Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

Professional and hobbyist alike turn to Adobe Premiere as a robust digital video editing platform to complete sophisticated video productions. Premiere includes a title creation module that allows you to add titles and text elements that can be full frame, or superimposed over video elements. If you are working with an existing project that contains outlined text, removing the outlines require a working knowledge of Premiere’s title generator. Adobe may use terms unfamiliar to television editors borrowed from software designed for the print industry. Knowing these terms will help you find the controls needed to remove text outlines.

1. Step 1

   Start Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Locate the title file in the project tab containing the text you want to modify. Double click on the title to open the text in the title window. If the title element opens in the preview window, you are not working with a title created in Adobe Premiere. You will need to open the program originally used to create the file. If the title window did open, proceed to step 3.

2. Step 2

   Use your mouse to right click on the file containing the text element, then click on the “Edit Original” sub-menu selection. The program associated with the file will open. Use the font properties menu for the program to remove the outline from the text. Adobe Photoshop is a popular program used to created titles used in Adobe Premiere. If the title is a Photoshop file (PSD), use the text properties menu similar to the one found in Adobe Premiere and borrow from the following steps to remove the outline.

3. Step 3

   Highlight the text with the outline in the Adobe Premiere title window and go to the “Title Properties” tab on the right side of the dialogue box. The key to understanding outlines in Adobe is knowing they are referred toas “strokes.” Stroke is a reference used within the print production community. Find the “Strokes” section in the “Title Properties” tab and uncheck the box under the “Outer Strokes” heading. The outline on the text you highlighted will now be removed.

When you are editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, you will often need to split your clips or cut clips in several tracks at once. When you split a clip, you create a new separate instance of the original clip as well as any clips linked to it. The new clips are full versions of the original clip, but they have different “In” and “Out” points. You can split clips in several ways.

1. Step 1

   Move the Timeline’s current-time indicator to the exact point where you want to split the clip. Then go to “Sequence,” and then “Razor” at “Current-Time Indicator.”

2. Step 2

   Select the “Razor” tool from the toolbox. Mouse over the point in the sequence where you want to split the clip or clips, and left-click.

3. Step 3

   If you have a clip that has audio and video linked, you can split only the audio or video portion of linked clips, by holding the “Alt” key and clicking with the “Razor” tool.

4. Step 4

   To split all tracks in your Timeline at the same point in the panel, hold the “Shift” key and click with the “Razor” tool. Make sure to lock any clip that you don’t want to split by clicking in the square to the right of the “eyeball” in your video or audio track.

One very handy function of Premiere Pro is the ability to create titles. Titles, like credits, can include any type of text, including title of your movie, names of your actors and crew and even subtitles. They can be created using any font available on your computer, and you can add logos, photos and other graphics to customize your movie. Titles can be created from scratch or from templates, and you can also import titles from other projects as well as export titles created for use in other projects.

1. Step 1

   Go to the file menu at the top of the workspace and choose “Import” to import a title that has been exported from another project.

2. Step 2

   In the import pop-up browser, navigate to the location of your saved file and select the title. Click on “Open.” The title will appear in your project window panel.

3. Step 3

   Double click on the name of the title within the panel if you want to make edits. Close the title window by clicking on the “x” in the upper right corner. Your title will appear in your project window, identified by the name you gave it. Save your project to save the work done to the title.

4. Step 4

   Select the title you want to export as an independent file in the project panel. Go to the file menu at the top of the workspace and choose “Export” and then “Title.” Navigate to the location that you want to save the file. Choose a name for it, and click on “Save.”

The Adobe Premiere Pro program automatically preserves the aspect ratio of imported assets, or footage, including changing the pixel aspect ratio, so that the asset does not look distorted when used in a sequence. However, assets created within the Adobe Creative Suite application contain metadata that allows Adobe Premiere Pro to make the calculations automatically and precisely

1. Step 1

   Let the system do its job. When you drag footage into a sequence, Premiere Pro will center it in the program frame by default. If the image is too small or large for the needs of the project, you can change its scale manually or have Premiere Pro do it automatically whenever you drag an asset into a sequence.

2. Step 2

   Consider pixel aspect. The preset you choose when you first created the project sets up the frame and pixel aspect ratios for the project. These can not be changed after you save the project file, but you can change the pixel aspect ratio that Adobe Premiere Pro assumes for individual assets.

3. Step 3

   Select the file in the Project panel.

4. Step 4

   Choose “File,” and then “Interpret Footage.” Specify the options in the Pixel Aspect Ratio section. Click “OK.”

Adobe Premiere opens up a lot of possibilities when you are creating and editing videos. There are a lot of tricks and tips that you can use and implement within your videos and one of these is playing your clip backwards. This can create a cool illusion for the viewer and add a lot to your video.

