New to Adobe Premiere? *Look Here!*

alpha7158 · Dec-20-06, 06:24 AM

If you do not know how to use the fantastic Adobe Premiere Pro 2 then you have come to the right place. This post is a simple tutorial that explains some of the basics to get you started.

What is Adobe premiere 2?
Adobe premiere pro 2 is a very good real time (can play the edited video as you are editing it) video editing program.

FIRST LOOK AT PREMIERE
when you open up premiere for the first time this is what you will see:

For the sake of this tutorial I am going to assume that you have never used Premiere before.

So for now you should click on the "new project" button so that you can... create a new project.

the screen you will see next is this one:

if you are planning to make a video by using footage that you have captured from a dv or dvd camera then you should select pal standard 48kHz (if you are from Europe) or NTSC standard 48kHz (If you are from the US).

If you are editing video from something else (for example a camera that records to sd card) then you will need to altar the project settings (this is so you don't get a horrid black border around all the videos that you make).
To do this click on the "Custom Settings" tab at the top.

This screen will now pop up:

1) I am assuming that the resolution of the video clip will be different to 720x576 (resolution is the height and width of a video clip measured in pixels). If you want to change the project resolution then change the (1) Editing Mode to "Desktop".

If you know the frame rate of the video clips you will be editing then in (2) Timebase select the correct number. If you do not know then your best bet is to guess. If you are from Europe then it is most likely to be 25fps (fps = frames per second) and if you are from the US then it is most likely to be 29.97fps.

in (3) frame size you want to change the resolution to match that of the video files you will be editing. You can normally find these resolutions within that video files properties (right click on the video file and select properties).

once you have done that you will need to (in (4)) choose where you want to save the project (location) and what you want to call the project. Once that's done click "OK"

THE INTERFACE... WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!
This is what the main interface looks like:

Now, here is a short explanation of what all of the labeled items are for.

1) Library Window
The library is where all the videos, titles etc of your project are kept. It's like a big storage facility. A video has to be put into the library before you can edit it (so don't delete things from the library that you still want to edit).

you can add media to the library by simply dragging and dropping it in, alternatively you can right click on some blank space in the library and select import. If you want to create titles then you should right click > add item. title.

2) Source Clip Player
Think of this as a little video player within premiere. if you select a video from the library then it plays in this window. the controls are easy to use, I will let you figure them out yourself.

3)Effects Controls Tab

I will go into this in more detail later on, For the time being all you need to know is that the effects controls tab is where you can edit the effects that you have applied to a video. This tab will get used a lot so familiarise yourself with it!

4) Project Playback Window
This is similar to the "Source clip player" except it plays the time-line (what you have edited so far). Sometimes it will play jittery, this is quite normal and happens for a variety of reasons:
- You are editing a video that has been compressed (for best performance you should try and edit the video captured from your dv camera as an avi... so keep it at high quality!)
- You have a slow pc
- You have applied and effect the the clip that is playing jittery.

Premiere has to render the video as it plays in order to play it (if that makes sense) so if things are making it have to work harder then it wont play as smooth. Don't worry too much, your final exported video should still play fine.

5) Project Time-line
This is where all of the editing happens, if you want to edit a sequence of clips then you must first drag the clips from the library on to this time-line. You then use the tools to cut, and move he video; you use the effects to do other things (e.g transition effects). If you notice the time-line has 3 video layers and 3 audio layers, this means you can have one video on top of another. more layers can be added by right clicking on a layer and selecting "Add Tracks".

I won't go into every detail about the time-line, play with it to figure the rest out... Oh yeah in the bottom left hand corner of the time-line there is a slider that looks like a small mountain <slider> big mountain. Move thing slider to zoom in and out on the time-line.

6) Available Effects and Transitions
Here is where a whole host of audio and video effects are kept. To apply and effect you must first select it from the available effects and transitions window; drag the effect onto a title, some audio or video that is on the time-line; select the clip you applied the effect to and edit the effect properties in the Effect Controls window.

7) tools
Here are the tools that you can use on the time-line, I have highlighted the ones you will use the most.

the selection tool is the tool that you will use the most to select and move media that you have put onto the time-line.

The Rate Stretch Tool is a tool that you can use to speed up or slow down a clip.

The Razor tool is what you should use if you want to cut a clip into two pieces.

useful tip: if you want to slow down part of a clip then you should cut out the piece of the clip you want to slow down using the razor tool, and then use the rate stretch tool to make only that part play slower. Make sure when changing the rate you don't accidentally drag it over other media on the time-line.

