the features and editing tools of these two softwares, but we start the comparison from the timeline, which is the key component of any editing software. Premiere Timeline has a lot of details and has extensive capabilities for managing and moving between clips and files of a large project. Aftereffect timeline, on the other hand, gives you fewer capabilities to work with multiple clips at the same time, but instead allows you to interact with project components in a simpler, more user-friendly and faster way.
But to be honest, Timeline Premiere is better and more professional for the editor due to its more features, and of course its user interface is such that it speeds up the editor much faster; Although this timeline has its complexities, learning these things will make working with it enjoyable and, of course, much faster. So in the first step of this comparison, we must say that Premier is the winner and provides its users with a better timeline for editing a video and achieving the final result.
Edit
In addition to the timeline, Premier has a user interface as well as a set of tools that help you edit and make various changes to videos, both audio and video. Of course, this is not surprising at all. Because Premier is one of the best and first video editing software. On the other hand, although Aftereffect is also an editing software, it is neither user-friendly nor does it have a complete set of tools. Therefore, it is not a good environment for editing large projects.
Perhaps the most important difference between the two software is that Premier offers a complete suite and can be used for any video editing project; Instead, Aftereffect focuses more on special effects and motion graphics. In addition, After Effects has a complex environment that makes it difficult for users. Although video editing is possible with this tool, it must be admitted that it is slow and difficult.
Sound mixer
Nowadays, just as the visual space of a video is very important, so is the audio part. In this regard, Premiere has a powerful sound mixer that can be used to control and manage the audio output of a project in the best way, and even for this purpose, use the standard VST3 plug-in. It is worth mentioning that After Effects is deprived of these facilities and delicacies, and in this part, it is behind the Premier. Of course, these can not be considered as a reason for the better Premiere or worse aftereffect. Rather, it indicates the practical differences between the two softwares.
Mercury Playback Engine
Equipped with this engine may not be the key feature of a software, but Premiere uses this engine to show the difference that it must rely entirely on hardware or software for its affairs.
For example, if you have a graphics card supported by the MPE engine, you can view clips and sequences throughout your project timeline and play them in the preview window without waiting for them to render. This makes the video editing process much faster; Possibility that does not exist in After Effects at all, and causes After Effects to be one step behind the Premier in the discussion of video editing.
Easily edit multiple camera outputs from a scene at the same time
In terms of video editing, this feature is a point that After Effects has nothing to say about. Premier lets you switch between multiple cameras and sync the timeline between images taken by each of these cameras, and simply switch from one camera to another.
file management
Many people ignore this aspect, but the fact is that file management is very important for the success of the project. Here, too, Premier is superior to After Effects, and in its media management section, it has features that allow the user to edit more easily and in a more organized way.
The essence of file management features in After Effects is based on special effects and motion graphics projects. So when you want to manage the files of a video editing project with it, the work will be much slower.
Masking
We finally got to the point where After Effects is more advanced than Premiere and offers better features, as After Effects has unique masking capabilities; For example, creating masks that track and cover different scenes is one of the most basic tasks in which After Effects is perfect, and with this technique, it makes the task of creating special effects very simple. On the other hand, none of these features are easy to use in Premier; in fact, the Premier user interface makes it difficult to use masks, and when you use them, the editing process is slow.
Camera Tracker
After Effects 3D Camera Detector is a great tool for repeating camera movements in a scene. Using this technique, new layers that match the main scene can be added to the image and the composition of the images can be done in the best and easiest way possible; Something that Premier cannot do.
Effects
In order to apply effects such as motion, color adjustment, blurring or transparency, shadow transfer, and the like, there is a special set of After Effects tools that doubles the popularity of this software, and we must say neither Premier nor any software Others in this field will not be able to compete with After Effects.
The user interface and work environment of this software is designed in such a way that users, whether using native and original aftereffect tools or using various plugins, can apply their desired changes to their video projects.
Not to mention that Aftereffect is software designed to create special visual effects. This software provides a rich set of tools by providing an unlimited number of effects and animation methods and transitions between different video pieces. These tools ensure that these tasks are performed very easily for them.
Education
In terms of training, both software are the same and working with both software requires training. For this reason, aftereffect classes are held for aftereffect education and premier classes are held for premier education. These training courses are also available in my country, Iran. In Iran, both of these softwares are very popular and many people come to the professors’ class to learn them.
It can be said that Aftereffect and Premiere are almost the same in terms of difficulty and ease of learning.
Conclusion
The comparison between Premier and After Effects may be similar in many ways to the analogy between Word and Excel software. You can also set text in Excel. On the other hand, in Word, you can create a spreadsheet by creating a table; But the end result is very time consuming and does not provide the quality that was expected when using the software in the first place. Perhaps this analogy will help to understand the differences between Premiere and aftereffect.
The result of our comparison was that both softwares are among the most professional tools available in the field of video and video editing, each focusing on a specific part and complementing each other in some way; This means that to make some changes to the video, it is better to use Adobe Premiere and in some other cases After Effects. Of course, do not forget that Premier is the best option for video editing and after effects, the best tool for creating extraordinary visual effects.
