Keyframing Exercise
Keyframing allows the editor to apply markers on clips that will change its parameters from one point to another. It’s a way to add changes to a clip over time, whether changing its motion or when allowing for the gradual transition to a visual effect, or even audio.
Keyframe comes from traditional animation where the lead artist would draw the key frames (or major poses) and then other animators would fill in the frames in between. In Adobe Premiere Pro, when you apply two keyframes, the values between get interpolated.
This assignment requires that the editor use only still images, and then animate them by applying keyframes.
As with any new project in Adobe Premiere, the first thing you need to do is create a new project folder and name it. This folder should be saved in your portable drive.
Then open the new project folder and create a new one inside. Rename this new folder, Images. Or give it a name that you can use to identify it easily. This folder will store the images that you collect from the Internet.
Getting images from the Internet
Go to Google and locate images that pertain to your subject.
Type in the search field the key terms you need and then click on Images in the option menu above.
In the side menu, select Large to isolate your search to images that have only large resolutions.
Anything with resolutions 1024 x 768 or greater can be scaled moderately without too much pixilation.
When you click on an image, you may have the option to find More Sizes.
Once you found an image, double-click it and then drag the image to your Image folder. Repeat until you finish collecting all the images you need.
NOTE: For a classroom project, we’re applying the Fair Use clause for educational purposes in copyright laws. If you use anything from the Internet, you must be aware of copyright restrictions, especially when using the images, or video, for broadcast.
Open New Project in Adobe Premiere Pro
Don’t forget to save the project to your project folder and give the project a name. Never leave a project Untitled.
Importing the images:
To import the images, it’s simpler to select your Project tab and type
Command + I to import.
NOTE: There’s no need to use the Media Browser unless you’re acquiring images from a camera card.
Select the Images folder and click the Import button.
There’s no need to open the folder to select the individual images. Simply import the folder so that it will appear as a bin in your Project Panel.
To open the folder inside the Project Panel, click and hold the Command button while double-clicking on the folder. Otherwise, if you double-click the folder it will open in its own window.
On the keyboard, press the tilde (~) button to expand the Project Panel. To view the clips as icons, click on the icon button located in the lower left of the Project Panel.
NOTE: All of the still images should have the same duration. The default is usually 5 seconds although this can be changed in Premiere Pro > Preferences > General.
At this point you could insert the images to the Timeline using a multitude of methods, from dragging them to the Timeline directly or selecting an image and using shortcut keys. But there’s an even simpler method that allows you to storyboard the images. You can then place multiple images in the Timeline in the order that you selected.
Storyboarding the Clips Using Automate to Sequence
This option will automatically add selected clips to the current sequence. The options include:
- Ordering: positions the clips in your sequence in the order they appear in the bin or in the order you click them.
- Placement: Clips are added one after the other by default. With markers in the Timeline, clips can be added wherever there is a marker.
- Method: Allows you to choose between Insert and Overwrite edits
- Clip Overlap: changes automatically whether clips are overlapped.
- Transitions: You can choose to have a video or audio transition added automatically between each clip.
- Ignore Options: you can choose to exclude video or audio parts of the clips.
NOTE: The order of your clips will be determined by your audio, which you should build first. If you intend to mix voice over with music, take the time now to edit the audio.
To use Automate to Sequence, start by positioning the playhead in the Timeline to the beginning of the sequence.
Press the tilde (~) key to expand the Project Panel and view the clips as icons.
Then select your first clip by clicking on it once.
To select the next clip, hold the Command key and click on the next one. Continue selecting the rest until you reach the last clip.
Click the Automate to Sequence button, located in the lower right portion of the Project Panel.
In the Automate to Sequence window, uncheck the Apply Default Video Transition box, which is used only if each clip is the same length, which will be unlikely in your final edit. Click OK. The clips you selected will be inserted into the Timeline in the order that you selected them.
Another way to storyboard the clips
Click in the Project Panel and press tilde (~) to expand.
