Working with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Transcription

1 Working with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Setup When you open Premiere Pro CS4, you see a window that allows you to either start a new project, open an existing project or search Premiere's help menu. For the purposes of this lesson, you will open a new project. The next window allows you to select the project settings. For the most part, you will stick with the default settings, here. You will want to change the location to a different folder. You will also want to change the name of the file. I have changed my folder to the computer's desktop and the file name I selected was sample_project. Click OK to move on. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 1

2 The next window allows you to set the type of film you make and the name of the sequence. For high quality, it is best to select something in the DV- NTSC folder. DV refers to Digital Video, and NTSC refers to the National Television System Committee. This is the standard format used in the United States. The standard or wide screen settings are a matter of personal preference, while the khz setting refers to the sound quality you will use in your project. For the purpose of this lesson, I selected Standard 32kHz. I felt no need to change the sequence name. When you look at the interface, you will see that whatever panel on the screen you select will show an orange outline. This helps you see which thing you are doing. You can expand any panel to full screen size by pressing the tilde ~ key on your keyboard. To return to the regular view, press the same key. If for some reason, the screen is missing an element or you can't seem to get it back to the way it was, you can always go to window>workspace>reset current workspace. I have also noticed that beginning users are often frantic thinking that the timeline is suddenly empty. While I have not determined what they are doing to make that happen, I have learned how to repair it. When the timeline says (no sequence) in its tab, simply go to the project window and double click the sequence you need to see. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 2

3 Bringing in files To bring graphics, audio and video into Premiere, you can capture or import the necessary files. If you import files, you will select file>capture and find the settings tab to ensure that the files are saved to the proper location. For the purpose of this lesson, however, we will use pre-existing files. These files will feature a high school drill team both in photos and in film. You can always import files through file>import and simply navigate to the files you wish to use. An interesting feature: If you feel a need to browse through files. You can use the Media Browser to search through your computer, your connected devices (flash drives, portable hard drives) or CD and DVDs inserted into your machine. You can double-click the file to preview it in Premiere's source window, and you can drag the selected media from the media browser to the project window where all the files used in your project are shown. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 3

4 You can use many types of files. Graphic formats from other Adobe applications (AI, PSD) need not be published or exported to a different file format prior to import in Premiere. You can import files one at a time, or, if you know you want to use the entire contents of a folder, you can click and drag an entire folder from the media browser to the project window. The rough cut To make a rough cut of your movie, drag files from the project window to the timeline. Tip: If you need to quickly zoom in and out in this window, use the + and keys on the main part of the keyboard. For some reason, the ones on the number pad don't do the same. If you find that some of your graphics are too small or too large, you can adjust that without using another software package. Change the size you are viewing in the monitor window to something smaller so you can see the edges of the image and re size the picture using the handles. Since we will be using different music in this film (no disrespect to the marching band), we must delete the audio that came with the halftime clip. Just right click on the audio track in the timeline and select unlink to make the video and audio into two separate entities. Once you do that, you can easily select and delete the sound from the clip. A quick tip for playback: press the space bar on your keyboard to start playback from the point where your current time indicator sits on the timeline. If you press the enter key, the whole film will render and start from the beginning. This is fine, but it takes time. In a hurry? Use the space bar. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 4

5 Alternative: If you want to edit a video clip before you add it to the timeline, you can do so in the Source window. Double click the clip in the project window, and you can set the in and out points in the source window. From there, you can drag the edited clip to the timeline. In fact, you have a great option, here. You can select the whole edited clip, the video only, or the audio only. I have cut a piece of the halftime clip and dragged only the video to the timeline. Editing After watching the rough cut of your video, you will see some places where changes may be necessary. This is where your editing skills come in. The first thing I want to do is move around and alter some of the video. I will get to the song later, as I don't want to cut it now, only to bring the deleted part(s) back later. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 5

6 If you find that a clip you have placed at the end of the rough cut is better suited to a different part of the movie, your first instinct would be to click and drag that clip to the desired location. You will soon see that your selected clip takes the place of something that was already there. If that is the desired effect, then you have done it all correctly, but more often than not, you want to move the preexisting clips right on the timeline to allot room for the piece you are inserting. Hold the control key while you click and drag to make what is called a ripple edit. This will move the displaced clips right on the timeline and later in the actual film. The line with the trianglearrows indicates that your rolling edit will move other clips out of the way. The control key helps out in many ways when editing in Premiere. If you want to cut the beginning out of a clip and have Premiere fill in the gap that would normally appear, you can hold control while dragging the in point of the clip (left edge) to the right. Everything sticks together and there is no gap between your clips. Don't hesitate to try the control key for multiple functions in this process. Idea: To speed up or slow down a clip, try the rate stretch tool. Transitions To add transitions between clips, go to effects>video effects and start looking for what you want. There is a great feature to start your project if you wish, under dissolve called dip to black. To use any transition, all you need to do is select the one you want and drag it to the place in the timeline where you want to smoothly move between clips. This is what dip to black looks like when added to the beginning of the film. Other transitions can be added in the same way between clips. Transitions can also be adjusted for length by simply clicking and dragging the outer edges longer or shorter. This is a cross-dissolve between two clips. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 6

