Premiere for switchers

Adobe has a big push to attract new users and switchers away Apple. It seems that Adobe has a window until a probable late 2011 update to ProApps (various references), with Steve Jobs messages (calling the next versions "awesome" then apparently downgraded to "great") working on user nerves. But rumors work both ways, with scenarios of Microsoft buying Adobe and Avid, and early switchers taking a longer view and switching back to Final Cut [update: Todd Kopriva noted that this article was based on experience with CS4, though workflow issues might remain even with better XML in CS5].

To lure users, Adobe has posted a video series on Switching to Premiere Pro CS5 with Karl Soule and Kevin Monahan. Monahan, who with Sharon Franklin and others started the first FCP user group (SF Cutters) in 2000 and had been in quality assurance various times at Apple, now has steady work promoting Premiere as Todd Kopriva's replacement on the Adobe Learning Resources team. And as Kevin notes on his blog, there's a 4-Part Premiere Pro & Switcher Series Coming Next Week!

[Update: PVC has a roundup of the recordings in Switching to Adobe Premiere Pro-A 4-part switcher series.]

Here's a sample from the Adobe TV Switcher series from Soule and Monahan, on keyboard shortcuts in Premiere and how to customize the keyboard to make it more familiar for Final Cut Pro users:

Update: here's a nice demo via Karl Soule (he's using Windows, which may explain his amazement about people still using Final Cut),

CS5: Cutting off the Card from Clint Milby on Vimeo.

Update 2: the video above ended up in an article on PVC. Though the title's Premiere = "salvation" is over-the-top, Karl Soule added these comments,

"There still are some effects that require rendering, and Clint uses some of these effects in his video. However, the following effects DON’T require any rendering in a properly configured system:

Positioning
Scaling
Opacity
Blending Modes (including 25 blending modes from Photoshop)
Fast Color Corrector
Three-Way Color Corrector
RGB Color Corrector
RGB Curves
Gaussian Blur
Sharpen
Color Balance
Gamma Correction
Ultra Key (Chroma Keying)
multiple Garbage Matte Effects
Track Matte
Noise
Basic 3D
Drop Shadow
Crop
Edge Feather
Dissolves
Dip to color effects
Levels

This isn’t a full list, but should give you some idea of the effects that are real-time, and don’t require rendering.Now, what is a “properly configured system”? It just means that the system has a recommended graphics card, like a $300 GTX 470 card. These effects are all GPU-accelerated, and won’t give the “red bar” on the timeline."

Update 3: maybe someday a Premiere fan will get a rebuttal from an Avid user, like the posts by FCP fans; see Dylan Reeve on What IS the big deal about FCP?