Create a new bin by clicking on the New Bin icon in the lower right of the Project Panel. Give the bin a new name.
Then move the clips into the bin in the order that they will appear in the Timeline.
Select the bin and click on the Automate to Sequence button. Click OK and the images will appear in the Timeline in the order that they appear in the bin.
NOTE: If you insert the clips from the bin into the sequence and then you want to add more clips to the bin, the new clips will be counted first in the sequence when you drop them into the Timeline using Automate to Sequence. You are better off creating a new bin and moving all the clips you need in the bin in one session instead of leaving and returning to add more clips.
NOTE: You can also copy and paste the clips into the new bin so that you can leave the originals in the Project Panel.
Automated Editing to Markers
And yet, there’s another option to insert clips from a bin into the Timeline! First, build your audio in the Timeline. Then add markers to the Timeline to match your audio when you want to change images.
NOTE: You can protect the audio track by clicking in the box next to the Audio channel. This action will place a lock in the box and prevent the track from being shifted by mistake when adding video clips. However, using Overlay in the Automate to Sequence window should insert the still images without affecting the audio.
Adding Markers
As you play the sequence, note where you think the video images should transition.
Start by moving the Timeline playhead to the start of the sequence. Use the Up arrow to move the playhead. Then press M to add the first marker.
NOTE: Up arrow moves the playhead to the previous edit, down arrow moves the playhead to the next edit.
As you play the sequence, press M to add additional markers to the Timeline.
Set the Timeline playhead back to the start of the sequence.
Then click in the Project Panel, and press the tilde key (~) to expand. Storyboard your clips according to the instructions above.
Click the Automate to Sequence button and, under the Ordering option, choose Sort Order. Under Placement choose At Unnumbered Markers.
Then click OK.
The clips will be added to the sequence with the first frame of each clip aligned with the markers.
NOTE: If you end up with a gap between clips, that’s because the still image duration defaults at 5 seconds. Simply use your pointer to drag the edge of the clip to fill the gap.
NOTE: If you need to zoom into the Timeline to see the clips closer, simply click the Sequence tab and then press the + key to zoom in. To zoom out, press the – key. Or to see all of the clips at once, press the backslash \ key.
Swapping clips
You may decide that a clip is in the wrong place. To exchange, or swap, one clip with another hold the Command + Option keys while clicking and moving the clip into its new position.
Keyframing the Clips
Now that the clips are in place you can begin the process of applying keyframes and motion. Keyframes define where a clip is at a particular point in time. Using two or more keyframes will make it possible to animate your clip, changing the motion parameters over time.
Make sure the zoom level in the Program Monitor is set to 25%. This will allow you to see around the frame.
Animating motion in a still image:
Click the clip once in the Timeline to make sure it’s selected;
In the Source Monitor, click the Effect Controls tab so that it’s visible.
Click the Motion disclosure triangle in the Effect Controls panel to display its parameters.
Set the playhead at the beginning of the clip by using the up and down arrows.
NOTE: When the playhead reaches the next edit it will always land on the first frame of the next clip. Use the left arrow to move the playhead one frame to the left so that you select the last frame of video on the clip you are trying to modify.
Move the pointer back to the Effect Controls and click the Transform button next to Motion. This will place a bounding box with a crosshair and handles around your image in the Program monitor.
NOTE: You can click anywhere in the bounding box to drag the clip around, or click on the corners to expand or shrink the image.
Adding Keyframes
Make sure the playhead is at the start of the sequence – use the up and down arrow keys.
NOTE: Keyframes are added where the playhead is positioned.
In the Effect Controls, click on the disclosure triangle next to Motion to reveal its parameters. Click on the Toggle Animation button (looks like a stopwatch) next to Position to activate the keyframes for that motion parameter.
Pressing this button will add a keyframe where the playhead is positioned. This first keyframe is the starting position of the animation. Position changes the clip’s X- and Y-axis, (left and right, up and down, respectively).