7 If a clip needs some adjustment in its color, contrast, levels or another setting, you can use the settings under the video effects folder in the same place (effects tab). These effects can be done automatically through several auto settings, or you can manually adjust them in the effect controls panel (tab in the same location as the source panel). Select the effect you want to use and drag it to the clip on the timeline. You can see the effects on any clip by selecting that clip and checking in the effect controls panel (tab in the top center panel). If you have several clips that require the same effects applied, you can save the group of them and apply it all at once to other clips. Let's say I adjusted the levels, contrast and color of a clip, and I know I will have to do the same for other clips. I would press control and click on each effect to select them all, go to the fly out menu in the upper right corner of the panel and select save preset. I could name this series of effects and easily apply it to other clips from the presets folder inside the effects panel. Quick tip: You can also do a quick brightness fix by moving the yellow line you see in the timeline. This can quickly change a clip. It also works with volume in audio channels. Titles To easily add titles or credits to your film, you can select title>new title>default still and the next window will ask if you want to change your settings. Generally, this is not necessary, but you may wish to name this title. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 7

8 I am calling mine do_you. Select your preferred font and type the text you desire. Mine says, Do you have what it takes? I am planning on making a several titles, so naming them is a good idea. To center the text in the frame, find the title actions panel at the lower left and select the options to center horizontally and vertically. If you want a scroll or a crawl effect, find the Roll/Crawl Options button. Here, you can instruct it to stay still, roll like movie credits, crawl to the left or crawl to the right. You can also make selections for your title to start and end off screen when it animates. Once you are satisfied with your work, close the title window and your title will appear in the project window. Drag it to the timeline in the channel above the film to overlay. Whatever is on top in the channels will be in front on screen. Premiere works a lot like the layers in Photoshop when it comes to its channels. You can also click and drag the edges of the title on the timeline to make it last a longer or shorter time. Don't hesitate to use transitions on the titles. The zoom and dissolve effects work nicely. Sound Once you are satisfied with your film you can add the audio. There are a few sample songs in your files. If you elect to use something else, be sure that you have permission from the copyright holder. You can import audio the same way as anything else- either by selecting file>import or navigating through the media browser panel. Once imported, you can select the edge and reset the out point of the song or use the razor tool to make a cut so you can delete the part you no longer need. If you want your music to fade at the end, you can do that in Premiere or edit the clip in SoundBooth. To fade in Premiere, move your control time indicator to the place where you wish for your fade to begin. Once you have the correct place selected, you will insert a keyframe. You'll move the control time indicator to the place where you want your fade to end and create another keyframe. You can then pull the second keyframe downward to create the fade. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 8

9 You also have the option to edit the audio file in SoundBooth. Simply right click on the file in the timeline and locate the command to Edit in Adobe SoundBooth. It gives you the option to either edit the source file or render and replace the selected portion of the source file. If you have cut the song to a particular length or you do not want to alter your source file, you should choose render and replace. In SoundBooth, you can add the fade effect (processes>fade) and close the program. It will ask you if you want to save the changes, which you do. The clip in the timeline is automatically replaced with your new and improved audio. Render At this point, we should render the video. Go to sequence>render entire work area. Rendering video simply means that the computer will calculate the effects in a video file to produce the final output. When you render, you will notice that the red line(s) at the top of the timeline window begin to change from red to green. This indicates the progress you are making in the process. This may take some time. Export When everything is just as you want it, you have to export the file so that it may be viewed outside of Premiere. Go to file>export>export media to determine your export settings. You can select what file format your film will be and what preset you want, although we already chose NTSC DV at the beginning. Also, you should click on the yellow text and navigate to the location to which this file should be saved and what its name should be. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 9

10 Click OK and you will open the Adobe Media Encoder. The media encoder makes a queue of everything you need to encode. In this case, there is only one file in the queue. When you tell it to start queue, the final step begins. The media encoder estimates the amount of time necessary and encodes the file. This, too can take some time. When all of that is done, you can see the file in your folder and play it back in a media player (or quick time, depending on the file type) window. Premiere Pro CS4 tutorial- 10