Animating a Clip with Motion

Every clip, even if it has no additional effects, automatically has one option available in the Effect Controls window. It's called Motion. Warning: Be careful how you use this effect on a stand-alone clip. Depending on the type of project you are editing, this effect is often overused and can create a very unprofessional look. But when it's used subtly or with a combination of other video layers, you can achieve some professional-looking results. Generally, I might use this in combination with titles or other clips (the Picture-in-Picture effect), where you see several images moving over a background image. In any case, when you enable the Motion effect, the Motion Settings window appears. This window contains all the necessary controls to adjust the size, shape, speed, and path at which your clip travels. There are numerous ways to get the same results, and different areas accomplish the same thing. For instance, to add keyframes, you can do either of the following:

  • Click anywhere along the clip's path in the upper-right corner (the showing visible area).

  • Click anywhere along the line in the window's Time section, as shown in Figure 6.8.

    Figure 6.8. There are multiple places where you can choose to add keyframes to a clip.

    graphics/06fig08.gif

In either case, what you do in one area is automatically updated in the other area. Therefore, if you add a keyframe along the Time line (represented by a tick mark), a red square appears in the respective area of the path line in the other area. In both cases, the length of the lines represents the clip's full duration. The first keyframe at the very beginning of the line represents the first frame of the clip, and the last keyframe represents the last frame of the clip.

note

The Motion effect is the default effect that appears on all clips added to your timeline on Video Tracks 1 and above. Two options appear for clips placed in Video Tracks 2 and above: Motion and Transparency.


A common use of the Motion effect is to create pseudo camera movements. This effect allows you to zoom in (or out) from one portion of the clip to another. This works well by adding some life to still shots, photos, or graphics you import into Premiere. To accomplish this effect, follow these steps:

  1. Enable the Motion effect in the Effect Controls window.

  2. Select one of the keyframes (either the first or last, depending on which effect you want to create zooming in or out).

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Drag the zoom slider to the right to increase the image's size or to the left to decrease it.

    • Enter a numeric value in the field next to the zoom slider. (100% represents a normal, full-screen image.)

    • Drag the corner points for all four corners of the image in the Distortion area an equal distance. Placing each point outside the gray box (representing the default size) enlarges the image. Dragging each point inside the gray box reduces the image's size.

  4. Play the clip to view the effect.

tip

To maintain quality and avoid pixelization, you might consider using higher-resolution images where possible when zooming in on a still image.


If you change the values on only one keyframe, Premiere automatically calculates and resizes the image evenly for the duration of the clip from the proportions and position of the clip set in the first keyframe to the proportions and position set in the last keyframe. Previewing your clip demonstrates the movement of your effect.

tip

Premiere lets you save and load customized effects. This is extremely useful if you intend to use the same effect again. This not only ensures accuracy but saves you an incredible amount of time.




Premiere 6. 5 Fundamentals
Premiere 6.5 Fundamentals
ISBN: B000H2MVO4
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 219

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