Hi Everyone,
I am editing a video for training and I need to draw a circle around an item in the video in order to highlight it.. I have seen it done before in other tutorials however I'm puzzled on how to do it myself.

My editing software is PremierePro CS5 Win 7 64bit. I have taken the Lynda.com tutorials but nothing in those tutorials covers this. I've also search here and on the net but unable to find what I'm looking for. I hope I've explained my problem clearly enough.

Any help will be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Harry

I have used the title tool to highlight players in sports videos, maybe it will work for you too. Open a new title and use whatever character you want O, 0, [ ], etc. The great thing about the title tool is that you can change the size and color easily and after you have created the title you can still resize and/or animate the character to move with the video if you need.

Hope that works for you.

You could also put a circle (or whatever) on a transparent video layer above.

Lloyd and Peter:
Thank you for your suggestions. I will try them out. Also I was looking around to find an example I was looking for. Attached is something I found on youtube that would great to use. However I don't have a clue as to how to do it. Being able to draw a circle like that would be great.

The example you showed was probably done in a motion graphics program like After Effects, or a third party motion effect plug in for PPro.
I've done similar things many times with the AE "paint" function.
I don't believe PPro natively has effects like that.

It sure looks to me like that clip was made using a screen-capture utility and it just recorded the action of drawing an ellipse using a pencil tool. It's not, to my eye, an actual animated title.

You could do the same in CS5 by just choosing the ellipse tool and dragging it around whatever you like, just as in any drawing program, while capturing the action on the screen using another utility. It seems to me that you're saying you want to see the circle draw itself, not just pop in and out the way it would with a title or graphic on another layer, but even the method in the clip won't do this, as you can see the mouse pointer making the action happen.

Looks like I stubbled onto the answer to my question. Click on the link below. Actually the first tutorial is the one that I could use. Now I'm sure that there are other ways to do it but this one looks good. Thanks for all the ideas from everyone.
Harry

Tutorial:Creating ESPN Style Video Effects - Adobe Premiere Pro (http://premierepro.wikia.com/wiki/Tutorial:Creating_ESPN_Style_Video_Effects)

I am not quite sure what it is you are looking for as the sample has been taken down.
But what i have gathered is drawing a cirle live. If so try the Write-on effect.

Wow, Ann, you're good.

Here's a more complete explanation:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 * Write-on effect (http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premierepro/cs/using/WS2B9AAC22-1025-4099-A75D-B6B05D130198a.html)

Not clear from the tutorial just how to do anything other than a straight line, but I'm sure you can... somehow.

Wow, Ann, you're good.

You're not kidding...
I never knew PPro had any sort of write/paint effect.
I always jumped over to AE for anything like that.
Maybe someday I should actually look thru the PPro user manual.
I might discover all sorts of interesting things :)

Looks like another of "Jeff Schells" podcast tutorials. They are great. Check them out.

Not clear from the tutorial just how to do anything other than a straight line, but I'm sure you can... somehow.

Use keyframes, in the Program Window you will have Bezier handles.

If you go to youtube you'll get an idea of what Ann is talking about.

Click here.. YouTube - The Write-on Effect in Adobe Premiere Pro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyF-fk-vLd8)

There are some other tutorials there that are amazing. Well worth your time to check them out.

Thanks Ann
Harry

Right, that was the one I was referring to, that only shows straight lines.

The Jeff Schell versions wouldn't play on my PC.... I probably need a newer version of QT or something.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=22063&stc=1&d=1300533671

Ann, that's brilliant. Is that three keyframes (beginning, middle, end)?

That is correct.