Workflow recommendation

I'm a 3d animator and all my stuff is rendered out as still image sequences. I have for years just imported these into premiere and worked on them directly as I haven't had much to do in the way of editing. Playback was choppy, but acceptable. I'm now doing a 1980p project that just kills premiere. I understand that gpu acceleration is only for playback so I want to change up my workflow to take advantage of cs5's gpu capabilities. I assume I have to encode the still sequences into something that plays nice with premiere. Any recommendations? Ideally I would like to set it up so that I render my sequences out as stills, then import them into premiere which would automatically encode them into something it likes and then, when exporting, goes back to the original stills for the best quality. Is this easy / hard to set up? Even possible? Or Is there an essentially lossless codec I could use to encode my sequences so that I don't need to go back to the source when I'm rendering out? Thank in advance for any help. ps - I have a pretty high-end system with a fancy gpu if that has any effect on the best codec to use.

I have no experience with 3-D animation, but I use Cineform Neo 4K intermediate codec for all HD editing. The Cineform products have cutting edge 3-D features, including their First Light program which comes with the package.
I don't know, when you refer to 3-D, if you are meaning 3-D as in Maya, or if you mean 3-D output, as in 3-D viewing.
The Cineform 3-D features relate to the latter sort of 3-D, if you are actually outputting 2-D, Cineform will handle the footage for editing as it would any other HD footage.

Similar Messages

Workflow recommendations

More of a workflow/solution question, but maybe Robohelp is best suited, or Framemaker > Robohelp...
We have a product on the market and some fairly in-depth manuals regarding its use.
Currently the manuals are authored in Word, converted to PDFs, and available on the web.
We'd like to put together a help system.
Our current thinking is to just re-author the manuals in HTML and put those on the web, which makes for fairly easy searching and access.
Sell me on using Robohelp instead ;-)
My biggest concern is updates. If we reauthor the manuals in Framemaker, or keep them in Word, then publish to Robohelp...
...then we have an update, that would require another 'publish to Robohelp' process, then replacing the online files, correct?
There's no automatic...link to a source file in Robohelp, right?
That's an advantage to the straight HTML approach, I think. We update the live documents (i.e. via Dreamweaver) and that's that, no further effort.
Any insights, recommendations, etc. appreciated!
Erik

Hi Erik
RoboHelp 8 ushered in an ability to link a Word document to RoboHelp so that ongoing maintenance may occur in Word. In the RoboHelp Project Manager pod the icon will reflect the status. For example, if the Word document is updated, the icon changes to alert the RoboHelp author their HTML copy is different. They then right-click and update the Word to suck into RoboHelp the changed content.
Keep in mind that I'm only aware of this. I've played with it on a fundamental level. I'm not sure what happens if you have links that you construct from the Word content that exists as HTML in RoboHelp. They may get wiped out during an update.
Also, it behooves anyone using this approach to be rather diligent in use of applying Headings and other formatting properly in Word.
Cheers... Rick
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Workflow recommendations for SONY EX3/DV PAL 16:9/& a bit of AVCHD

Hi there,
I'm considering buying a SONY EX3 camera for an HD documentary project.
However, this would be a one-off (for the moment) and the bulk of my work is still PAL DV, as most TV in the UK is SD. So, if I am to use the EX3 as my main workhorse over my Z1, as I understand it, the EX3 can shoot in 720P 25 (Progressive) and 720P 50 (interlaced), and there are easy set ups for these formats within Final Cut Pro once the Sony plug in software for the EX3 is installed. FCP will then edit this material natively.
What I'm not clear about though, is whether there are any disadvantages to a workflow that would see me doing this with 720P media in a sequence, and then outputting to PAL DV through either compressor or using the PAL DV settings through exporting a QT PAL DV movie for my SD work.
For example, are the render times working with 720P media slower than in a PAL DV sequence? What about the file sizes of the media for 720P 25 or 720P 50 - are they much larger than PAL DV? And say I wanted to use in the same project - some footage from a Panasonic GH1 camera which shoots in AVCHD, what would be the best workflow?
Sorry for all the questions and thanks for your help. I've searched the web but can't seem to find the right answers.
Cheers for now,
Ant (an HD newbie)

