Adobe Premiere Elements Tutorial

Adobe Premiere Elements Tutorial Starting a New Project To import movie clips from a digital video camera, click on the Capture Video button. You will be prompted to name your project and choose a location for saving the project. In most cases, the default location for saving the project will be the Adobe Premiere Elements folder located in the My Documents folder. Name your project and click OK. You will now see the video capture screen. You can change the name of the video clip here. This area displays the fast forward, rewind, stop, and play features. When you are ready to capture video from your video camera, you can press the Capture button. The How To window is available to help you with the many Adobe Premiere features. This box displays the status of the capture and the amount of time available for the capture. The time displayed in this window is dependent upon the size of the computer hard drive. Tip: You should allow approximately 1GB of hard drive space for every 4.5 seconds of video. The More button gives you access to some important settings. 1

Before you begin capturing video, you will need to make a few adjustments to the video capture settings. Click on the More button. Make sure that you have check marks beside the following: Capture Audio and Video Scene Detect Capture to Timeline You can now click on the Capture button. Navigating through the Premiere Elements Interface Once you have imported your video clips, you have many different options for enhancing your movie. Before editing your movie, it is important to understand the Premiere Elements Interface. The Media window displays all of the movie clips, sound files and pictures that have been imported. The Monitor window allows you to view individual clips or the entire movie. The Timeline window is where you can rearrange clips, edit clips, and add titles, transitions, and music. The Time Code Indicator 00; 03; 41; 08 Hrs. Mins. Secs. Frames This number is relative to the position on the digital video tape. Current Time Indicator (CTI) can be dragged to locate a certain part of a clip or a timeline. 2

Keystrokes for Navigating Left/Right Arrows: Moves the Current Time Indicator (CTI) forward one frame at a time or backward one frame at time. Page Up/Page Down Keys: Moves the Current Time Indicator (CTI) forward one clip at a time or backward one clip at time. Home Key: Moves the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the beginning of the timeline. End Key: Moves the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the end of the timeline. Editing a Clip in the Monitor Window You can trim unwanted or blank frames at the beginning or end of a clip by doing the following: Double-click on a clip in the timeline window. This puts the clip in the Monitor window. Move the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the desired beginning point and click the In option. The clip will now begin at this new starting point. The ending point of the clip can be set in the same way. Drag the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the desired end of the clip and click on the Out option. When you view the timeline, you will notice that you have a gap between where the old starting point was and where the new starting point is. You can get rid of this gap by performing a ripple delete. You can use the Zoom control to make the timeline bigger so that you can see the gap more clearly. Click in the empty space and click on your backspace key. The blank area will be eliminated. 3

Trimming a Clip in the Timeline Window You can use the Page Up or Page Down keys to move to an edit point for each clip. When you click in the timeline window on one of the edit points, the pointer becomes a red bracket with a black double arrow. You can view how the clips will look in the monitor window Dragging this bracket to the left of the edit line, will trim frames from the preceding clip. Positioning the bracket to the right of the edit line and dragging to the right will trim frames from the following clip. Once you have dragged the bracket to the desired position, let up on the mouse button and the clip will be trimmed. Note: Trimming does not delete frames. It simply sets the start or end of the clip. (Start and end points are also called In and Out points.) The trimmed frames are always available if you later need to adjust a clip again. Moving a Clip in the Timeline Window To move a clip to another part of the timeline, click on the clip you wish to move. Make sure that you have the white arrow and not the red bracket icon. Hold down the ALT key, hold the mouse button down and drag the clip to the new location. Note: When you hold down the ALT key, you will notice that a blue arrow that curves to the left is visible. By holding the ALT key down while moving the clip, the gap where the clip used to be is automatically removed. 4