1. Step 1

   Open the Adobe Premiere program.

2. Step 2

   Create a new file. You can open an existing file, but for the purposes of this artcile it is easier to just create a new file.

3. Step 3

   Name the file something you will remember or something obvious like “Reverse Clip Test.” Keep the default settings and click “OK.”

4. Step 4

   The first thing you will need to do is import a clip. Right click on the Project window and click the option that says “Import…”.

5. Step 5

   Choose one or multiple video files that you want to reverse and click “OK.”

6. Step 6

   When the files are loaded, wait for them all to conform. You can see that status by looking in the bottom right-hand corner of the program. If a loading bar is not moving, then they all have been conformed.

7. Step 7

   Drag the clip that you want to reverse into the Video 1 slot of the timeline.

8. Step 8

   You might not want to reverse the whole clip so trim off the parts that you do not want to reverse by going to the border of the clip and dragging to the desired start and finish time of the clip.

9. Step 9

   Right click on the clip and click on the open that says “Speed/Duration”.

10. Step 10

    A new option box will pop up that lists the percentage of the speed, the duration and then an option that says “Reverse Clip Speed”.

11. Step 11

    Click on the box that says “Reverse Clip Speed” and then click “OK.”

12. Step 12

    Your clip will now be reverse but to see what the clip actually looks like, press “Enter” on your keyboard.

13. Step 13

    A box will pop up showing you the rendering status for the preview.

14. Step 14

    Once the preview has been done rendering, your clip will now play backwards.

15. Step 15

    If you do not like the reversed clip, you can change it back by right clicking on the clip and repeating the same process.

If you are a new-comer to Adobe Premiere Pro, but have a basic understanding of non-linear editing systems, you may want to create a DVD of your edited footage. Here is a quick way to do that, using Adobe Premiere Pro.

1. Step 1

   Open Premiere Pro, start a project and save it.

2. Step 2

   Import your footage into a clip and drag it into a Timeline.

3. Step 3

   Make your edits and create one, seamless file that you wish to export to DVD. (See my other entry on How to Make Basic Edits to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro.) Save your work.

4. Step 4

   Go to File, Export, Export to DVD.

5. Step 5

   Choose, Burn to Disk.

6. Step 6

   Name your disk.

7. Step 7

   Make sure your “Burner Location” is the correct drive for your DVD Burner.

8. Step 8

   Make your Export Range the “Entire Sequence.” This ensures everything in your Timeline is included in the disk.

9. Step 9

   Click Burn.

The Three-Way Color Corrector effect in Adobe Premiere Pro allows you to make simple, subtle corrections to a clip’s hue, saturation, and brightness for the shadow, midtones, and highlights. It is a great tool to use when making simple color corrections that you can preview quickly without a lot of render time. You can use its controls to do the following.

1. Step 1

   The “Output” menu allows you to view adjustments in the Program monitor in different formats. “Composite” is the final result, “Luma” is to view the tonal values, “Mask” is a display of the alpha matte, and “Tonal Range” is a display of the shadows, midtones and highlights.

2. Step 2

   You can view the “Tonal Range Definition” in Master, Shadows, Midtones or Highlights modes. Each of these has a corresponding “Hue Angle,” “Balance Magnitude,” “Balance Gain” and “Balance Angle.” Drag the sliders to the left or right to adjust the values of each.

3. Step 3

   The “Three-Way Hue Balance and Angle” also has three color wheels. The one on the left is for the shadows, the middle one is for the midtones and the one on the right is for the highlights. When you select “Master” from “Tonal range”, only one wheel will appear instead of three.

4. Step 4

   “Auto Black Level” will raise the black levels in a clip, resulting in lighter shadows.

5. Step 5

   “Auto White Level” will lower the white levels in a clip, resulting in darker highlights.

6. Step 6

   “Auto Contrast” will apply both the “Auto Black Level” and “Auto White Level” simultaneously, making both the highlights appear darker and the shadows appear lighter.

7. Step 7

   The outer two “Input Levels” sliders map the black point and white point to the settings of the “Output” sliders. The middle “Input” slider adjusts the gamma in the image by moving the midtone and changing the intensity of values of the middle range of gray tones without dramatically altering the highlights and shadows.

8. Step 8

   The “Output Levels” will map the black point and white point input level sliders to specified values. The “Output” sliders are set by default to 0, where the shadows are completely black, and to level 255, where the highlights are completely white. Changing these values can result in an increase or decrease of the overall contrast.

Adobe Premiere allows you to remove the background with an effect called a Garbage Matte. In earlier versions of Premiere such as 6.5 and Pro, your options were a 4-point and 8-point Garbage Matte effect. Premiere CS3 and CS4 offer a 16-point Garbage Matte and much easier tools to create the matte. However, Premiere Pro will accomplish the background removal if you have a little patience.