as I understand it, the EX3 can shoot in 720P 25 (Progressive) and 720P 50 (interlaced)
720p25 and 720p50 are both progressive formats, neither are interlaced ... the former is a 25 frame per second format, the latter is a 50 frame per second format. If you are recording 720p with the intention to master to a PAL SD format (50 interlaced fields per second) especially if you intend to intercut it with interlaced footage, then I would recommend shooting 720p50 in order to achieve a more natural interlaced motion in your target.
are the render times working with 720P media slower than in a PAL DV sequence?
Yes. Quite apart from the fact that there are a lot more pixels to be manipulated, there is also the nature of the native XDCAM EX codec ... which is an MPEG2 based codec, and is far more computationally intensive both for decoding and encoding. However working with XDCAM in FCP can be alleviated by setting your render codec to Apple ProRes 422, or indeed by setting your sequence codec to Apple ProRes 422. You could also use a third party capture device such as a Matrox, AJA or Blackmagic card to capture your source footage directly into Apple ProRes 422 or other suitable intermediate codec.
What about the file sizes of the media for 720P 25 or 720P 50 - are they much larger than PAL DV?
Yes. First, 720p25 and 720p50 are the same frame size, being 1280x720. DV PAL is 720x576.
And say I wanted to use in the same project - some footage from a Panasonic GH1 camera which shoots in AVCHD, what would be the best workflow?
Your best bet is to capture all footage into a single intermediate format such as Apple ProRes 422 and then work natively in FCP in that intermediate codec.
Best
Andy

FCP Workflow recommendations for dual SD and HD delivery

What would be the best workflow for this scenario: I need to shoot in 1080p 23.97 and deliver in both SD and HD. I would like to shoot with a Sony HD900. I don't have the fastest/largest drives....using Lacie and G-Tech 800 and 400 Firewire drives. Is it best to have my footage ingested using a ProRes 422 codec for offline? Any other recommendations? Thanks

400 Firewire and 1080p could have problems playing nice. It could work but your system will mostly have issues with the system being able to play the footage off the drive without any pauses or hiccups. This will be especially evident when you have drives daisy chained together.
I would edit in HD and then convert your HD final sequence to SD. A Kona card will do an excellent job of this if you are going to tape.
Compressor can fulfill any web needs. As far as Compressor converting HD to SD for DVD I have found it to be consistently inconsistent. Sometimes it looks awesome, sometimes it doesn't. You can play with frame controls but render times will go up considerably.
Worse case scenario we have down-converted HD to SD tape with a Kona card and then encoded for DVD with a hardware encoding card or rolled it back in to FC SD and then exported via Compressor.

Voice Over workflow recommendations

Hi,
I trying to find the most efficient way to get a good voice over in FCE. I used the voice-over tool in FCE but it seemed to be really noisy. I'm using a condenser mic running through a E-MU 0404 USB interface. What I ended up using was Garageband--the sound quality was really good, but to see the movie for the voiceover, I had to export the movie from FCE and then import to Garageband. I could then view the movie and record the voice over with GB.
This works, but I'm wondering if anyone has a better method.
thanks

Thanks skalicki--I swear I checked that (famous last words . I just tried again and made sure I was getting the proper input from my mic and that sound is very good. That must have been the problem!

Workflow recommendations to conserve data usage

hey i was wondering when yall would put ps touch on for phones. like the iphone. because thats my new thing ill be getting. i already have ps touch on my ipad 2 16 gb. um. i am wondering. i know iphone users have to have a data plan to acces there data. so for verizon. you can pay $30 for a 2 of data, and i am wondering. lets say i had an un finished project. and its in psd or psdx file format. now. i am going out to dinner with the family. and i dont want to bring in my ipad. so i just bring my iphone. now i have ps touch on the iphone. if i acces my adobe creative cloud through the app. will it kill my data plan to dowload that psd for psdx file from the adobe creative cloud? over wifi i can do that with no problem. but becasue i will be paying for data. my phone bill will go up. so my other question. is which file format do you recomend just for ps touch on the iphone? to edit and work in.
right now. i have the basic plan, and i pay $39.99 a month. plus $10 texting for 1000 text. now as i said i am planing to upgrade to an iphone soon. what you think?

