Introduction to Premiere pro
getting started
If you don't already have the free Adobe software UC Berkeley provides for students, please download that here. Once you've downloaded Adobe Creative Cloud, please install the following programs: Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop (the latter of which you may have already installed if you did the previous lab). If you need any help with any of this, feel free to shoot us an e-mail at [email protected], and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
We're expecting something like this by the end of the lab:
We're expecting something like this by the end of the lab:
for traditional artists: scanning your storyboards
Please use this sample excerpt from a storyboard to follow along with the exercise. There is no single "correct" way to time these boards or add sound, but use this lab as practice for timing out actions in way that feels cohesive and realistic.
When you begin making your own animatic, some of you will have your boards on paper. You need a way to transfer the drawings you have on paper to the screen. To do so, make sure you have an access to a scanner. If you do not have a scanner, there are many libraries, if not all of them, that own scanners. However, if you are on a tight schedule, please make sure to simply take clear pictures of your boards and be certain that they are easy to see (i.e., if your pencil lines are light, we want you to ink over them with pen or darken your lines in Photoshop or another photo editing software).
Again, whether you are scanning or taking pictures of your boards, please make sure your drawings are clear. Each drawing should be on its own image file and cropped to the appropriate size so no borders or edges are showing. They should be completely desaturated (black and white only, no residual colors from environment lighting), and if you did your drawings in pencil, you may have to increase the contrast so that your pencil drawings are clear.
For more info about editing traditional art, please consult the Intro to Photoshop Lab.
When you begin making your own animatic, some of you will have your boards on paper. You need a way to transfer the drawings you have on paper to the screen. To do so, make sure you have an access to a scanner. If you do not have a scanner, there are many libraries, if not all of them, that own scanners. However, if you are on a tight schedule, please make sure to simply take clear pictures of your boards and be certain that they are easy to see (i.e., if your pencil lines are light, we want you to ink over them with pen or darken your lines in Photoshop or another photo editing software).
Again, whether you are scanning or taking pictures of your boards, please make sure your drawings are clear. Each drawing should be on its own image file and cropped to the appropriate size so no borders or edges are showing. They should be completely desaturated (black and white only, no residual colors from environment lighting), and if you did your drawings in pencil, you may have to increase the contrast so that your pencil drawings are clear.
For more info about editing traditional art, please consult the Intro to Photoshop Lab.
using premiere pro: opening up a new project
Whether you're working traditionally or digitally, you should have individual image files for each of your storyboards. One board, one .png/.jpeg file.
So, it's time to open up a new project on Premiere Pro.
So, it's time to open up a new project on Premiere Pro.
Rename your new project with STORYTITLE_Animatic. Change the "Location" of your file as needed. Make sure to set your new project where your video format is on Timecode, audio on Audio Samples, and capture on DV, like so:
Before we get started, you want to make sure your workspace is in Editing mode to make your life much simpler and be able to follow this guide a lot easier. This is one of the default workspace presets that Premiere Pro provides. To check if your workspace is in Editing mode, you want to go to Window > Workspace > Editing.
By default, one of your workspace sections (for me, it's the bottom left) is probably set to "Media Browser." If so, to make your life easier, change it to "Project" mode.
Now, you want to create a new sequence by going to File > New > Sequence. In a nutshell, a sequence is basically one video clip. Because we are only creating one story and not a feature length film, you will likely only need one sequence. For a longer project, though, you could put many sequences together.
Once you have selected to create a new sequence, the Sequence Presents window will pop up. You can scroll through your Sequence Presets and look up what some of them mean on your own, but for the sake of this lab, use HDV 1080p24, as it is the standard size for movie files.
Once you have selected to create a new sequence, the Sequence Presents window will pop up. You can scroll through your Sequence Presets and look up what some of them mean on your own, but for the sake of this lab, use HDV 1080p24, as it is the standard size for movie files.
You can rename your new sequence here if you want. Clicking "OK" will create the sequence under your Project sub-window. You will also see that a timeline has appeared in one of the previously empty sub-windows that has the title of your new sequence. The top rows of this timeline (labeled V1, V2, V3, etc.) are the video timeline, and the bottom rows (A1, A2, etc.) are for audio. For the video layers, just like in Photoshop, layers that are higher up will cover up layers below.
Your entire workspace should look something like this:
Your entire workspace should look something like this:
Now that you have your sequence created, you can import your images. One way to do this is to go to File > Import. If you do it this way, do not import your images as an Image Sequence; instead, select all the images you're planning to include in your animatic and import them together.
Another way is to simply drag the desired image(s) into either the Timeline or the Project sub-window, as shown below. (Warning: If you're dragging in your own files en masse, make sure they're in the desired order, or you'll have to spend a lot of time fixing them!)
Another way is to simply drag the desired image(s) into either the Timeline or the Project sub-window, as shown below. (Warning: If you're dragging in your own files en masse, make sure they're in the desired order, or you'll have to spend a lot of time fixing them!)