1. Step 1

   Import your video to be fixed and the background video to the Premiere Project bin.
   Drag your background picture to Video layer 1 and your video to be fixed to Video layer 2. For this tutorial we are going to put this art sculpture produced by William H. Thielen into the golf course video.

2. Step 2

   Highlight Window on the top toolbar and then Effects. In the Effects bin look for Video Effects, Keying and then chose the 4-, 8- or 16-point Garbage Matte. To work with this effect you must open Effect Controls, again under Window in the top toolbar. In the Effect Controls bin, click the box to the left of the words 16-Point Garbage Matte and control wheels will appear over your subject video.

3. Step 3

   Move the Garbage Matte control wheels around the object in the Sequence Monitor. You will begin to see the background appear behind your subject.

4. Step 4

   When you have eliminated all the subject background, you may want to resize the object and place it somewhere else in the picture. Use Motion in the Effect Controls window for Position and Scale.

5. Step 5

   The last step is to render your layer by pressing the space bar, which will give you the best video quality. You can add another layer to the timeline and put more sculptures on the golf course using the garbage mattes.

The Fast Color Corrector effect in Adobe Premiere Pro is a tool you can use to change a clip’s color by adjusting its hue and saturation. The effect also has levels controls for adjusting intensity levels of image shadows, midtones, and highlights. It is a great tool to use when making simple color corrections that you can preview quickly without a lot of render time. You can use its controls to do the following.

1. Step 1

   The “Hue Balance and Angle” controls the hue and saturation adjustments with a color wheel. The center of the wheel controls the hue, a perpendicular handle on the center controls balance, and the outer ring of the wheel controls hue rotation. “Hue Angle” controls the hue rotation. A negative value will rotate the color wheel to the left while a positive value will rotate the color wheel to the right. “Balance Magnitude” controls the amount of color balance correction as determined by the “Balance Angle.”

2. Step 2

   The “Balance Gain” adjusts the brightness values by multiplication. Lighter pixels are affected more than darker pixels. “Balance Angle” controls the hue translation.

3. Step 3

   Saturation adjusts the clip’s color saturation. The default value is set to 100, which does not affect the colors. Values less than 100 decrease saturation, while values greater than 100 produce more saturated colors.

4. Step 4

   “Auto Black Level” will raise the black levels in a clip, so the shadows are clipped, resulting in lighter shadows. “Auto White Level” will lower the white levels in a clip, so the highlights are clipped, resulting in darker highlights. “Auto Contrast” will apply both the “Auto Black Level” and “Auto White Level” simultaneously, making both the highlights appear darker and the shadows appear lighter.

5. Step 5

   “Black Level,” “Gray Level” and “White Level” will set the levels for the darkest shadow, the midtone gray, and the lightest highlight. You can use “Eyedropper” tools to sample a target color in the image or anywhere on your monitor’s desktop, or pick a color swatch.

6. Step 6

   The outer two “Input Levels” sliders map the black point and white point to the settings of the “Output” sliders. The middle “Input” slider adjusts the gamma in the image by moving the midtone and changing the intensity of values of the middle range of gray tones without dramatically altering the highlights and shadows.

7. Step 7

   The “Output Levels” will map the black point and white point input level sliders to specified values. The “Output” sliders are set by default to 0, where the shadows are completely black, and to level 255, where the highlights are completely white.

The Broadcast Colors Effect in Adobe Premiere Pro can alter the pixel color values for accurate representation in a television broadcast. While computers represent colors as combinations of red, green, and blue, video equipment represent colors using different signals. You can use the “Broadcast Colors Effect” to reduce luminance or saturation to a safe level.

1. Step 1

   First, here are some tips on how to use color in video projects intended for broadcast. Avoid using highly saturated colors, such as red value 255 with blue and green values of 0. You should also avoid pure black and pure white values. You may also try rendering out a test sequence from your project and playing it back on a monitor to be sure colors look OK.

2. Step 2

   If you are adjusting color after the fact, go to the “Effects” menu and expand the arrow next to “Video,” then click on “Broadcast Colors” and drag it to the clip you want to adjust.

3. Step 3

   Next go to the “Effects Monitor” window. The “Broadcast Locale” specifies the type of broadcast standard you intend to use. NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) is the North American standard, and the type you will most likely be using. NTSC is also used in Japan, while PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is used in most of Europe and South America.

4. Step 4

   The “How To Make Color Safe” option is where you will choose the method of reducing the signal amplitude. “Reduce Luminance” will reduce the brightness of a pixel and “Reduce Saturation” makes a pixel more gray, by making it less colorful.

5. Step 5

   “Key Out Unsafe” makes unsafe pixels transparent and “Key Out Safe” makes safe pixels transparent.