Hi Bford225,
This is kind of a hard thing to answer because its hard to know exactly how you intend to use the app and the projects within it. Downloading lots of large images could become pretty data intensive. I guess my advice would be to monitor your usage early on closely to ensure it is not getting excessive and only work with image dimensions that make sense, like image dimensions that match the camera or intended output such as for use online.
-Dave

Translating Copy in FCP: Process recommendations?

Hello all,
I need to translate some titles in Final Cut Pro. In terms of text, I'm simply duplicating the titles, placing them above one another, and disabling (hitting 'V') each one that I do not want at the time. For translated graphics (such as the mottos in logos) I haven't found a good solution.
Does anyone have any workflow recommendations for handling translated text and graphics in FCP that doesn't involve duplicating the project?
Thank you!

Tom, I literally started using FCP about a week ago, so everything is new to me. Thank you very much for this! I would not have come across this function as easily without your recommendation.

Best workflow to produce a film with Premiere/Speedgrade?

I am relatively new to using speedgrade, as the color controls in Premiere have always done the trick for the smaller DVD or web based videos I have been working on. But I am going to be working on a much larger project that has a huge amount of footage. So I am going to use Speedgrade a lot more and need some workflow recommendations.
The short question is "When do I use Speedgrade to color correct and color grade my project?" In some ways, color correcting sounds like it should be done right off the bat, then color grading perhaps later when the final cut is about secure. However, sequences with things like multicam clips will go back and forth during something like a dialog and I will need to edit essentially one camera's footage in entire for that sequence rather than each individual clip cut I use in the sequence. So there, it seems to make sense to color correct/match/grade before I do the edit.
Correcting everything and/or doing color grading before I do any editing doesn't seem to make much sense since I would be editing a lot of footage I likely won't use in even the rough cuts, let alone the final draft.
So I'm looking for some advice from pro/indie film makers or people who have dealt with large projects with hours and hours of footage in dealing with a workflow for color correction and color grading. Can anyone give me a good strategy and workflow here? Thanks.

See the "huge caveat" mentioned in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2105598&#2105598
Karl

Can someone please help me with printing?

Let me preface by saying that I've been using Aperture since 1.5 came out, taken Aperture seminars and became a "Certified Aperture Guy" as defined by Apple, read the books, listened to all the podcasts, belong to AUPN, and posted here, etc. etc. So I THINK I know the basics (god, I hope I do), but yet I cannot get printing to come out right to save my life...BUT IT COMES OUT RIGHT WHEN I PRINT FROM PSE 6 or iPhoto...ARGHH! Why? A million times, Why?
The scoop: I use the HP B9180 printer, calibrate my monitor with Spyder 3, correctly set up the print settings with "Application Managed Colors" and so on. I use the paper/ICC profiles for that printer. I soft-proof in Aperture for that paper I will print on. And yet... there is always something not right. Today it was a purplish/cyan color cast. Yesterday the print colors turned out very unlike the ones on my 24" iMac monitor. They might be too dark, too washed out, less saturated than what I had on the display, etc. I even had poor results when I ordered prints through Aperture -- very washed out, bland. Tested printer...fine. Inks full and test page is perfect.
I'm wasting paper, and asking questions all the time. And I'm really getting fried on this.
The kicker is that my prints come out pretty darn good from iPhoto, Photoshop Elements 6, or when I let the B9180 control the colors instead of Aperture. Why? Why can these apps produce very good results (which shows that I must understand SOMETHING about this process) but Aperture gives me aerobic exercise from my computer to my printer and back half the night?
I've already asked about in-camera color space settings and have been told by several people to go either sRGB or Adobe RGB because it won't matter since "Aperture takes care of all the color management." But still, I have these printing problems with both spaces.
Would shooting only JPGs and using Aperture produce better results? I shoot RAW right now. Does it matter anyway? Thanks for any help or understanding.
Jerry

