NAB will see the official debut of Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects 25.2 with AI workflow features and dozens of improvements that pro editors and motion designers have asked for moving out of beta.
Las Vegas sees the conclusion of a cycle that started all the way back in October when Adobe first showed some of the latest Firefly AI features coming to Premiere Pro and the rest of its stable of creative apps. Since then they’ve been optimised and productised, moved into the company’s very active beta program, and now they hit the mainstream release with the launch of v25.2.
4K Generative Extend probably heads the list of Premiere Pro features. Powered by Adobe Firefly, Premiere Pro can now seamlessly add up to two seconds of extra 4K frames so users have enough media to cover transitions, hold on an emotional reaction for an extra beat, or add in missing ambient sounds and/or room tone (audio runs up to 10 seconds). Generative Extend works in the background while users continue to edit and clips are marked with Content Credentials so viewers know where AI was used.
Generative Extend is available now at no cost. After a limited time, Generative Extend will consume Firefly generative credits, which start at $9.99 for 2000. The price will vary based on the format, frame-rate, and resolution of video.
AI-powered Media Intelligence and an all-new Search panel has proved popular with beta testers, allowing them to search hours of footage in seconds. The content of clips is automatically recognized, including objects, locations, camera angles, and more. That means users can use natural language search terms to describe anything and no longer need to create string outs with selects, mark sequences and clips, or rely on their memory of the shoot to find what you need.
Visuals, spoken words in dialog, or embedded metadata such as shoot date or camera type can all be found in one place. Media analysis is fast and happens on the user’s own system, so doesn’t need an active internet connection (or presumably generative credits) to run.
Away from AI, Premiere Color Management, meanwhile, transforms original log and raw camera files directly to SDR or HDR – without needing LUTs and works automatically for most camera formats as soon as footage is imported.
If working with select formats, proxies, or log content purchased online, it’s easy to tag the appropriate color space for batches of clips right from the bins. Additionally, Premiere Color Management provides users with a new wide-gamut color pipeline using industry-standard ACEScct as the working color space.
The default preset, Direct Rec.709, provides access to a color pipeline similar to previous versions of Premiere Pro so legacy projects open and look as expected. To unlock the capabilities of the new wide-gamut color pipeline, all users have to do is simply select any of the three new “Wide Gamut” presets.
There’s a stack more in 25.2 too:
Plus, the company says it has been working with NVIDIA to introduce faster than real-time playback for popular formats including H.264 and HEVC 10-bit 4:2:2. Editors using Premiere Pro (beta) with newer Windows systems get GPU-powered decode acceleration using NVIDIA Blackwell GPU Architecture. That means working with camera originals instead of proxies, smoother timeline responsiveness, and reduced CPU load.
There are plenty of new features coming to After Effects 25.2 as well.
High Performance Preview Playback is a new caching system that utilizes your computer’s RAM and local disks together, so After Effects can cache and preview your entire composition. Adobe says it is one of the biggest performance improvements in the history of After Effects and will allow users to preview longer compositions without pausing and waiting for After Effects to re-cache.
There’s a bunch of new 3D tools. With new Animated Environment Lights, you can wrap your 3D comp with moving light made from any video or animation. Artists can use background plates, 360-degree videos, selected layers, or even an entire comp to illuminate 3D models with reflections and shadows that move. 3D FBX models can also now be used natively in After Effects, making millions more 3D models available users.
Also new is:
All new Premiere Pro and After Effects features are now generally available today at the usual Creative Cloud price points. Premiere Pro will offer complimentary generations with Generative Extend for a limited time.