You'll notice that all your image files are now also in your Project file, where "Sequence 01" is located. This is because Premiere stores links to all of the files that you use in it. Do not move any files on your computer after you import them into Premiere, or Premiere will not be able to find them anymore (although this can be easily fixed by re-linking, covered in the Tips and Tricks page.)
If you are unable to see the pink strips indicating the image clips in the timeline, don't panic! You'll just have to drag the scrollbar located at the bottom of the sequence inwards. (To drag it outwards is to zoom out of the sequence).
The first thing you may notice is that the images don't perfectly fit the screen. To do this, we'll have to edit the Scale in Effect Controls (most likely the top left sub-window by default; if you don't see it on your window, you may have to go to Windows > Effect Controls to make it show up).
Click on any image clip, making sure your playhead (the blue line) is over the clip that you selected. Adjust the scale until the green border is no longer visible. I found ~148% to work well for me.
If you are unable to see the pink strips indicating the image clips in the timeline, don't panic! You'll just have to drag the scrollbar located at the bottom of the sequence inwards. (To drag it outwards is to zoom out of the sequence).
The first thing you may notice is that the images don't perfectly fit the screen. To do this, we'll have to edit the Scale in Effect Controls (most likely the top left sub-window by default; if you don't see it on your window, you may have to go to Windows > Effect Controls to make it show up).
Click on any image clip, making sure your playhead (the blue line) is over the clip that you selected. Adjust the scale until the green border is no longer visible. I found ~148% to work well for me.
Because all the images are the same size, we can apply this change to all the clips simply by copy/pasting the motion effects. (Note: On your own animatic, if you are adding panning/zooming/etc. to a clip, make sure to do this step BEFORE any of those effects, or else those motion effects will also be cloned or overridden!)
In the Video Effects sub-window, right click the "Motion" title and select "Copy."
Then, select all image clips in the Timeline and Paste with Ctrl+V.
In the Video Effects sub-window, right click the "Motion" title and select "Copy."
Then, select all image clips in the Timeline and Paste with Ctrl+V.
Fixed! Scrub through your video and double-check that all frames now fit the screen.
But there's another problem. At this point, if you play the video in the preview window, you will probably notice that each clip lasts for a very long time. You could edit each clip manually, but you can also edit them all at once.
But there's another problem. At this point, if you play the video in the preview window, you will probably notice that each clip lasts for a very long time. You could edit each clip manually, but you can also edit them all at once.
- Select all the clips (click on one clip and Ctrl+A, or click and drag all of the clips)
- Right click > Speed/Duration
- Enter in the desired length per clip (I'd suggest around .5 seconds to start with)
- Make sure the Ripple Edit option is checked
- Then press OK
If you play the video now, it should feel like a much more reasonable pace. However, you will still have to adjust the length of each individual clip to make sure that all of the actions feel natural! The next section will give you some tools on how to do that.
familiarizing yourself with the interface
Now that you have your images imported and you've used the scrollbar to zoom in on them, you might want to get familiar with some of the main tools you'll be using to edit.
Your goal will be to adjust the time of your image clips as necessary in order to convey the story, checking each scene's readability and making room for anticipation. Expect your story to be much longer than the sample; remember that your minimum is 1 minute and your maximum is 2.
Your goal will be to adjust the time of your image clips as necessary in order to convey the story, checking each scene's readability and making room for anticipation. Expect your story to be much longer than the sample; remember that your minimum is 1 minute and your maximum is 2.
Starting from under "Sequence 1 / 00:00:00:00", notice how I have the Snap (the magnet symbol) tool turned on. You can turn this on/off as you wish, but I prefer it to be on so it snaps to a certain second. You may find it useful to turn it off if you want to be extremely precise with your timing.
On the left, you have your toolbar; the first being the Select (V) tool, which simply selects any video or audio clip(s) as necessary. Two tools under that is the Ripple Edit (B) tool, which allows you to manipulate the length of each clip while pushing the others away, like so:
On the left, you have your toolbar; the first being the Select (V) tool, which simply selects any video or audio clip(s) as necessary. Two tools under that is the Ripple Edit (B) tool, which allows you to manipulate the length of each clip while pushing the others away, like so:
Another two tools under the Ripple Edit tools is the Razor (C) tool, which is extremely helpful in cutting up both video and audio. I primarily use it to split my audio at a precise time and delete the extra audio.
For more Tools & Shortcuts, see the Tips & Tricks Article
effects: zooming and panning
Above, I briefly described how to create a simply fade in/out effect. But, if your story is more complex and includes zooming in/out and panning left/right in scenes, this is the section for you. If you are following along with the example storyboard, the first frame should start off zoomed-in on the "Mixed Paper" text and gradually zoom out to the full image (denoted as "pan out"). The character then looks to the right, prompting a pan right immediately after the zoom out.