I calibrated my monitor and then I'm given a profile to set it to. I use this calibrated profile for viewing, right?
Correct.
In a colour matching session irrespective of the ICC-enabled application, the ICC MNTR Monitor profile for the current condition of your digital colour display is the DESTINATION.
In the Apple ColorSync Utility, you will note that peripherals are registered and that registered peripherals have a factory fallback ICC device profile.
A digital colour device can have multiple conditions, for instance, your digital colour display can have different resolution settings and different gamma settings.
When you configure to a condition, you are able to characterise that condition in an ICC device colour profile. In other words, the same hardware is a different colour device for each colour condition.
The ICC colour device profiles for whatever conditions you configure are installed under the factory fallback ICC device profile (the same applies if you have more than one display, for instance).
Note: Your ICC MNTR Monitor profile captures the gamma of the video system in the VCGT Video Card Gamma Tag implemented for ColorSync 2.5 in 1998.
When you subsequently select one of your monitor profiles, the video system is reset to the gamma in that monitor profile.
The ColorSync Team wanted to end the war for the video system caused by conflicting gamma tools that fought for control in the system startup phase.
You are NOT supposed to repeat history by applying a gamma correction at print time in Aperture as in that case the colour appearance is not defined and delimited by your ICC device profiles.
If ten different photography studios using ten different runtime gamma corrections for the same digital original, they will wind up with ten incompatible colour appearances.
Apply a gamma correction atop the ICC colour management system is a lowend solution to the problem of studio lighting. The Profile Connection Space is D50 and a display-to-print viewing condition is supposed to be D50, but if the display is too bright or the lamp that lights the print is too dim then changing the gamma at print time is a lowend solution - but it chaotifies colour communication. A better solution is to learn to set up the studio viewing condition correctly. I posted a link to Joseph Holmes and Andrew Rodney on this forum previously. I don't remember if the Solux workflow recommended there is as per ISO recommendations for viewing conditions, but that's probably also discussed in the link.
If so I noticed in the ColorSync utility that when I compare this monitor's profile to the profiles in my HP ICC list, all the HP profiles are much out of the gamut and shaped significantly different. They barely match up.
Correct, but you've got the technical information I have you wrong. Which isn't really your problem, but rather a problem in the way things worked out in the International Color Consortium.
I told you not to select sRGB, but the sRGB colour space is expressed as an ICC MNTR Monitor profile and therefore appears in the Apple ColorSync Utility alongside your measured monitor profile.
You will find that your measured monitor profile and sRGB are about the same size and shape. The reason is that sRGB is the colour space of HDTV, i.e. a Sony cathode ray tube at 6500 Kelvin.
The difference between your measured monitor profile and sRGB as ICC profile is that sRGB has linearised gray i.e. R%=G%=B% defines gray throughout the colour space.
This is not the case with your measured monitor profile, and since your measured monitor profile is not linear you should not be using it as SOURCE for your digital originals - only for viewing them.
I thought a good calibration and matching the ICC profiles in soft proofing and in print setup is what it took to get a good match.
Correct, but you need to know enough that you can set up colour matching sessions using the right ICC profiles with the right rendering intents, and if you want side-by-side matching across applications you need to be able to configure application settings for compatible assumptions.
And as if that wasn't enough (... -:)) a colour measuring instrument is better than no colour measuring instrument, and a colour measuring instrument that makes fewer assumptions about the device is better than a colour measuring device that makes more device-dependent assumptions.
If memory serves, the Spyder is a colourimeter and not a spectrophotometer. This difference has caused considerable discussion, starting with the X-Rite Monitor Optimizer in the period 1996-2000. A colourimeter makes assumptions about the spectral power distributions.
Previously, colourimeters made assumptions based on cathode ray tubes that did not match the behaviour of red in liquid crystal displays. Presently, it appears that colourimeters are making assumptions about green based on liquid crystal displays that does not match light emitting diode displays (or was it that they carried over crt assumptions, offline flame wars, online flame wars, whatever) but the bottom line is that a spectophotometer is the safer solution.
/hh

Problems skipping on dvd player

Hello,
I made a movie with imovie & burned 30+ dvds for clients and tested just the first few min of each, figuring they would be good to go. Turns out they ALL skip in the same spots 16+ min into the movie. Arggg! Why is this doing this and how can I fix it?

