Hi,

I assume that you have seen the CS5 Classroom... book.  If not, here's a link.

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=premie re+cs5+classroom

I browsed it, last week, and decided to hold off.  This book might work for a beginner.  I'm not really too advanced and I thought the book was not only something that was intended for beginners, but that that is is also sketchy in its presentation.  But, you be the final judge.

There is also the lynda.com tutorial.  Some people might like it and some people might find it to be condescending.  Regardless, if you want to piece together a "course: for a complete beginner, these two tutorials might nicely complement each other.

Also... please ignore my screen name. I tried probably 30 screen names, all unavailable, before I got frustrated and typed "ThereAreNone"!

 

Which was conveniently available. ;P

Thanks for reporting.  I am still chuckling over that!  We see some odd screennames, and I'm sure "unavailable" is the reason for many.  Your creativity, and being rewarded for it, is fun!

Hi Todd,

Thanks for sharing the info on Video2Brain.

Are you referring to an older edition of the course, or did you get it from another source?  bn.com lists the availablity date as 11/11.

Steve

Premiere Pro CS5 CiaB Review:

I'm about halfway through CiaB. I won't say it's a waste of time... I am learning some cool stuff. But  it really doesn't help me much with the overall big picture. I feel too much like I'm doing paint by numbers. But the biggest issue is that it's not very helpful as a reference. For example: one of the things I wanted to know was if you could set up "actions" (like in Photoshop) for transitions that can be used in other projects. When I got to the chapter about transitions, it just walked me through tinkering with them. 3 chapters later I found the section for creating custom video effects, which can be applied to transitions. The problem is that you will never find that in the index unless you know this up front. If I'm in the middle of a project with a deadline, I don't want to play "Where's Waldo" with the index.

Ultimately, I find I learn better if I can dive into my own projects and problem solve when I encounter problems. A truly good beginner's tutorial will give you an overview of the program, explain not only the how, but the why, and most importantly, be usable as a problem solving resource as you encounter problems in the real world. I've never gotten that sort of flexibility from CiaB. The format of all the CiaBs I've tried it too taylored to one type of learning style. It's all very "by-rote"... memorize and regurgitate. My brain, like many creative types, just doesn't fire that way. Plus, it sucks the fun out of the learning process.

I have used Dummies and Missing Manual for other Adobe programs. I love them. They are very non-linear (in that each lesson can stand alone)... you can skip around to find what you need, you can apply them to your own projects instead of using preset templates and materials, and the table of contents and indexes are so well done that they are fabulous as references. CiaB is a straight tutorial, one lesson building on the last... totally linear, making it less than optimal as a reference, especially combined with how the content is written for the specific materials provided on the disk that comes with the book. I'm sure that the authors of the CiaB series are trying to design their material around total novices, but there are other methods for teaching newbies besides paint-by-numbers. I will reference the Dreamweaver CS5 for Dummies: I am a graphic designer by trade but started a new job where web design and video editing were required. I had never done either. I tried learning Dreamweaver a few years back but gave up in disgust... too much code, no instant gratification... I honestly didn't know how other graphic designers wrapped their heads around it. I thought it was a lost cause for me. So, having no choice but to try, I picked up a copy of Dummies for DW CS5... I had a pretty decent looking, 30+ page functional static site up and running in a week. It even behaves in all the major browsers (yes, even IE) and utilizes CSS. It was an easy read, easy to follow, works great as a reference, and managed to teach this hopeless website retard how to get the job done using my own materials (though it's chock full of typos, but I can overlook that). Best of all, it was less than half the price of CiaB. No, it doesn't cover everything and some of the more advanced stuff is glossed over, but for someone looking to get up and running, it's just dandy... and for those things that are glossed over, it at least gives you enough background to know where to go from there.

If you can learn, retain, and apply knowledge gained from a "click the buttons I tell you to and see what happens" teaching technique, you will do fine with CiaB. But that's not me, nor is very many people I know.

If you really want a book, you could review one of the Premiere Elements books.  Of course, you will not be able to work in CS5  like you would work (although some things are conceptually similar) in PE, but these books will give you an idea of how to use things such as green screens.  If you are interested, first ask others here, or Steve Grisetti in the PE forum, for their thoughts on this.

Regardless of whether you get one of those books, you might still want to review one of the videos on Encore.  Some people will rave about its flexibility, or the drag and drop "fun" of the pigwhip, but it is not intuitive.  At least, it isn't when compared to the PE interface for producing your production on media.  You can write your PE production to a DVD or whatever without reading anything.  Good luck with Encore, especially when you need multiple-screen menus.

.