Removing a Section of a Clip in the Timeline Window You can remove a portion of a clip using the Razor Blade Tool. To select the Razor Blade Tool, you can click on the razor blade icon in the timeline window, or you can type the letter C. You will notice that the white pointer turns into a tiny razor blade icon. Before using this tool, you may want to separate your audio and video tracks. To do this, right-click on a clip. You will see a menu similar to the one on the right. Click on Unlink Audio and Video. With the audio and video tracks separated, click on the video track to select it. Using the razor blade tool, hover over the place where you want to cut the video clip and click. This will divide the clip into two pieces. Once you have made the cut point with the razor blade tool, you can switch back to the selection tool (the white arrow) by typing a V. Now click on the cut point and drag to the right to eliminate the unwanted frames. Notice that the white arrow turns into the red bracket with the black double arrow. You can see how the preceding and following clip will look by viewing the monitor window. 5

You will notice that the clip is shorter and there is a gap in the video track. Since the audio and video tracks are unlinked, the audio track is unbroken. Click on the end of the audio clip, and your selection tool will turn into the red bracket with the black double arrow. Drag the audio clip to the left until you are at the end of the edited clip. Release the mouse button, and the gap will disappear. Using the Time Stretch Option The Time Stretch option can be used to speed up a section of a video clip or the entire clip. To use this option, click on the clip you want to edit, and under the Clip menu, select Time Stretch. You will see a window similar to the one on the right. By typing in a new value for the speed of the clip, you can speed up or slow down the clip. Clicking the Maintain Audio Pitch box will keep the audio track associated with the clip at the normal speed, so it will not be distorted. 6

If you just want to apply the Time Stretch feature to a portion of the clip, you can use the razor blade tool to cut the clip and make a small section. Click on this small section, and then choose the Time Stretch feature from the Clip menu. Adjusting Audio Levels You can adjust the audio levels for your video clips by clicking on a clip to select and then moving the yellow line in the sound track up to increase the volume or down to decrease the volume. The above technique works very well when the sound level for the entire clip is fairly uniform. In some cases, however, you may have a clip that has varying sound levels. To adjust the sound level in this type of clip, you will need to use the Keyframe feature. To use Keyframes to adjust the audio level of a portion of a clip, click on the audio portion of the clip to a spot a little before the sound level begins to change. Once you have identified this spot, click on the diamond shape on the left side of the audio track. This inserts a keyframe. Now click a little closer to where the audio level changes and click on the keyframe icon. When you drag the yellow audio level line, you will see the keyframe area where the sound level gradually decreases. This will make the transition between a rather low sound level to a higher one much smoother. 7

Adding Music To add music, click on the Add Media button located above the Media window. A window will appear, and you will need to navigate to where your music files are located. Click on the music file you wish to include and click on the Open button. You will now see the music file in your Media window. You can drag this music file to one of the audio tracks. If you only see one audio track, you can drag the music file below the first audio track and another one will appear. Adding Transitions You can find a wide variety of transitions to use in the Effects menu. The video transitions are organized in folders. Clicking on the triangle next to a folder will allow you to view the transitions within the folder. You can add a transition between clips by dragging the transition to the timeline. You can shorten the length of a transition the same way you can shorten the length of a video clip. Click at the end of the transition, and when you see the red bracket with the black double arrow, drag to the left. 8

Editing a Transition You can edit a transition by double-clicking on it in the timeline. A screen similar to the one on the right will appear. By clicking on the Show Actual Sources box, you can see the actual transition as it will appear in the video. In the example to the right below, the Iris Round transition was used. You can change where the iris opens on the clip by clicking on the circle in the preview window and moving it to another location. The changes you make will automatically be added to the timeline. 9

Working with Titles You can access the Title Designer by clicking on the Titles button. The title templates are arranged in categories. The Retro TV folder is chosen in the window below. The title templates within this folder are designed to give a uniform theme to the movie. The checkered pattern in this template indicates that video frames can be added to the background. When you click OK, a screen similar to the one on the right will appear. The background of the title slide is set to whatever frame is selected in the timeline. You can uncheck the Show Video box is you do not wish to see the video background, or you can use the frame settings (the blue numbers) to the right of the Show Video option to change the video frame that is displayed in the background of the title slide. 10

You can customize the title template by choosing Recreate Title From Template from the More button. This will bring you back to the Title Template window, and you can choose another title template. After you have chosen your title template, you can double-click on the text to edit it. You can choose different styles of fonts by clicking on the text you wish to change and then click on one of the font styles to the right of title template window. You will see changes in the title slide window. When you have finished creating your Title slide, you will need to save it before you can add it to your timeline. Click on the Save Title button. 11

