Digital Video Processing using Adobe Premiere. (I presume that you use Windows XP. )

On This Page	Other Pages
- intro - start - capture - monitor window - toolbox - tips - pixels and aspect ratios - about transitions - video effects - output the movie - making video clip for the web	- DVD - Adobe Premiere Key Shortcuts - Adobe After Effects - Adobe Encore DVD

intro

home - top of the page - email

Adobe takes some time to get used to - but it is time well spent, because it is by far the best software to capture video (from your camera into the computer), to do all the editing (from amateur to pro level) and output in different formats (including mpeg encoding).

This short help is for version 7 (Adobe Premier Pro). Note, that it differs from version 6.5 in many aspects. So even if you had prior experience, you will have to spend some time getting used to it. First, Adobe Pro only wokrs on Windows XP. No Windows 2000 or Mac !! There is no A/B editing (alas). The video transition can now be applied on any video track, but only between 2 clips on the same track. You can now have more than one sequence in the timeline window !! The sequences are also listed with clips in a project window - and you can nest (insert) one sequence into another by just dragging it into it (same was as you drag clips).

- Press F1 to invoke Help in the browser. It is searchable HTML documentation you have on your local hard drive. - Learn by using Tool tips - small help pop ups which appear when you hold the pointer over the tool or button. Tool tips often give you a keyboard shortcut (in parenthesis). - Learn more keyboard shortcuts by choosing Edit > Keyboard Customization. There you can browse many shortcuts. Some (but few) shortcuts are listed in the Help documentation in the Shortcuts Appendix. - You can also review shortcuts from Premiere 6.5.

Start - Capture

home - top of the page - email

Start:

Turn on your mini DV camcorder and connect it to your computer using iLink (firewire = IEEE 1394) cable. Start Adobe Premier. Create new project. Select one of the 1st two standard project settings - Standard 32 kHz (12/16 bit audio) or standard 48 bit (16 bit audio). Note: you should find out in which format the original movie was recorded on your digital camera - and use the same format for capturing. For my small Sony default is 12 bit audio - so I select the very first setting (32 kHz Standard). Exploring Premiere Windows: Main Window can contain many other windows (Project, Effects, "Effect Controls", Monitor, Timelines for sequences, Tools, History, Info, Audio mixer). Most of these windows can be opened from the Windows menu. Timeline windows for different sequences can be opened by double-clicking the corresponding sequence in the project window. Project window (right top) - will contain all video, audio clips and graphics from which we will make our movie. You usually get them there either by right-clicking - and selecting "Import" - or by capturing from your camera (choose File > Capture). You can organize all your assets into bins (folders) - this makes sense when you have many of them. The list will also contain your first sequence (timeline). Double click it to open a timeline window with this sequence. The project window may have two more tabs: "Effects" and "Effect Controls". Most commonly used are video and audio transitions (like cross-disolve between two adjacent clips). Timeline window(s) - the main window where you assemble your movie. Drag and drop clips from Project window to the timeline. Move, trim, adjust the pieces in the timeline. Press SPACE or Enter to play the movie (Enter does rendering). You can preview the movie in the Monitor Window.

To capture the video from your digital camcorder:

Select File > Capture ... - and use capture window to record the video into a file. The window allows to capture Audio and Video, or just Audio or just Video. This window takes over control of your digital camera. You can play back, rewind, use shuttle to move back/forward, move by single frame, capture (red button) and stop (just hit Escape). Once you stopped recording - you will be prompted to save the file. After that your clip is in the bin. You can now double click on it - and a separate clip window will pop-up so that you can play the clip. Use it to specify exact IN and OUT points (trim the clip). You can move back and forth - even by single frames - and then press on curlies ( { } ) where you want IN or OUT. You can then move curlies manually. Adobe Premier will use only the piece between the curlies in the timeline. This is how the trimming is done (later you can also change the trimming right in the timeline). Close the clip window. You can trim one piece of the clip - and put it on the timeline. Then you can select another piece - and put it on the timeline too. OK, now if you drag and drop this clip (and other clips) from Project window to the Timeline window - you can do arranging/editing - and play the whole movie from any moment by pressing the play button in the Reference Monitor window.

