Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium Success Story
Underground Logic rough the years with Adobe
One of the biggest post-production houses in the Philippines and a leading visual e ects service provider in the region, Underground Logic a ributes its success to Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 Production Premium. Underground Logic started using Adobe products as an e ective alternative to more expensive proprietary systems at a fraction of the cost without compromising quality, with as much as 400% Underground Logic savings. Manila, Philipines www.undergroundlogic.com To this day, Adobe’s tools are instrumental in ensuring the quality and e ciency that Underground Logic is known for. e production house was awarded the prestigious title of “Post-Production House of the Year” for two years running in 2009 and 2010 by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies-Philippines.
Keeping up with the times One of the biggest challenges in today’s post-production landscape is the volume of data and the variety of acquisition formats available. Being able to adjust to increasing client demands quickly is critical to Underground Logic’s success. Over the last few years, Adobe Premiere® Pro has grown to keep pace as the proliferation of formats makes new demands on the industry. Movie formats from the cheapest mobile phone to high end production cameras, can easily be integrated during pre-production to create moving storyboards or specic edits that can be used as a guide during the project. In the editing phase, format constraints are now a thing of the past. Adobe Media Encoder, which integrates beautifully into Premiere Pro, delivers just about any format that Underground Logic’s clients need. Adrian says “Real time editing of native R3D 4k les was invaluable to the process. is cut down many editing hours as opposed to working with proxy les. Using Adobe Media Encoder also reduced a lot of time spent on exporting.” Adrian Tecson, Managing Director of Underground Logic, says, ” Being long time Adobe so ware users, we saw CS5.5 Production Premium develop into one of the best tools in the industry today. e beauty of the so ware is that it is sensitive to the trends of the production industry as a whole, and therefore moves towards what users need and ask for. And Adobe listens.” Underground Logic’s VFX and Motion Graphics Artists depend on the Adobe Production Premium CS 5.5 Suite to create stunning visuals for their TVC and lm clients
Challenges Flexibility and customization embodied ● Variety of acquisition formats – some Underground Logic has one of the top VFX teams in the region today, and they prefer to use needed to be transcoded or converted before they could be used workows and methods developed in-house. ey use image sequences heavily in their day to for editing, color grading or visual day operation, and they have found that no other tool handles this beer than Adobe Premiere e ects (VFX) work Pro.
● Working with proprietary and closed systems was impractical and From the engineering point of view, Adobe's strength lies in supporting hardware from a wide in exible variety of vendors. As the only Windows-based post-production house in the local market, Underground Logic is passionate about the latest changes and upgrades in both hardware and ● Exporting the nished edit for multiple delivery formats such as so ware. Adobe therefore gives them a distinct advantage. broadcast, web and mobile devices was tedious and render-intensive Now that Adobe supports major post-production hardware products like RED, Blackmagic Design, Nvidia CUDA graphic cards and Intel processors (to name a few), the team is able to ● Work ow integration with third-party systems was restrictive, time focus on what clients need, not just on keeping up with new technology. consuming, and oen clumsy Interoperability and collaboration in every aspect ● Using Red-Cine on RED R3D for conversion of les was tremendously Since Adobe was integrated into their business, workow has become smoother. For example, time consuming they can import a le in Adobe® A er E ects® CS5.5 coming in from Photoshop-created graphics. It is easy to toggle back and forth between applications while revising the project. Solution ● Upgrade to the latest version of Underground Logic’s Art Director / VFX Supervisor, Ryan Jose Ticsay, says, “Without Adobe, we Adobe Creative Suite Production would be nothing. For me, interoperability is the key. Once Adobe started bridging the gaps Premium between Illustrator, Photoshop, A er E ects and Premiere, everything fell into place. It was like ● Adopt Adobe Media Encoder to input the power of four so ware applications merging into one.” and output all delivery formats Adrian explains, “ e ability of Premiere Pro to recognize layers is a big thing for us. Knowing ● Non-proprietary Windows-based workstations were easily built, and how closely tied Premiere Pro is to A er E ects and Photoshop, we can import Premiere Pro customized for speci c work ows sequences directly into A er E ects. is level of integration was only possible with 3rd party harnessing the latest PC hardware plug-ins,in the past, and was not as seamless as now.” technology He sums it up by saying “ e smooth interoperability between the Adobe products has Bene ts continuously proven its worth in the post-production workow, giving the artists and editors the ● Working directly with native formats resulted in 200% time savings tools they need to truly collaborate over a network. As every post production professional knows, being able to nish on time is key to any project. e speed and scalability of A er E ects ● Adobe Media Encoder makes le and the exibility and e ciency of Premiere Pro allows the Underground Logic team to spend encoding faster and reliable more time in creating, not rendering."