THE BASICS OF EFFECTs CONTROLS
Here is the effects controls window:

to get to this select a video clip on the time-line and then click on the effect controls tab.
As you can see, at the right of the effects controls window there is a mini time-line. This time-line is just for the video clip that you selected.

I am going to show you how to use keyframes, in this example I will play with the opacity effect.
what are keyframes? Keyframes are points in a video clip where you set an effect to a certain value. For example if you put a keyframe at the start of a video that set the opacity (transparency) to 0 and then put one at the end of the video that is set to 100 then it will fade from 0 to 100 opacity as the video is played (ie it will fade in).

in order to use keyframes the clock looking icon ((a)) must be checked.

if you want to add a keyframe then you can simply move the red line on the timeline to where you want the keyframe to go and then change the value of that effect, a keyframe will be added automaticaly ((c) shows you what a keyframe looks like). Alternatively you can click the add keyframe button (b) to add a keyframe.

Play with keyframes, they are an important part of editing!

EXPORTING VIDEO
Before I go into how to export video I recommend that you export video as high quality DV avi and then compress to XVID, h.264, wmv or whatever outside of premiere. You can export using "Adobe media encoder" to compress a video using premiere however I don't recommend it.

To export a video you should first click on the time-line and then select file>export>movie
like so:

name your video file, select where you want to save it and then click on the settings button; you will then get this window appear:

Make sure microsoft DV AVI is selected (note: the exported file size will be several 100 MB for a couple minute video clip)
Then in range you can select entire sequence or work area bar. I have highlighted what the work area bar is if you were to get confused. You can move around the work area bar on the time-line so if you only want to export a small chunk of your project then you can.
if all is well then click ok and then click save.

The project will now render, once rendered you will have a nice big video file to play with.

SMALL WORD ABOUT COMPRESSION
Now I guess you dont want your video to be several 100MB?

You can apply a codec to a video in order to compress it down to make the file size smaller (and web friendly). The codecs I use the most are XIVD or WMV.

to compress to wmv you can simply add your big exported avi into windows movie maker, add it to the time-line and then export.

To export as XVID use a program called AUTO GORDIAN KNOT
to

I am not going to go into any more detail about video compression as that isn't what this tutorial was intended to teach.

I hope this helps!

alpha7158 · Dec-20-06, 06:27 AM

I remade this because the old one got deleted and couldn't be salvaged. I have it goes into more detail than the older one and I hope people find it helpful.

White Nazgul · Dec-20-06, 08:38 AM

wow, thanks alpha!
You're the man....
Now if you could give a link for a d/l and a pass/crack for the program it would be ace.

BTW- does Premiere take aLOT of memory?
Because ,my pc is not the strongest out there (P4 2.4 , 512 mbRam), and sometimes work REALLY SLOW or even get's stuck on Vegas 6...

alpha7158 · Dec-20-06, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by White Nazgul

wow, thanks alpha!
You're the man....
Now if you could give a link for a d/l and a pass/crack for the program it would be ace.

BTW- does Premiere take aLOT of memory?
Because ,my pc is not the strongest out there (P4 2.4 , 512 mbRam), and sometimes work REALLY SLOW or even get's stuck on Vegas 6...

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs.html

download link:
http://torrentspy.com/torrent/924229..._2_0_Mavros619

[RozoN] · Dec-20-06, 09:08 AM

nice tutorial alpha :)...liked a lot more than the other one you made...goes more into details :)...but nothing I didn't know from before though^^

Tatsumaru · Dec-20-06, 09:35 AM

Good job alpha.

Khao · Dec-20-06, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by White Nazgul

wow, thanks alpha!
...BTW- does Premiere take aLOT of memory?
Because ,my pc is not the strongest out there (P4 2.4 , 512 mbRam), and sometimes work REALLY SLOW or even get's stuck on Vegas 6...

your comp needs some cleaning, you got nearly twice my comp's power ( 1.2ghz, 384 mbRam) and I run Vegas 6 really fast, and Adobe photoshop cs2 with illustrator cs2 at the same time with not too much difficulty.. Seriously, wipe that comp and it will be more powerful than ever!

Swartz · Dec-20-06, 06:27 PM

Dang I wish I had Premiere to mess around with and learn. Maybe someday haha. Not a huge priority at the moment. Looks like you put a good amount of work into making this Andy, so even though I can't use this info at the moment, you get an "A" for effort.

blackflipboi · Dec-20-06, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swartz

Dang I wish I had Premiere to mess around with and learn. Maybe someday haha. Not a huge priority at the moment. Looks like you put a good amount of work into making this Andy, so even though I can't use this info at the moment, you get an "A" for effort.

you mind find something, if you already know then my bad...

