If the button is well-rounded, you can create an elliptical marquee around it in Photoshop, right click and "Select Inverse" and hit your backspace button to clear out the surrounding area.

As for the eraser, make sure your eraser "brush" is solid and not feathered -- for minute removals, you need the exactness of a solid brush.

And don't forget to make your future graphics against a transparent layer in Photoshop!

Oh, and if you can't get a good crop on the button, you can always try a Chroma Transperancy in Premiere and choose the white area around the object as they key color.

Bryan,

Glad that sorted your little problem!!!!

Try what John said, I tend to use the magic marque tool, and then invert it and try to erase the little specs. You might also what to anti-alias it as well, this will smooth any jaggie edges.


Cheers,

Ed

You guys are great...... Sorry, but I have one more problem now which is even worse than the last two: my buttons worked perfectly the first time I inserted one into my project, but then I couldn't get the same button to show up in a different part of the project. Then, I went back to my first button that used to appear perfectly only to discover now that it's not showing up. When I see the thumbnail of the image in my BIN, I can see a picture of the correct button however, when I double click the file, it brings up a preview window of the image that is black! I tried using a couple of different files. It seems that this only happens when I'm using a psd. I've tried just about every option with this and can't get any results. Now I can't get any of the buttons to appear! Titles work fine and everything else seems to be in order. I'm not a newb, I've used Premiere on MANY projects now but I've run into a problem like this. I really hope someone can help me with this.....

Bryan,

Yep I 've seen that sort of problem before, I believe that its a bug. Were you selecting a layer, or merging the layers?

Try saving pictures as 32bit targa files Premiere should also see the alpha channel.

Hope this helps,

Ed

I've actually had this happen before...more than once -- but let me see if I can remember what I did... Try these in this order:

First, try closing Premiere and restarting the app. Open the project again and see what happens.

Second, try saving the project under a new name. When it asks if you want to copy the preview files, say no. Close Premiere and reopen the project.

Third, righ-click on the .psd files in the Timeline and choose Edit Original. Make some minor change, undo it (to activate "Save") and save the file. Return to Premiere.

Fourth, if you don't have a lot of effects/settings tied to these .psd files (like motion, etc.) simply delete them from the project and re-import them.

I know that when this has happened to me that I was able to fix it with a minimum of fuss. And yep, it always happened with .psd files. Still don't know why. Unfortunately, I also don't remember exactly what I did to fix the problem. But I do remember that it wasn't too big a hassle -- one of the four things above should fix it.

None of those tricks worked although I figured out a ghetto way around the problem. I'm doing a commercial and a button appears after my video source freezes. So, I created two frames that the picture freezes on: one with just the video source, and then one I made in photoshop with the frame and the button pasted on top of the image. Voila, problem overcome but not solved. Man, was that frustrating. Thanks anyways!

-Bryan.

I am thinking of buying Premiere Pro.

My question is: Does Premiere Pro automatically create clips like other editing programs.

My understanding is that earlier versions of Premiere would just create one large clips unless you manually stated the times where you wanted the clips.

Any help here would be much appreciated.

You should find it here:

Effects Window/Audio Effects/Stereo/Swap Channels

Hi Ed.

Thanks for your help.

Meanwile I got there, but when I try to drag the "swap channels effect" to the audio track, nothing happens. It gives me a "not allowed" sign.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

I'm not sure what's going on there Arnaldo. I've used that effect several times because audio captured with my camera always comes in reversed and needs to be swapped so I know it works. If you can't figure out why it's not working for you, try posting on the Adobe PPro forum. I'm sure someone will be able to help you over there.

Thanks again.

I'll investigate further and follow your advice.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

I have a workflow question.... Currently where I work, at a University, we have many Final Cut pro set-ups along with an Avid Adrenaline Media Composer. I am debating whether to install avid exress pro at home to do some of my work and then simply transfer it into the sytems we have here OR install premiere pro vid collection (either standard or pro version) and then convert files to either Final cut or Avid. Given the second scenerio what would I have to do to convert files (i.e. timelines or media files) to "finish" them on final cut or an avid set-up.

i know the easiest scenerio is to stick with avid but i get more software options (photoshop, AE, Encore , audition)with going with the adobe vid collection, correct?

any info would be helpful
Thanks
Steve

hi all,

I am here to seek advice if the setup I have is good enough to capture, edit and output what I have shot

What I have shot

1 and half hour of mini DV in Short Play mode. Shot with DVX100, PAL version, 25P progressive scan mode.