Monitor Window

home - top of the page - email

Monitor window:

Monitor window has many convenient controls. Explore them by holding the mouse above each one of them - and reading the tool tips help. You can set IN and OUT points by pressing curlies ( { } ). You can play and stop the movie, move forward and back by single frame, or using Jog disk or Shuttle slider. You can jump from marker to marker, play between IN and OUT points. You can change magnification and quality of the display. You can even switch from video to showing video's luminance or colors, etc. The Monitor also allows you to insert video or/and audio from one place into another (so called "3-point and 4-point editing"). When you have monitor in Dual-view mode - you see 2 screens:    - Left screen - also called "Source monitor". You put clips there by double-clicking the clips in the project window (or dragging them from Project window).    - Right screen - also called "Program monitor". It shows movie from the timeline. Note the three icons on the bottom-right of the panels. On the Program panel (right) the arrows are pointing up (lift and extract), and the 3rd button is for trimming. On the Source monitor (left) the arrows are pointing down (insert and overlay), and the 3rd button selects if you want to do both Video and Audio - or just one of them. The idea is that you select the source and select the piece of it using curlies { }. Then you specify the target tracks by clicking the track header area of the Timeline window (where track names are located - the target tracks will appear darker than the other tracks and will have curved outer corners). Position the CTI (Current Time Indicator) on the timeline (or Program monitor) at the point where you want to do the insert. Now drag from Source to Program screen to do overlay edit (or Ctrl-drag for insert edit). Instead of dragging you can also simply press the insert or overlay buttons on the panel (or use keyboard shortcuts). Note, that you can also do the same editing (insert, overlay) by simply dragging the clips in the timeline. You can do it on one track - or on several (then the clip on the highest track wins.

Toolbox

home - top of the page - email

Toolbox:

Selection tool (arrow) - commonly used to select, drag, trim objects (use Shift-click to select several). Track select tool - to select the whole track at once Ripple edit tool - applied on the edge between two clips. Changes the duration of the clip on the left of the edge. Shortening a clip by ripple editing shifts all clips after the cut back in time; conversely, extending a clip shifts the clips that follow the cut forward in time. When you're making a ripple edit, empty space on one side of the cut is treated as a clip and shifts in time just as a clip would be. Pressing Alt when you begin to perform a ripple edit ignores the link between video and audio. Rolling edit tool - applied on the edge between two clips. Moves the edit point between clips (extending one at the expense of another). If you move right 15 frames - then it increases the duration of the left clip by 15 frames - and cuts 15 frames more from the right clip. preserving other clips' positions in time and maintaining the total duration of the sequence. Press Alt to make a split edit (to do Video separately from audio - also known as an L-cut or J-cut). Rate stretch tool - to extend your clip (soo it plays "slow motion") - or do the opposite. Razor tool - to cut the clip in timeline (both video and audio) into two separate clips Slide tool - to shift a clip in time while trimming adjacent clips to compensate for the move. As you drag a clip left or right with the slide tool, the Out point of the preceding clip and the In point of the following clip are trimmed by the number of frames you move the clip. The clip's In and Out points (and hence, its duration) remain unchanged. Slip tool - to shift a clip's In and Out points forward or backward by the same number of frames in a single action. By dragging with the slip tool, you can change a clip's starting and ending frames without changing its duration or affecting adjacent clips. Pen tool - use to adjust volume, transparency, etc. right in the timeline. Hand tool - to move the whole timeline in the window left/right Zoom tool - to zoom. I usually simply put the time cursor where I want to expand (zoom in) - and then press "+/=" key on the keyboard. Or press "-" to zoom out.

