[Kevin Schaich] " So, if I'm understanding right, export a rough cut from premiere just to Audition to get a rough idea of the audio to begin. Is that right? And after I'm done with most of the effects, I should export a rough effects cut back to Audition, finish the audio, export that to After Effects and do a final render?"
It's not a rough cut at that point, consider it picture locked. But yes, exported to Audition and you don't need to jump into Premiere to make sure you have proper lip sync and so on, just watch within Premiere. It can be an h.264 file, something easy. And yes, if you add, say muzzle flashes, you can render out video from After Effects and place it into Audition to keep going with sound fx.
Editing audio within Premiere is doable, and for smaller videos for web or corporate use, it's usually fine. For something more dramatic, you'll appreciate the finesse of just mixing within Audition from the get-go.
[Kevin Schaich] "What's the best way to get all of my Premiere edits into After effects without rendering and maintaining individual clips?"
File > Import > Premiere Pro Project
You can import the entire project, or select sequences. The edited sequence comes in as a comp where each cut is its own layer.
[Kevin Schaich] "And, one last question. Say I get all my effects and audio done and I have everything in a master timeline in After Effects. If I decide I want to make another edit or take a shot out or something, what's the procedure for doing that without screwing up everything I already worked on?"
Just keep organized. Also break your project up into scenes so you're sliding around/replacing 20 chunks instead of some master timeline with 300 cuts.
You can also, if you like, drag comps from After Effects project bin to Premiere's project bin and that will dynamically link them in... useful if you feel less intimidated by Premiere's timeline in comparison to After Effects layer-based timeline.
*** Bonus Thought ***
If you're going to color grade in After Effects, pick up Test Gear
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/products/tg/index.html Scopes are one of the most powerful tools in measuring the color/brightness and so on.
Angelo Lorenzo
Fallen Empire Digital Production Services - Los Angeles
RED transcoding, on-set DIT, and RED Epic rental services
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A blog dedicated to filmmaking, the RED workflow, and DIT tips and tricks