My computer's set up is

1 x Maxtor 60GB IDE HDD (7200+2MB+ATA133)
2 x 512MB PC2100/266 DDR Kingston Ram - 1GB ram in total
ASUSTEK NVIDIA GEFORCE2 MX400 (64MB)
MSI 645E Max2 (MS-6567) series ATX motherboard (Raid Capable)
Pentium 4 1.8Ghz Processor
1 x CD-ROM
1 x CD-RW
Premiere 6.0
Photoshop 7.0
Office 2000 Pro

Now here is my problem. I THINK i just need to get

1 x Firewire card (I WILL NOT NEED a video capture card if i have a firewire card?)

2) Get a BRAND NEW 7200 rpm 60GB HDD, connect it in a isolated IDE so that no CD-ROM, CD-RW will slow down the HDD's performance. However, my primary HDD can connect itself to the CD-ROM or CD-RW since that's the only way I am ever gonna burn stuff from my HDD (correct me if i am wrong here)

3) Restart comp once i got everything in place. Do a disk fragmentation on the new and primary HDD (neccessary?) Then shut down any other programs that are running. eg. ADSL, ICQ, adaware,Norton antivirus, any other programs except Premiere 6.0. to minimize the chances of having drop frames.

4) Record everything I have onto the NEW DRIVE via Premiere 6 since 1 and half hour footage takes only at most half of my 60GB new HDD. Then choose those takes I want once they are in avi formats so that no quality is lost. This is easier also cause i run a risk of the camera freaking up (since i am a newbie) if i record part by part

Can I do my editing after my purchases smoothly, without frequent crashing and drop frames? Do i need to get anymore hardware that is neccssary? Costs is a concern for me so luxury items is not what I will get (eg. SCSI RAID)

Am i right? am i right? If so, i am going down to town to get the firewire card and a new HDD.

Thanks in advance!!!

Thanks a lot!!!
Ong

Your setup should run Premiere just fine.

1) Yes, you'll need a firewire card. That's all you'll need unless you want to capture analog video from an older camera (or from a VCR if you so desired). Firewire is all you'll need for your DVX.

2) The second hard drive is a very good idea; it's always recommended that you capture on one drive and put your programs on the other. Ideally they should be on separate channels, and as long as you only have 3 drives in total (including optical drives like your burner) then it will work fine.

3) Definitely defrag your primary HDD. I don't think it's necessary to defrag a new HDD because when you install it, you'll be formatting it with the filesystem (NTFS is recommended if you're running Win2k or XP).

Network cards have been known to interfere with firewire, so it wouldn't hurt to disable it when you're editing. And as always keep the number of open programs to a minimum. In XP or 2000 you could have a separate user profile set up that starts with a very minimal load.

4) Recording everything in one, long go isn't the best thing to do, especially if you know you're not going to use everything. You can batch capture by going through the tape first and selecting which parts you want, then entering the start and end time of each clip into Premiere's batch capture window.

Your system should run everything fine with minimal dropped frames. I don't have SCSI either and I get very few.

Premiere will work to some degree with DVX100 compression, as that is how the camera works.

However if you get a tape that was shot in 24a "You Will Not Be Able To Import." as Premiere does not yet handle 2:3:3:2 pull down.

Applications that do are Vegas, Avid, and FCP4 at this time Adobe had not set this as a standard.

Acording to Ong's post, he is shooting in 25p PAL, not in 24p ( and I am not shure but I think that the PAL version of the dvx100 doesn't do 24p at all since the PAL frame rate is so close to that) so IMO it should not have to do any pulldown.

I stated that the pull down concern only has to do with 24a not 24p, yet there have been reports of imports lacking even with 24p

I was also saying his system was not able to do it, as much as to be aware of this.

FCP works with QuickTime files as it's capture settings. QuickTime Pro is the real engine behind FCP so when you export from any other application .mov would be the case so when going from Premiere you really need to save it in an. avi

that;s what i figured ---i'd have to save the media files as avi files from premiere....but there's no way to transfer over a timeline...is there?

I looked at FCP there was no way to export timelines to another NLE that I could find I will keep looking as for Adobe Premiere I will ask another about this.

There's Automatic Duck to transfer between FCP/Avid/After Effects. It might integrate these apps better than Premiere and After Effects.

There you go Automatic Duck good app yet there is no support for premiere pro and it cost around 400 bills great app for after effects yet?