Tips

home - top of the page - email

Tips:

When capturing video from your digital camera - you can do "batch capture": play the video, mark the IN/OUT points of the prices you want, then Premiere will capture them all automatically. Avoid rewinding the camera when shooting your footage. The capture will stop where a new clip starts on top of the other one. This is not too bad - just means that you will have to capture every scene separately. You can use the same clip (or different pieces of the clip) several times in the same timeline. Just specify the { } - and drag the piece to the timeline. Do the same for other pieces. You can create several sequences - they will be listed in the project window with all the clips. You can nest one sequence inside another. Just drag the first sequence from the project window into the second window the same way you would drag a clip. Or, if you need to use just part of the sequence - drag it into the monitor window, set IN and OUT points ({ }) - and then edit it into the second sequence. If you want to cut a piece from the middle of a clip - use Razor tool (make two cuts - and delete the middle), or use the extract command (extract button on the Program monitor). If you want to overlap several tracks - change the transparency of the tracks starting from the top one (Effect Controls > Opacity). You can also set several opacity handlers inside a clip - and adjust opacity making it different in different parts of the clip. You can create very sophisticated titles (choose File > New > Title), including rolling or scrolling horizontally or vertically. Audio recording - you can record your voice (or music) right into Adobe Premier Pro - open Audio Mixer Window. Then you can adjust the volume (show volume in the audio clip, set several handlers inside the clip - and adjust the volume differently for differnt parts of the clip. You can also change balance for stereo clips - and also apply audio efects (including digital filtering). You can set markers (sequence markers and clip markers) - just position the time cursor (Current Time Indicator = CTI) where you want to place the marker - and use the Marker menu. You can then jump from marker to marker (using the same menu or pressing Ctrl-RightArrow or Ctrl-LeftArrow ...). Sequence markers can be named and used as chapter points in Adobe DVD Encore when creating a DVD. If you messed up your windows - Choose Windows > Workspace > Editing (or some other choice) - and windows will be arranged in one of standard ways. If you closed your timeline window - open it by double-clicking its name in the project window. It is a good idea to save the project every 10 min. When creating graphics in external applications (Adobe Photoshop) - use NTSC safe colors. Use safe areas correctly: Safe Title Zone - will be displayed on all televisions Safe Action Area - will most probably be displayed on nearly all televisions.

Pixels and aspect ratios

home - top of the page - email

Pixels and aspect ratios:

Why 29.97 frames per second (fpc) ? Orginal NTSC was 525 lines and 30 fpc, and PAL - 625 lines and 25 fpc. To accomodate color, the decision was made to make some room for that at the expence of frames (NTSC code skips couple frames at the beginning of every minute) - that's why NTSC now has 29.97 fpc . Timecode: hh:mm:ss:ff, where ff - frame number (from 00 to 29). Standard VHS - 250 lines resolution, S-VHS -400 lines, Betacam-SP - 340 lines. Standard aspect ratios are 4:3 for normal screen, and 16:9 for wide screen. Standard 15" computer screen has 4:3 aspect ration (12" wide and 9" high (12:9 = 4:3)). Standard computer screen has square pixels: (1024:768 = 4/3). Standard photograph also has 4:3 aspect ratio. But for miniDV - 720x480 pixels = 3:2. A perfect circle in the picture imported into your movie will look like vertically stretched ellipse on the TV screen. This is because the pixels on a computer screen are square, but on TV screen they are rectangular (stretched). If you start with an image which has perfect aspect ratio of 4:3 (for example 1024x768) - and you want to import it into Premiere project which is in NTSC DV (720x480), you should resize it to 720x480. It will look as it is compressed vertically. But then after you will import it into Adobe Premiere - it will look normal again. By the way, Premiere shows video on computer screen scaled 4:3 as if it were on TV (take a tape measure and measure yourself).   Video System (digital) Original Image in Photoshop Scaled image before importing into Adobe Premiere NTSC DV 720 x 534 720 x 480 standard NTSC D1 720 x 540 720 x 486 PAL D1 or DV 768 x 576 720 x 576

Transitions

home - top of the page - email

About Transitions:

Transition is something you insert on the point where one clip ends and another starts. For example, you can use a cross-disolve to smoothen things up. Or you can use some other transition, like "Page Peel", or "Iris" or 3D motion, Wipe, Zoom, etc. - Adobe Premiere Pro comes with 73 different transitions. You select a transition from the Project Window > Effects > Video Transitions - and drag it to the track. The transition can only be made between two clips on the same track. The transition needs some extra frames - they usually are available if you trim the clip. If not - the warning pop=up will be shown and the last frame will be repeated. You can adjust the properties of the transition in the Monitor Window > Effect Controls. When you create a transition - a red bar appears above it in the timeline. If the transition doesn't show correctly in the monitor - you may need to render the sequence (select it - and press "ENTER") - or do Alt-drag of the CTI (Current Time Indicator) to preview correctly. Similarly you can create audio transitions (Project Window > Effects > Audio Transitions).