Swartz · Dec-20-06, 06:50 PM

I'm not sure what you mean there buddy. I don't know squat about how to use Premiere. I'm saying if I had the product I'd find it useful.

Dec-20-06, 06:24 AM	#1
alpha7158 Alpha7158 User status: Offline Location: Birmingham (uni) Posts: 4,499 Age: 21	New to Adobe Premiere? Look Here! If you do not know how to use the fantastic Adobe Premiere Pro 2 then you have come to the right place. This post is a simple tutorial that explains some of the basics to get you started. What is Adobe premiere 2? Adobe premiere pro 2 is a very good real time (can play the edited video as you are editing it) video editing program. FIRST LOOK AT PREMIERE when you open up premiere for the first time this is what you will see: For the sake of this tutorial I am going to assume that you have never used Premiere before. So for now you should click on the "new project" button so that you can... create a new project. the screen you will see next is this one: if you are planning to make a video by using footage that you have captured from a dv or dvd camera then you should select pal standard 48kHz (if you are from Europe) or NTSC standard 48kHz (If you are from the US). If you are editing video from something else (for example a camera that records to sd card) then you will need to altar the project settings (this is so you don't get a horrid black border around all the videos that you make). To do this click on the "Custom Settings" tab at the top. This screen will now pop up: 1) I am assuming that the resolution of the video clip will be different to 720x576 (resolution is the height and width of a video clip measured in pixels). If you want to change the project resolution then change the (1) Editing Mode to "Desktop". If you know the frame rate of the video clips you will be editing then in (2) Timebase select the correct number. If you do not know then your best bet is to guess. If you are from Europe then it is most likely to be 25fps (fps = frames per second) and if you are from the US then it is most likely to be 29.97fps. in (3) frame size you want to change the resolution to match that of the video files you will be editing. You can normally find these resolutions within that video files properties (right click on the video file and select properties). once you have done that you will need to (in (4)) choose where you want to save the project (location) and what you want to call the project. Once that's done click "OK" THE INTERFACE... WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?! This is what the main interface looks like: Now, here is a short explanation of what all of the labeled items are for. 1) Library Window The library is where all the videos, titles etc of your project are kept. It's like a big storage facility. A video has to be put into the library before you can edit it (so don't delete things from the library that you still want to edit). you can add media to the library by simply dragging and dropping it in, alternatively you can right click on some blank space in the library and select import. If you want to create titles then you should right click > add item. title. 2) Source Clip Player Think of this as a little video player within premiere. if you select a video from the library then it plays in this window. the controls are easy to use, I will let you figure them out yourself. 3)Effects Controls Tab I will go into this in more detail later on, For the time being all you need to know is that the effects controls tab is where you can edit the effects that you have applied to a video. This tab will get used a lot so familiarise yourself with it! 4) Project Playback Window This is similar to the "Source clip player" except it plays the time-line (what you have edited so far). Sometimes it will play jittery, this is quite normal and happens for a variety of reasons: - You are editing a video that has been compressed (for best performance you should try and edit the video captured from your dv camera as an avi... so keep it at high quality!) - You have a slow pc - You have applied and effect the the clip that is playing jittery. Premiere has to render the video as it plays in order to play it (if that makes sense) so if things are making it have to work harder then it wont play as smooth. Don't worry too much, your final exported video should still play fine. 5) Project Time-line This is where all of the editing happens, if you want to edit a sequence of clips then you must first drag the clips from the library on to this time-line. You then use the tools to cut, and move he video; you use the effects to do other things (e.g transition effects). If you notice the time-line has 3 video layers and 3 audio layers, this means you can have one video on top of another. more layers can be added by right clicking on a layer and selecting "Add Tracks". I won't go into every detail about the time-line, play with it to figure the rest out... Oh yeah in the bottom left hand corner of the time-line there is a slider that looks like a small mountain <slider> big mountain. Move thing slider to zoom in and out on the time-line. 6) Available Effects and Transitions Here is where a whole host of audio and video effects are kept. To apply and effect you must first select it from the available effects and transitions window; drag the effect onto a title, some audio or video that is on the time-line; select the clip you applied the effect to and edit the effect properties in the Effect Controls window. 7) tools Here are the tools that you can use on the time-line, I have highlighted the ones you will use the most. the selection tool is the tool that you will use the most to select and move media that you have put onto the time-line. The Rate Stretch Tool is a tool that you can use to speed up or slow down a clip. The Razor tool is what you should use if you want to cut a clip into two pieces. useful tip: if you want to slow down part of a clip then you should cut out the piece of the clip you want to slow down using the razor tool, and then use the rate stretch tool to make only that part play slower. Make sure when changing the rate you don't accidentally drag it over other media on the time-line. THE BASICS OF EFFECTs CONTROLS Here is the effects controls window: to get to this select a video clip on the time-line and then click on the effect controls tab. As you can see, at the right of the effects controls window there is a mini time-line. This time-line is just for the video clip that you selected. I am going to show you how to use keyframes, in this example I will play with the opacity effect. what are keyframes? Keyframes are points in a video clip where you set an effect to a certain value. For example if you put a keyframe at the start of a video that set the opacity (transparency) to 0 and then put one at the end of the video that is set to 100 then it will fade from 0 to 100 opacity as the video is played (ie it will fade in). in order to use keyframes the clock looking icon ((a)) must be checked. if you want to add a keyframe then you can simply move the red line on the timeline to where you want the keyframe to go and then change the value of that effect, a keyframe will be added automaticaly ((c) shows you what a keyframe looks like). Alternatively you can click the add keyframe button (b) to add a keyframe. Play with keyframes, they are an important part of editing! EXPORTING VIDEO Before I go into how to export video I recommend that you export video as high quality DV avi and then compress to XVID, h.264, wmv or whatever outside of premiere. You can export using "Adobe media encoder" to compress a video using premiere however I don't recommend it. To export a video you should first click on the time-line and then select file>export>movie like so: name your video file, select where you want to save it and then click on the settings button; you will then get this window appear: Make sure microsoft DV AVI is selected (note: the exported file size will be several 100 MB for a couple minute video clip) Then in range you can select entire sequence or work area bar. I have highlighted what the work area bar is if you were to get confused. You can move around the work area bar on the time-line so if you only want to export a small chunk of your project then you can. if all is well then click ok and then click save. The project will now render, once rendered you will have a nice big video file to play with. SMALL WORD ABOUT COMPRESSION Now I guess you dont want your video to be several 100MB? You can apply a codec to a video in order to compress it down to make the file size smaller (and web friendly). The codecs I use the most are XIVD or WMV. to compress to wmv you can simply add your big exported avi into windows movie maker, add it to the time-line and then export. To export as XVID use a program called AUTO GORDIAN KNOT to I am not going to go into any more detail about video compression as that isn't what this tutorial was intended to teach. I hope this helps!