A save window will appear. You can give your title a name and save it in the Source files folder. Click the Save button. Close the Title Designer window, and you should see the title in the Media window. You can now drag the title to the timeline. Exporting the Finished Movie Exporting as an MPEG file for viewing on your computer You will need to export your movie before you can view it full screen. If you are planning to view you movie on your computer, you can export it as an MPEG file. The directions for exporting to this file format are as follows: Click in the Timeline window to activate it. In the task bar, hold down the Export button and select MPEG. 12

In the list on the left, expand the Multimedia Compatible folder, and select 320 x 240, MPEG2. Then click OK. Specify a file name and location, and then click Save. Exporting as a Windows Media File for emailing or for the Web Click the Timeline window to activate it. In the task bar, hold down the Export button and select Windows Media. From the list on the left, select a preset that reflects your audience s Internet connection and click OK. Specify a file name and location, and click Save. Exporting as a DVD Note: The teacher computer does not have a DVD burner. To burn a DVD, you will need an external DVD burner. Before exporting as a DVD, you may want to mark scenes as chapters. You can do this by following these directions: When you have finished editing your movie, move the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the first scene that you want to appear in the scene menu. 13

In the Timeline window, click the DVD Marker button. In the DVD Marker dialog box, type a name for the marker. This name replaces the button name in the scenes menu. In the Marker Type box, select Scene Marker from the drop-down menu. Click OK. Repeat these steps until you have marked all of your scenes. Once you have marked the scenes in your movie, you are ready to create a DVD with a menu. In the task bar, click the DVD button. In the DVD Templates dialog box, select Apply A Template For A DVD With Menus. From the Theme menu, choose a theme. Select a template and click OK. 14

In the DVD Layout window, double-click menu items to change their text. Click Preview DVD and use the navigation controls to select each button and view each scene or video. Close the window to return to the DVD Layout window. To burn a disc, click Burn DVD. Creating a slideshow with still images In the task bar, click the Add Media button. Navigate to the folder where you have stored your photos. Click on the folder to select it and click Add Folder. In the Media window, click the down arrow next to the Photos folder to expand it. Shift-click each photo to select them and click the Create Slideshow button at the bottom of the Media window. From the Ordering menu, select Sort Order to place the images in the order they appear in the Media window. Change Image Duration to 2 Seconds and Transition Duration to 20 frames. Then, click OK. The Create Slideshow command places the five still images at the end of the movie on the Video 1 track and adds the Cross Dissolve transition between each image. (In the Timeline window, transitions appear as rectangles with diagonal lines.) 15

Changing the default transition used for Create Slideshow command The Create Slideshow command optionally applies transitions between each clip it places. Initially, the default transitions are Cross Dissolve for video or still images and Constant Power for audio. You can change the default to any transition you want. Changing the default transition doesn't affect transitions already applied to a movie. Note: The default transition is an application setting, not a project setting. When you change the default transition, you change the default used for all projects. To change the default transition: 1. Click the Effects button on the task bar. Adobe Premiere Elements displays the Effects workspace. 2. In the Effects window, expand the Video Transitions or Audio Transitions folder. 3. Expand the folder containing the transition you want to use, and select the transition that you want to make the default. 4. Click the More button, and choose Set Selected As Default Transition. A red outline marks the icon of the default transition. Preview the slideshow Move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the photos, and press the spacebar. Movies with transitions or effects can take longer to process, so the slideshow preview may not play as smoothly as the other clips. Adobe Premiere Elements adds a thin, red line in the time ruler to indicate that you should first render that area for the best preview. Choose Timeline > Render Work Area. When rendering is complete, the red line turns green, and the Monitor window plays the movie. Add music Close the Photos folder in the Media window. Add music to the project by clicking the Add Media button. Navigate to the folder where you have stored music files and select the.wav file you wish to use. Click Open. Move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the movie, zooming out if necessary. Drag the.wav from the Media window to the Audio 2 track, letting it snap to the beginning of the movie. Save the slideshow. 16