Before we begin, you may notice that, at the top left of your workspace, there are a few tabs. Click on an image clip you would like to add an effect to, and click on the "Effect Controls". You should see something like this:
Before we begin, you may notice that, at the top left of your workspace, there are a few tabs. Click on an image clip you would like to add an effect to, and click on the "Effect Controls". You should see something like this:
To pan and zoom, I want to focus on the fx Motion tab.
zooming in/out
To depict a zoom into your scene, you want to manipulate the Scale tool. What I did was create a key frame by clicking on the Stopwatch symbol (the "Toggle Animation") at the very first frame of the image, move to the very last frame of the image, where I want the zoom in to stop, and increase value of the scale (as I want to zoom in; if you wanted to zoom out, you would want to decrease the value). Premiere Pro automatically creates a new key frame once you change the value of the first key, so you won't have to worry about clicking on the "Toggle Animation" button again.
panning left/right (or up/down)
Similar to how you manipulate the Scale tool, you would want to use the Position tool to create the panning effect as so:
You may notice that there's an unsightly black void when you pan left in right, both in the gif above and in the example storyboard when you try panning. This is fine for first pass storyboards and animatics, but in your final animatic we would expect you to draw an extra long (or extra tall) frame so that the pan is a continuous image.
inserting audio files
After you've finished manipulating your video clips, you'll want to add sound to your almost-finished animatic.
There's many sites out there where you can get royalty free music and sound effects. Personally, I like to use freesound.org. Download your sound files as appropriate, and we'll import them into our Sequence as we did for the images. Drag them into the Audio (A1, A2, or A3) Timeline.
There's many sites out there where you can get royalty free music and sound effects. Personally, I like to use freesound.org. Download your sound files as appropriate, and we'll import them into our Sequence as we did for the images. Drag them into the Audio (A1, A2, or A3) Timeline.
And just like your image files, you can import all the appropriate sounds for your videos. This is where the different layers (A1, A2, A3, etc.) come in handy. Much of the time, sound effects will overlap; try listening to a clip from your favorite movie and picking out some sound effects.
This is the part where you may want to turn off the Snap (magnet) function so you can get really precise with your sound.
This is the part where you may want to turn off the Snap (magnet) function so you can get really precise with your sound.
Be sure to avoid having any gaps of silences (the image above has a small gap of silence), because silences are very, very harsh and jarring. If there are no sound effects at that time, be sure to have at least a background noise sound that is consistent with your story setting.
Additionally, if you find that you need an extra layer of audio because, alas, you forgot your background sound, you can always add an audio track by right clicking one of the tracks (such as A1) and "Add Track"
Additionally, if you find that you need an extra layer of audio because, alas, you forgot your background sound, you can always add an audio track by right clicking one of the tracks (such as A1) and "Add Track"
You can easily manipulate the audio tracks just as you can manipulate the video tracks. So, if you want to get really precise with your audio and only want a certain part of it to play, you can zoom in, use the razor tool, cut the specific part of the picee out, and delete it. And, like the video layers, you can scroll down to see the audio attributes, like so:
Please make sure that, as you are playing back your sound, it does not surpass the -18 dB mark. A good level to keep your sound at is about -24 dB so that, when we play it out loud, the sound is not too jarring. To adjust the volume of your sound clip, you can expand the audio track and click and drag down the white bar that separates the L and R.
good! |
BAD! |
exporting the animatic
Now that you've completed your animatic, it's time to export your file! File > Export > Media
You want to keep your format to H.264, and if you used the suggested Sequence presets, you should not need to change your audio / video settings. Make sure that you check BOTH "Export Video" and "Export Audio," and change the name of your file to the name of your animatic.
For the example storyboard assignment , just name it PREMIERELAB_YOURNAME.
You want to keep your format to H.264, and if you used the suggested Sequence presets, you should not need to change your audio / video settings. Make sure that you check BOTH "Export Video" and "Export Audio," and change the name of your file to the name of your animatic.
For the example storyboard assignment , just name it PREMIERELAB_YOURNAME.
Finally, click "Export" to render your .mp4 file! Double check to make sure that you have a playable .mp4 file with no glitchiness, and not an uncompressed .avi file!
Congratulations! Now you're finished with your first animatic! Submit it to us as per the instructions given in class or on the lectures slides! Also compare your video with the example animatic—which parts did you do differently? Which version do you prefer? What would you improve on?
Be sure to e-mail us at [email protected] or come to office hours if you have any questions or if you get stuck on any part of this guide, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Congratulations! Now you're finished with your first animatic! Submit it to us as per the instructions given in class or on the lectures slides! Also compare your video with the example animatic—which parts did you do differently? Which version do you prefer? What would you improve on?
Be sure to e-mail us at [email protected] or come to office hours if you have any questions or if you get stuck on any part of this guide, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