Then, move the playhead to the end of the clip (down arrow and left arrow to move one frame to the left). Click on the diamond-shaped button that isto the right of the numerical values for Position. This button is the Add/Remove Keyframe.
You can then click on the arrows to either side of the keyframe button to toggle between keyframes.
Repeat these steps for the Scale Height. Scale changes the size of the image (zooming in or out).
Toggle between keyframes and change their values by clicking on the numerical values for Position and dragging the pointer. You can do the same for Scale. But this method might seem awkward. Rather, toggle to the keyframe in either Position or Scale and simply adjust the bounding box in the Program monitor.
Play back the animation to make sure it’s doing what you want.
When scaling the image over large distances, such as zooming out from a close-up to a wide shot), you may notice that the motion appears to speed up towards the end of the clip. At times, the default interpolation will have this effect, but you can change this using the Ease In and Ease Out methods.
Ease In and Ease Out
Use one of these presets to provide the most natural appearance of inertia to the motion.
Click the disclosure triangle next to Position in the Effect Controls. This will reveal the keyframe graph in the Timeline View of the Effect Controls. A straight line between two keyframes means that there is no change to speed or acceleration.
Right click the first Position keyframe and choose Ease Out since you are leaving this keyframe to begin the animation. Repeat for the Scale keyframe.
The velocity graphs now show the lines ramping.
Toggle to the last keyframe and right click to select Ease In. Do this for both the Position and the Scale keyframes.
Applying Video Transitions
When you need to apply a cross dissolve, click on the Effects tab in the Project Panel. Open the Video Transitions disclosure triangle to reveal the types of transitions and the Dissolve bin.
The Cross Dissolve is the default transition. Use the mouse to drag the transition to the Timeline and drop it between two clips that are connected together.
To change the length of the transition, place the pointer on the edge of the transition until the drag tool appears. Then drag the edge of the transition to the desired length. The default length is 30 frames or 1 second.
A quick way to add a Cross Dissolve is to right click on the edit point. In the options window, select Apply Default Transition.
Dealing with handles
It’s crucial to understand what a dissolve does. During the transition, one clip fades down while the other fades up. We see a portion of the outgoing clip overlap a portion of the incoming clip.
The edited clip in your Timeline is defined by the In and Out points. But the handle is the portion of a clip that is not used, which remains outside the In and Out points. The portion between the Media Start time and the In point is called the head material and the portion between the Out point and Media End time is called the tail material.
The green area defines the portion of the clip that has been selected by the In and Out points. The portions outside these points still contain additional source information. These portions of unused media are called handles, and they are sometimes referred to as padding.
As said before, a dissolve is a transition where we see an overlap between two shots. As one shot fades down the other one fades up. The overlap requires that additional source information is available in your clip prior to the In-point and after the Out-point. For example, a one second (30 frame) cross dissolve requires handles on both clips that are 15-frames long.
A triangle in the upper-right or upper-left portion of the clip means that there are no additional frames of video available past the beginning or the end of the clip. For the dissolve to work, you need handles. Fortunately, the still images should have enough video information that you probably won’t have this problem.
The clip on the left shows that it doesn’t have enough video information beyond the out point. Thus, no handles.
When keyframes are applied, normally you will add a keyframe on the first frame, or In point of the clip, and one on the last frame, or Out point of the clip. The animated motion doesn’t extend into the handle portion of the clip. Therefore, when a dissolve is used, the motion will appear to stop in the middle of the overlap.
To correct this error, you need to extend the keyframes into the handle portions of the clip. Select the first clip, and then go back to the Effects Control tab in the Source panel to display your Motion parameters. Toggle to the last keyframe and, using the right arrow key, click as many frames forward until you see the playhead in the Timeline move past the dissolve transition. Add a new keyframe at this position and then toggle back to the original keyframe and delete it.Then select the second clip and, in the Effects Controls, toggle to the first keyframe. Using the left arrow, click as many times that it takes to move the playhead past the beginning of the dissolve. At this position, add a new keyframe, then toggle to the original keyframe and delete it.