Adobe unveils the future of creative collaboration with the next generation of Frame.io

The new beta of version 4 of Frame.io – a cloud-based platform created for review and collaboration in video and photo production – represents an important step forward for Adobe. This is a complete transformation of the product, designed and developed over the last three years, marking the beginning of a new chapter in the way content creation teams structure and manage their workflows.
Since Frame.io was officially released in 2015, users have pushed the boundaries of the solution in ways that even the development team hadn’t considered at first, Adobe points out, going beyond video post-production. This inspired Adobe – which acquired Frame.io in August 2021 by integrating it into its Creative Cloud offering – to extend its reach to build new solutions that support all types of creative workflows: from photography to design, from social media to events, from sports to e-commerce and more.

Everything much simpler

Frame.io V4 has been redesigned and reworked to create a fast and fluid web application and allow you to more easily juggle multiple workflows across different environments, to balance media viewing, managing uploads, responding to feedback and creative work. This happens, first and foremost, with the new panel system, with which it is possible to expand all panels for an optimal multitasking experience or reduce them to concentrate without distractions. Overall, customizing almost everything regarding how media is displayed in Frame.io. The assets used by the software have also been completely overhauled, with uploads moved to a Web Worker thread, a feature that allows you to perform tasks in background asynchronously, without blocking the execution of the web application. Specifically, Frame.io V4 allows you to continue working in parallel during “mass uploads”, which previously made the work flow rather debilitating. For video management, Frame.io V4 also introduces a new player which also enjoys high resolution previews and greater agility in bitrate adaptation. With the Collections function, the organization of media based on to metadata and labels, with the possibility of seeing your assets through a series of customizable filters, also simplifying sharing, with the possibility of building a “story” of the elements to be shown, so that it is easier to ask for changes or new ideas on a project. For example, you can configure Collections to display all creative work you need to review and approve by a deadline, sorted by designer. Or, for marketing campaigns, you can manage the review and approval of all creative assets in a marketing campaign by organizing it by distribution channel and grouping it by asset type, while viewing metadata such as specifications and communication costs. And so on. To start practicing the new metadata and collections functions, you can start from the Project Templates, a library made up of a dozen pre-set templates that help you discover the vast range of workflow possibilities enabled by the new version 4 beta.

Easy even on iOS

The mobile apps for iPhone and iPad also benefited from the rework to make them more performing and intuitive. There is a new Workspace page on iOS with new tabs and a project page that offers the same resource configuration controls. On the iPad, the larger screen has been taken advantage of for a more efficient work area, and the commenting system has been updated with a new, more user-friendly user interface, including a full-screen annotation and drawing function.

How to use it

Starting today, the Frame.io V4 beta is available to Free and Pro plan users on web, iPhone and iPad, while later this year it will be open to Team and Enterprise users. The platform’s integrations into editing software will be part of a subsequent development of Frame.io V4.