From their site...

http://www.automaticduck.com/products/index.php
Automatic Duck's solution for translating the Final Cut Pro 3 timeline into Avid editing systems employs OMF, an interchange format developed by Avid Technology. Automatic Sequence Export PRO features an export option that we call "Avid compatibility mode".

Premiere 6.0 is not that reliable. Make sure you get the latest patch or else you will drop A LOT of frames on export.

Premiere 6.0 is not that fun because it lets/helps you lose sync, it's not super powerful, and everything takes a bit longer to do.

When you capture you should either batch capture or use a program like Scenalyzer (I'd prefer Scenalyzer). Programs like Scenalyzer will break up clips based on changes in date/time info. Premiere 6.0 doesn't do this...

You can capture as one huge clip but the Premiere workflow was not designed for that.

Is it possible to change the rendering codec after you start editing? Deleting the rendered content right now won't be a problem if that's what I have to do first.

Thanks

I use Premiere 6.5, but i imagine it's pretty much the same:

If you mean the *preview* rendering format, then go to Project -> Project Settings -> General and start from there, chosing Editing Mode and then codec, etc. Once you click "OK" you will be warned that all of your preview files will be erased, just click OK.

If you mean the *final* render, then you simply choose that when you Export the Timeline as a Movie. You can edit using one codec and export the final movie in another.

I hope this helps...

thanks for the info...i guess the best way to go for now is express pro...since there is no coversion from premiere pro to FCP or Xpro...thanks again

I'm working on my first project in Premiere Pro and i have some transitions and some transparency and color effects going on and everything is rendered.

The I close Premiere and when i re-open it nothing is rendered.
SO i re-render everything and even though the line at the top of the timeline is green, nothing is actually rendered. I have to actually make a change to the transition or effect to get it to do a real render.

Anybody seen anything like this yet? The first time I thought it was a fluke but it's happened a couple times now and i don't wanna close premiere now because it creates more work for me.

Jim,

That HAS to be frustrating! Sounds like the program isn't keeping track of where it saves rendered files. You may want to try re-setting all the file location settings.

"Premiere 6.0 is not that reliable. Make sure you get the latest patch or else you will drop A LOT of frames on export"

What software should I use then? Premiere 6 Pro?

It's greyed out when I try to change it in Pro. I'm refering to the preview rendering codec.

The Project Settings option is grey out? If that's new to Pro, that's a horrible idea!

You could try this as a workaround:

Start a new project using the preview settings that you want. Then import your other project into your new one (File -> Import -> Project). You will then have your entire project with all your keyframes, transperancy settings and whatnot as well as your preferred preview settings.

Premiere Pro is version 7 of Premiere. It's rewritten from the ground up. I haven't used it myself personally but digitalvideoediting gives it a good review. Vegas and Avid are also good NLEs on the PC side. I like Vegas. It has a free demo (very limited, don't try anything important with it of course).

frustrating to say the least BUT i've figured it out.

After a bunch of hours testing and opening and closing premiere probably about 400 times i narrowed it down to a problem with 1 clip. I have no idea whats wrong with the clip but when it's in there it caused all kinds of problems with the whole project.

hopefully this will help someone else someday.

To preface this post, my editing machine is Dual MP 2400+ with a gig of DDR 400, and a fast 7,200 hard drive.

Anyways, in Permiere Pro, I cannot export to tape (through firewire). It will play back on the DV hardware as choppy as you can imagine. It really isn't a matter of how many frames are dropped per second...only a few frames per few seconds are even picked up. I've looked through (seemingly) all the settings and can find nothing. The problem is not the camera (tried on a GL and two XLs as well as a firewire<-->S video box).

Also, importing works marginally well...if Premiere loses focus, it'll stop capturing.

What's goin' on here?

Dyksen,

If the machine is not properly configured Premier Pro sometimes drops frams while doing "print to tape" Actually, Premier Pro needs more power coz. of it's real time effects capabilities. It eats up lots of CPU's power. You need to cut down some power while doing the same. Change the setting

setting/general/advanced options disable the fullscreen preview on computer screen.

Try this put, It's should run smoothly


debu
-----------------------------
Editor, Studio Brahmaputra
India, Assam

Cool. I'll try that. Also, does direct X 9 make a difference? That machine has never been connected to the net, so it hasn't been Windows updated (although it does have service pack 1).

I'm also going to try some other capture programs, as I was planning to anyways, because we want batch capture abilities.