This is the workflow recommended so as to cull out any problems before having to burn a single disk:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image and launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding was good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatium, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
Burning from a disk image lets you burn additional copies at a later date without having to go thru the encoding process again and keep iDVD open all the time. You should also shut stop burning for a while after burning around 4-5 disks in a row to cool the laser.
OT

Incompatibility issue with imported images losing keywords and other metada

I am reposting this with a more descriptive title in hopes that the powers that be will look into this. This really nice piece of software is currently doubling the time in my workflow by having to re-input keywords, etc. after importing.
Wayne_N
Posts: 5
From: Texas
Registered: Sep 24, 2006
Re: import keywords and ratings into Aperture from adobe apps?
Posted: Nov 18, 2006 2:40 PM in response to: Egg
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I am getting the opposite result. I have lost a lot of my keywords and various other data input in Bridge. Is there a setting I'm missing? I also put in Country name, city, state, contact, etc. in my Brdige metadata, but this is not importing with the RAW files. I am referencing images if that matters, although it shouldn't.
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
pvonk
Posts: 19
Registered: Mar 2, 2005
New! Re: import keywords and ratings into Aperture from adobe apps?
Posted: Nov 18, 2006 3:25 PM in response to: Egg
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I also used Bridge/ACR to rate and add keywords to RAWS (Canon) and also used Adobe DNG converter to make DNG files from these.
No ratings or keywords have imported for any RAWs and DNGs. And, for some DNG files (which I can see in Bridge and iViewMedia), they cannot be displayed in Aperture. It's very strange since I've used the same workflow to create the DNG files over the past year. Some can be imported/viewed, some cannot be viewed. All originally from the same camera/RAW file. I've read in this forum that Aperture cannot read things like keywords from sidecar files.
I am hopeful that Apple will make DNG sidecar file import a big priority.
- Pierre
MacBook Pro, 2.16 GHz, 2 GB SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Macbook Pro and Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I have been testing Lightroom since beta 2, but after reading The DAM Book, I decided to hold off committing to LR since it was not clear that it would fit into the workflow recommended in the book.
I had processed some of my recent photos, adding ratings and keywords (and doing some editing - but I knew that was not necessarily permanent due to LR's incompatibility with PS/Bridge when it came to metadata).
I had briefly looked at Aperture a while back, but was turned off by the price (then $500) and the fact that it couldn't reference the original files. When the 1.5 demo came out with its improvements, I tried it and loved it! After much thought about the workflow I had developed, I decided that I could alter it so that Aperture would fit in - in fact it would be my main app (giving up Bridge/ACR/iViewMedia Pro).
As per The DAM Book, I had begun converting my Canon RAWs to DNG (fortunately kept most of my RAWs). The first thing I discovered in the demo (I have since purchased the app, 1.5.1) was the fact that none of my ratings and keywords came through. Also, I used the color labels in Bridge to help during the evaluation phase, those didn't come through either, but I expected that. As I also noted in the previous post, some of my DNGs can't be viewed in Aperture even though they can be viewed in Bridge and iViewMedia.
Fortunately, I had not "processed" all that many photos in my collection, so I can easily start again with the ratings and keywords. BUT there will be many photographers who have, and if Aperture hopes to tempt them away from LR or the other workflows, the Apple team should seriously consider providing support for Adobe's keywords/ratings found in sidecars and perhaps in DNGs. Also, good support of DNGs might be another thing to look at, as many users have been converting from RAW as I have.
Just my three cents (inflation).
- Pierre

Sorting Collection Sets by Date

Searched around for this first and now I'm asking the experts:
I recently started using LR and have followed some workflow recommendations by Scott Kelby to set up my images in collection sets with collections within each set as follows:
Collection Set Name
- Full Shoot (collection)
- Picks (collection)
- Selects (collection)
I want each collection set to be ordered by date (e.g. date of most recent image in set or date of import into LR). The only 2 ways I've found to sort these are by Name or Kind.
Any way to sort by date?
I suppose I can rename each collection set so that it starts with the date, but that seems silly when the photos all have dates already assigned automatically.
Thanks all.

Well what I was looking for was to order the collection sets as opposed to the collections within them. But based on your response, it looks like I do need to use a numerical prefix to do this. (Thanks for the link to your workflow recommendations, I will spend more time checking them out.)
So for example if my collections are currently sorted by name like this:
Bangkok - Thailand
- Full Shoot
- Picks
- Selects
Hoi An - Vietnam
- Full Shoot
- Picks
- Selects
I'll add a date prefix so that the set is sorted like this:
2009 1012 Hoi An - Vietnam
- Full Shoot
- Picks
- Selects
2009 1203 Bangkok - Thailand
- Full Shoot
- Picks
- Selects
This will sort the collections by date, but must check if it is possible to reverse the sort so that most recent shows first.
dj paige: Yes, I was looking to order the collection names, not the individual photos.
Collections can be sorted by clicking on the + icon in the Collections panel and choosing either Sort by Name or
Sort by Kind. The only elaboration Adobe provides for Sort by Kind is to also call it "Sort by Type".
Regards.