Video Effects

home - top of the page - email

Video Effects:

"Collor Corrector" filter (Project Window > Effects tab > Video Effects > Image Control > Collor Corrector). Drag-drop it to the clip you want apply it to. Change the settings in the "Effect Controls" tab (black/white balance, Hue and RGB controls, curves and video limiter). You can save the settings in the "Effect Controls" - open "Setting Keys" and click on the small floppy icon. You can then apply these settings to any clip by selecting "Load Settings" button. "Color Match filter" (Project Window > Effects tab > Video Effects > Image Control > Collor Match) to match one clip to another (so that they look similarly although they were shot at different light conditions). "Keying" ("Blue Screen", "Image Matte", etc. - 14 keys) (Project Window > Effects tab > Video Effects >Keying). Drag-drop to the upper clip - and adjust in "Effect Controls" tab. Animating the clip. Put CTI somewhere in the clip, select the clip, goto (Effect Controls > Fixed Effects > Motion). You can toggle the animate button near controls - and then set scale, position, rotation, etc. at the beginning and at the end of the clip. You can also set key frames in between - and set controls there as well. "Video Effects" (Project Window > Effects tab > Video Effects) - adjust, blur, sharpen, channel, distort, image control, keying, noise, perspective, pixelate, render, stylize, time, transform, video. Apply by dragging on the clip and then adjusting controls. To remove an effect from the clip temorarily remove- in "Effect Controls" - click the little circle next to the effect permanently - click its title in the "Effect Controls" - and press "Delete" on your keyboard.

Output the movie

home - top of the page - email

Output the movie:

After you finished editing, You can output the movie using different methods: File > Export > Movie ... AVI file, or JPG, or animated GIF, etc. File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder ... MPEG file File > Export > Export to DVD ... DVD without menus File > Export > Frame Save just one frame as an image Note: to make DVD with menus you can use "Adobe Encore DVD". It can read the AVI file and recognize chapters. Blacking and coding a DV tape: create a project in Adobe Premiere which consists of nothing but black video with no sound for the whole length - and export it to the DV tape. This way you will put code on the tape. Now you can use the tape to export your movie on it. Before exporting the movie - make sure it is rended (select the sequence in the timeline window - and press ENTER - or choose Sequence > "Render Work Area").

Making a video-clip for the web

home - top of the page - email

I usually make mpeg clips in MPEG-1 format, because this format can be played by all major players: Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, and RealOne Player. Here is what I do:

File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder ... - and then select format "MPEG-1" and select one of the presets. Once you set everything first time - you will be given an option to save this as a preset - so next time jsut select a preset.

Here are the presets I use:

Video: Set Width/Height frame size to 300/200 pixels. This is because I start with NTSC DV 720/480 = 3/2. Most players will understand it and play the movie at the actual geometrical size ratio is 4/3. Note: if you try to change the size to 320/240 (=4/3) - then the movie will look vertically compressed in video players. Aspect ratio - just leave it at NTSC setting 1.095. Don't change it to 1. Bitrate (Mbps) - set to ~0.8 Mbps by sliding the sliding control. The actual number will be something like 0.8030. Note: do NOT enter this number by hand. Use slider. Note: This bitrate will define file size of the file as ~100 KB per 1 second of the clip. If you make bitrate too small - the movie gets "jerky". Set Quality to 4 (or even smaller) using the slide control. Note: The quality setting doesn't effect the final size of the file (it is defined by the bitrate). If the quality is set unnecesary high - then it will take longer to make an MPG file. Audio: Change to "Single Channel (Mono) Mode" Bitrate - down to 32 kbps Sample rate - to 32 kHz or 44 kHz (whatever the frequency of your movie is).

=====