39 Setting Up Overlay Effects with the Multi-Camera Tool

#39 Setting Up Overlay Effects with the Multi-Camera Tool

While switching back and forth between camera angles adds a lovely professional touch, adding multiple layers and picture-in-picture effects can convert your edits to pure art. For example, how else could we show a close-up of the concert pianist's face and her hands playing, as shown in Figure 39a?

Figure 39a. An example of a layered effect you can easily create using the Multi-Camera tool in Premiere Pro.

Be Careful When Moving Clips

If you click and drag either clip in this exercise, you'll lose synchronization. Think about it like this: you're not moving the clip to a new location; you're exposing another camera angle at the same location on a higher track to produce the overlay effect.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go?

Now that you're all set up for picture-in-picture and overlay effects, perhaps you'd like some help in implementing them. If so, see #42 and # 45.

To create any overlay effect, you need to place one track on top of the other, without loss of audio synchronization, of course. Here's how to get that done.

1.	Identify the target clips for the overlay effect on the timeline.
2.	Drag the target top clip to Video 2 and Audio 2, as shown in Figure 39b. Figure 39b. You have to drag both the Video and Audio clips to different tracks in order to layer the two clips. Note If your layered effect includes more than two clips, drag each clip one track higher (or lower, for audio) on the timeline.
3.	Use the Trim tool to fill the Gap in Video 1 and pull Video 2 over the target region for the effect (Figure 39c). Figure 39c. Use the Trim tool to close the gap in the lower track and drag the upper clip(s) to create the layers.
4.	Apply the desired effect.