Importing C100 AVCHD footage (timecode, media start, clip names)

I primarily shoot and edit AVCHD footage from Canon C100. Typical ingest workflow is to use the Data Import Utility by Pixela. This creates individual .MTS files on my with unique file names (GREAT)...BUT when I bring the files into PP CS6 it sets the media start time for each clip at 00:00:00:00 (essentially wiping out the timecode reference). Alternatively, if I simply copy entire contents of the card to my raid then use the Media Browser in PP to import the footage, the timecode—and media start time—is maintained from the shoot (GREAT)...BUT the individual clip names that it assigns always start with 00000.mts, 00001.mts and so on). This creates a problem when relinking footage...because now I've got multiple projects with the same file names. Any ingest workflow recommendations?
Appreciate your perspective(s).
~ Brian

Use the original media, which gives you the timecode, and upgrade to CC, which gives you the new Link and Locate feature, making relinking a breeze.

Audio /static in audio

Greetings;
I videoed a wedding using a wireless mic and during the wedding a popping noise was picked up during crucial times of the ceremony. I was able to drop a lot out it out whenever someone was not speaking with the audio controls in iMovie, but other times it is underneath important audio, so I cant simply turn down the audio.
Is there some way that I can export the audio out and edit in another program since iMovie doesnt really have the capabilities? If it is possible, is it going to be painstaking since I am not an audio technician?
I am not interested in going out and buying pro audio software here but wondered if some freeware or other opensource could accomodate me in anyway?
If anyone has suggestions, I would be elated as I do not want to have to turn into the newlyweds a snap crackly and pop ceremony!
Thanks.
D

audio processing is a very .. delicate issue...
yepp, as Matthew wrote:
share/Quicktime/Expert setting/ hit share, you're offered more options, as export option choose "aiff"... that creates an audio-only file of your project...
you can import that into Garageband (or any other audio app)...
now, that "clicking"... often heard, when the spokesperson hold the mic in his/her hands... plus some jewelry.. clickydeeclack... , some people "wrestle" mics.. just being nervous...-
in an audio editor, you can do very short, "surgical" edits with a fraction of a millisecond.. you could give that a try to cut-out the noises... but for sure, the voice will be affected... no easy task to accomplish, not automatically workflow recommended....
and: these cuts affect the length of your audio! will be tricky to get that in sync with your movie...- try to edit/export just tiny parts of your movie...
Golden Rule No.57:
No Post-Processing Improves Quality...- :-/

Slow Illustrator Multi-Page PDF Export + Alternative Solutions

Hello everyone,
I have a recurring job that requires 50-60+ small illustrations be placed into a few different layouts. The workflow I have set up right now is as follows: All of the illustrations are drawn in one Illustrator file with multiple page tiles. This file is exported as a multi-page PDF and placed in InDesign layouts. One main problem with this system is that it takes a long time to export 60+ page tiles from Illustrator.
I'm totally open to any alternative workflow solutions or recommendations someone might suggest, but there are a few reasons why I've chosen the multi-page PDF approach. The Illustrations share global swatches and symbols and graphic styles and sometimes these items need to be tweaked. Editing everything in one file is faster than opening, changing, and saving 50-60 individual Illustrator files. My client often needs me to make alterations to the illustrations, and sometimes these Illustrations appear on more than one page and in different layouts. Using the one multi-page PDF helps everything stay nice and consistent across every layout and every page.
If anyone has any suggestions for how to speed up the Illustration export or alternative workflow recommendations, I'd love to discuss them.
Thanks!

As Scott said, the multiple artboards in CS4 are the most efficient way to do that and upgrading sure will help to streamline your workflow. Your problem is that each element needs to be stripped, possibly flattened and other data removed when creating the PDF and that can take its toll. The only other way to do it IMO would be some script that takes each layer of your doc and converts it to an individual AI file or PDF. It may just not have any advantage at all - scripts can be slow if a lot is goingon and it still would take time to save and convert the files.
Mylenium

Workflow recommendation

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