Dec-20-06, 06:27 AM	#2
alpha7158 Alpha7158 User status: Offline Location: Birmingham (uni) Posts: 4,499 Age: 21	I remade this because the old one got deleted and couldn't be salvaged. I have it goes into more detail than the older one and I hope people find it helpful.

Dec-20-06, 08:38 AM	#3
White Nazgul teh sweet 540 User status: Offline Location: Israel Posts: 798 Age: 20	wow, thanks alpha! You're the man.... Now if you could give a link for a d/l and a pass/crack for the program it would be ace. BTW- does Premiere take aLOT of memory? Because ,my pc is not the strongest out there (P4 2.4 , 512 mbRam), and sometimes work REALLY SLOW or even get's stuck on Vegas 6...

Dec-20-06, 09:08 AM	#5
[RozoN] Walking contradiction User status: Offline Location: Ostfold, Norway Posts: 2,501 Age: 20	nice tutorial alpha :)...liked a lot more than the other one you made...goes more into details :)...but nothing I didn't know from before though^^

Dec-20-06, 09:35 AM	#6
Tatsumaru Astrum User status: Offline Location: The Netherlands Posts: 3,061 Age: 21	Good job alpha.

Dec-20-06, 06:27 PM	#8
Swartz Member User status: Offline Posts: 101,058 Age: 24	Dang I wish I had Premiere to mess around with and learn. Maybe someday haha. Not a huge priority at the moment. Looks like you put a good amount of work into making this Andy, so even though I can't use this info at the moment, you get an "A" for effort.

Dec-20-06, 06:50 PM	#10
Swartz Member User status: Offline Posts: 101,058 Age: 24	I'm not sure what you mean there buddy. I don't know squat about how to use Premiere. I'm saying if I had the product I'd find it useful.