Comments

cpc000cpc wrote on 12/12/2012, 10:09 AM

If you buy the Premium version of MEP you get a number of extras. 

NEW! NewBlueFX Video Essential IV
Make the impossible possible: Transform night into day etc.
NEW! digieffects Phenomena
Create amazingly realistic particle simulations for your video sequences.
NEW! proDAD Adorage 13
Use hundreds of amazing video effects and transitions to create impressive movies and documentaries.

Though you can download a trial version of the program the extras can only be obtained after purchase and registration. Also both the 'Plus' and Premium version have plugin support. I don't know how far they go to cover the range offered by Adobe. See:

http://www.magix.com/us/movie-edit-pro/premium/
 

gandjcarr wrote on 12/12/2012, 11:26 AM

Hi
Magix really does not have an application that compares directly to the AE CS6 product, but components of what AE CS6 does are available from Xara (which is part of Magix) plus as additional plug-ins from NewBlue FX and ProDad.  I have not seen anything that you can purchase that does the same thing as the 3D camera tracker but remember AE CS6 is a $1000 application that really works best with other Adobe products. 
The big advantage of AE CS6 is the level of automation that it offers, and for $1000 it should offer a high level of automation.  You can do most of what the Adobe product does using MEP but you need to understand creating masks, using size, position, section, zoom, chroma keying, alpha channel, keyframe animation, etc.  The Xara products will help with some of the 3D titles and shapes and are very good and easy to use.
I do all of my editing in MEP for two reasons, first I really like the work flow that Magix has designed into the product and second I have either bought or tried pretty much every editor out there and this one is by far the most stable.  For me the Adobe products were one of the least stable (multiple application crashes per day).
So does that mean that I only use MEP?  Actually no, I use many other editors because when you purchase some of the premium versions you get many tools included that are either not available as MEP plug ins or as standalone products would cost a small fortune.
For example, I recently purchased Corel VideoStudio pro X5 Ultimate.  As for the Corel product, the workflow and approach is completely different than MEP and I don't like it nearly as much.  I really bought Corel for the Boris Graffiti title program and the ProDad Roto Pen application. I also wanted a good stabilizer and the Mercali stabilizer was also part of the package that I bought.
I can easily integrate those three things into MEP by creating the effects and titles in Corel exporting them as a video file and then importing the video file into MEP.  To purchase, Boris Graffiti costs $299 on its own and is not available as a MEP plug in, the Mercalli stabilizer is available as a MEP plug in and costs $249, finally, right now, Rotopen is exclusive to Corel so I have no idea what it will cost if it becomes generally available, I would guess at least $100.  So I paid $60 for the Corel ultimate package with all of the above included.  It is a little more work, but any one of the above products are well worth the price I paid, not to mention all 3.  plus with the Corel product I get additional transitions, effects and basic titles that are not included in MEP.  I also got one of the NewBlue video essentials apps worth about $149 and ProDad VitaScene v2 LE worth $149 neither of which I really wanted at the time but now I have them too in case I need them.
Is the additional time and hassle worth it?  To me definitely.  I prefer doing whole projects in MEP but taking advantage of the huge cost saving of getting the new applications and effects.

To add to what Carl has mentioned, the Digieffects Phenomena is something that looks good to me and even though you cannot purchase just Phenomena right now from Digieffects, their cheapest product is $99, Prodad Adorage goes for around $100 and NewBlue Essential packages gor for $149 so great value if these are things you want, not to mention the other improvements in MEP 2013.

I hope this helps, sorry it was so long.

Good Luck,

George

ayanefan wrote on 12/12/2012, 2:54 PM

Thank you for your answer ganjcarr and cpc!  I really appreciate all the info,  I am now trolling the sites to see what is the best for me.  :)   Although I am trying to get back into video editing, the technology has really run away from me, you really have to keep up on it!  I now know how a grandfather feels like trying to figure out how to use a remote control  ;) .

Ayanefan.

gandjcarr wrote on 12/12/2012, 3:00 PM

Hi Ayanefan,

I know excactly how you feel.  I am a grandfather but lucky for me I have been doing this most of my life.  So I have kept up with the technology over the years so I really can imagine what you are going through if you have dropped off the scene for a year or two.  This stuff changes month by month. LOL.

Hang in there friend, if you know the basics, you will get it back, and after all, you have your friends here on this forum to help out if you have any problems.

George

cpc000cpc wrote on 12/12/2012, 4:09 PM

Replying to a different question I found that the UK site http://www.magix.com/gb/free-download/ offers more trial version choices than the US site I listed in my first reply here.