● Interoperability between Adobe applications improves e ciency
● Working on R3D les with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 means no rendering is required Underground Logic’s Art Director, Ryan Jose Ticsay, designing the opening titles for the movie e Road using Adobe Illustrator and A er E ects.
Opening Shots of the horror im e Road, which was edited entirely on Adobe Premiere CS 5.5 in 4k R3D.
“ e smooth Nestle 100 – A Landmark Project interoperability between To celebrate their 100 Years’ anniversary in the Philippines, Nestle brought together 10 of the top the Adobe products has local TV Commercial directors for a prestigious landmark project – a series of short lms featuring continuously proven its Nestle products such as Milo and Nescafe. worth in the Underground Logic was responsible for post-production on 2 of the 12 short lms, kinescoping, post-production and eventually preparing the lms for distribution to Cannes. ey were shown free of charge in work ow, giving the national cinemas for a time and also telecast as a special anthology on Philippine television in artists and editors the June 2011. tools they need to truly Adobe Premiere Pro’s ability to work with a myriad of video formats proved very useful during collaborate over a this extensive project. Premiere Pro allowed the team to export and output the lm in di erent network. As every post delivery formats, ranging from low resolution materials for email and approval, right up to production professional Blu-Ray DVD and les for lm printing. knows, being able to Adobe Media Encoder helped the Underground Logic team convert nal output les even faster nish on time is key to than real time. is was extremely benecial as the deadline drew near. any project. e speed First full length feature lm on Adobe Premiere Pro, “ e Road” and scalability of Adobe A er Eects and the Slated for Philippine release on November 30, 2011 and international release in 2012, “ e Road” exibility and eciency could very well be the Philippines’ rst local full length mainstream feature lm to be done of Premiere Pro allows entirely on Premiere Pro. the Underground Logic “ e Road” is about a 12 year old crime case that was never resolved. In it, three teenagers went team to spend more time missing on an abandoned road. In the course of the reopened investigation, gruesome stories of in creating, not abduction and murders are uncovered, which may nally reveal what happened on the haunted road. rendering." Director Yam Laranas shares his experience. “Adobe Premiere Pro has every right to a x the Pro Adrian Tecson claim in its name. Working real time on HD and 2K is a standard for the program. Editing a feature Managing Director, lm in Adobe Premiere Pro is way beer than Apple Final Cut - hands down! My workow just Underground Logic got beer, with time savings of 30%”. For example, a very common audio format like MP3 in Final Cut Pro requires rendering in the sequence for it to play. But not on Premiere Pro which has made mixing multiple formats possible. “As a creative tool, Adobe Production Premium has been invaluable to the growth and operation of Underground Logic. It has saved us a huge amount of time and money and helped us excel in our work while giving us the exibility to adjust our work ow to the client's needs. I can’t imagine Underground Logic geing to where we are now, the country's top post-production house, without Adobe products as the center of our tool set."
Adrian Tecson Managing Director, Underground Logic
Toolkit Adobe makes Underground Logic Future Proof Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium. Components used include: Looking to the future, Adrian is optimistic about the opportunities Adobe will bring to his • Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 company. “One word comes to mind when I think of CS5.5 Production Premium – • Adobe After Effects CS5.5 commitment. Adobe has shown its commitment to the cra of post-production.” • Adobe Media Encoder CS5.5 • Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended • Adobe Illustrator CS5 “Post production is a very volatile business. Technology is moving so fast that purchases made today can be completely obsolete within a year. You simply can’t a ord to rely on vendors or partners who don’t understand your business. I believe it’s not all about making money, but rather about the love for this industry and all the professionals that live by it on a day to day basis. at’s why I have so much condence in Adobe – they are commied to the industry.”
“It’s hard to imagine Underground Logic operating without Adobe. With Adobe alongside us, For more information we are sure that we will continue to have the best tools available in the industry.” www.adobe.com/products/ creativesuite/production
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