As a quick side note, you can address me as E.J. I go by my initials, but I wasn't sure how vB would handle a username with periods in it. :)

Would someone know if Adobe Premiere 6 will still work if I update to Windows XP. I know XP comes with Media Player 9. The last time I downloaded MP9 I had a lot of problems getting my system to run some of my existing media programs like Sonic, MyDVD.
One other question, I use MyDVD to copy direct to DVD from my XLS1 to my Pioneer AO5. If I load more then 30 minutes the program loads to the end than hangs up my system. I tried loading only 15 minutes and it worked fine. I read there was an 18 minute time limit for files in MyDVD.
Is there a way to load shorter segments in sequence with having the program finalize the DVD after each download.

System:
Dell 8100
Win ME
1.3 GH
2, 80 Gb hard drives

Hope this makes sense, Thanks, Fred Haber

You might need the Beta v6.02 patch...

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2a1ce.htm

Regards,
Jack

The only contribution I can make is to say that MyDVD has no such limitation in my experience with it. I've done 40 minute clips recently, but from MPEG-2 input on my HD, not from capture. I'd guess the limit is in your O/S and drive formatting (FATvsNTFS).

David Hurdon

G'Day,

I will be making my first short movie early next year and will be using one of my works PC for post. It has Pinnacle Systems DV500 that includes Adobe Premiere 6.

Does anyone know where I can get tutorials for this program online?

I have limited experience with Final Cut Pro on Mac.

You might start with www.wrigleyvideo.com where Kurt has a great assortment of "how-to" pieces in both demo and tutorial format.

David Hurdon

Hey Shane this (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10933&highlight=DV+primer) could be a useful place to start. After that the tutorial on the Premiere CD also helps.

If you have any specific questions, especially related to the DV500, post them and I'll help you if I can as I've spent the last 3 years working both with and against the DV500/Prem 5.1/6.0

Nice to see some more Australians showing up, gotta keep bringing it to these Americans.

I have started writing down various ways of how to create certain effect in premiere.

Like Adrian I too have used and still have DV500 and Premiere 6.5.

Start here; tell us what you would like to know, and we will try and be as helpful as we can.

Cheers,

Ed

Great, thanks guys.

I'm going to be on a tight time-frame for my first film so I didn't want to have to edit it in a "trial-and-error" fashion. I have a good grasp of the concepts, I am just unfamiliar with the software. Hopefully your tutorials will allow me to maximise the time I have available and make my film the best it can possible be.

EDIT: Adrian, thanks heaps for that Adobe link. That pdf file really is a fantastic reference. It's exactly what I wanted and yeah, you can never have too many Aussies...

Have you seen those music videos when a little cloud or bubble pops up on the screen and gives a tidbit about the video or something.

Well I was editing some home movies with Premiere Pro and I was wondering what would be the best way to add something like that in aside from doing a stadard title. I was just wondering if there was a plug-in or another program that does this kind of stuff with a few more creative options than Premiere has.

Any ideas or input is greatly appreciated.

Tim

i actually did one of those for an educational film, i used nothing more then photoshop for the titles and that pop sound...

you could animate them but that would be tedious in premiere

Blah! I'm such a photoshop noob! I've tried but it just doesn't seem to click for me. Mabe I'll just stick to the titles in Premiere.

I'm looking for a demo or maybe some cheap freeware that works like cinemotion or Magic Bullet. So Far all I've found is programs that work in After Effects but I don't have this, I only have Premiere Pro to work with right now. Let me know if you guys know anything!

Thx

Tim

Film motion: Duplicate the movie onto itself, de-interlace the superimposed movie, and set opacity between 30% and 70% depending on how strong you want the effect to be.

You should shoot at the slowest normal shutter speed if you are going to do this.

You get pretty close to actually shooting 24progressive or using Magic Bullet or DV Film Maker.

White balance: You can mess around with the white balance to get that effect of film. Film balanced for outdoors will give the wrong white balance indoors. Flesh tones will look yellow.

Color curves: Film tends to have "shoulders" for highlights and shadows. You can approximate the look by making a "s" curve in a curves filter. Compress highlights and shadows.

Color correction: Change colors according to your taste. Hollywood films go through a color correction process to make it look better.

Soft focus: You can add soft focus by using a soft focus filter or by superimposing your video onto itself, adding blur (gaussian blur for example), and setting the opacity to around half. Soft focus is not the same as out of focus.

Deficiencies of film:
hair
film grain
"projection" look - judder/jumpy film that changes in brightness (I'm not very good at describing this today)

There's a lot wirtten about this subject. You should search the net with Google.com and see what you come up with. Maybe someone here can recommend some good resources.