Adobe Premier Rant (long)

[mr2mk1g 10]

Adobe Premier is like an errant child; it always wants to get its own way. It’s never happy to simply do as it’s told... it always has to have its input... it always has to make things difficult for you... and just like a naughty child if you want it to do anything complicated it’s never as simple as just asking nicely.

No – what you have to do is sneak up on it. You have to trick it into doing what you want... you have to use sly little mind games to make it think it’s won when actually, behind the scenes, you’ve pulled a fast one on it and snuck through that transition you were looking to use.

Like the mischievous child, it never pays any attention to the fact that you’re the adult... you’re the owner... you’re the one thats supposed to be in charge... you’re the one that feeds it the electricity it needs to survive and gives it a nice clean computer to live in.

All your nice transitions are hidden away somewhere. One’s you know ought to exist have been spirited away from you, down the backs of sofa’s or into the depths of toy boxes never to be seen again. When you do find the effect you were looking for, it’s got some strange name that doesn’t appear to be at all related to the effect it produces.

Let’s take an example shall we – say you wanted to slowly zoom into a specific spot in a still. No... don’t be so silly – the “zoom” effect’s not going to do that – that’s for zooming out of course. You can fudge it by playing with the values so it will zoom in... but only a little and into the middle of the shot.

How about moving the shot to one side so you zoom into the point you want? No – that doesn’t work either... black mysteriously creeps over the screen covering up areas of the footage that were previously shown. No explanation for that one in the on-line help.

You settle on zooming into the center... it’s not quite what you wanted but with key frames you can zoom in slowly and it’ll do... but when rendered it judders horribly as it zooms. Nope – you didn’t give Premier those sweets last week... it’s not going to let things go that smoothly.

Remember – what you actually have to do is sneak up on your errant child and trick it into doing what you want. Use mind games!

How about you pretend you’ve given up and take two identical shots and put a cross zoom transition between the two... Premier wants you to zoom in and back out again so set it to 50% and snip off the rest of the footage. Now you’re only zooming in... you can even zoom into the spot you want and thus you create exactly the effect you were looking for in the firstplace and Premier is none the wiser.

You’re happy as you’ve finally got your way.
Premier’s happy as it thinks it’s forced you to do what it wants.

But no... your troubles are not over there. See you now want to fade in and out of these shots as you transition from one to the next. Nope – can’t do that as then you’d be using two transitions on one shot – surely then you’d be having too much fun.

Remember the golden rule – you have to sneak up and trick Premier into doing what you want. So you export each clip individually as a movie and import them back into another edit as if they were filmed like that. Then Premier will let you cross fade in and out of them – not realizing you’ve just tricked it into letting you have your own way. It’s happy because it thinks you’ve got fed up and started something new... only you know your little secret.

Just like a child though, Premier will always have its way in the end. For no apparent reason it’ll throw a strop every now and again and refuse to use a simple transition you want. You know there couldn’t possibly be any logical reason for it to do this... the transition works on the previous clip... the footage you’re using is exactly the same as the last shot... the transition’s the same... the number of frames is the same... there’s absolutely nothing different whatsoever – Premier’s even still got it’s soother and blanky.

No – Premier’s just having its little paddy... see things have been going too smoothly and you’ve almost had the chance to forget that you’re supposed to be fighting with the software and for a moment thought you were simply editing video.

Now it’s time for Premier to kick its little heels on the floor again and get some more of your valuable attention. Less editing, more fighting... how about you try threatening it this time? “Go on then, tantrum you little bugger – I’ll go off to the orphanage and adopt myself an Apple Mac... then you’ll be sorry!”

[PhreeZone 20]

Using 6.5 huh?

Pro 1.5 is SOOOOOOOO much easier to beat into submission.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[mr2mk1g 10]

nope

Had been using Premier Pro but got pissed off with all the odd little glitches. These comments are made about my pains over the last week with Pro 1.5 (identical in all but glitches to Pro).

I only ever did a little bit of editing on 6.5 - I'd hate to think what I'd have done to my monitor (aka whipping dog/punch bag) by now if I'd have been using that version.

[Zoter 0]

|A specific answer to help your specific problem in your rant !!
There is a very nice set of plugin tools called SpiceMaster TX for Prem.Pro from Pixelan.... which has abso. loads of zoom/pan effects to specific parts of the screen.....without having to use key frames and the 'motion' controls ( and get the dreaded off screen BLACK creeping in)

Its cheap as chips, if you pay for your software....and you can actually get a full demo version for free just to try em out first
http://www.pixelan.com/sm25/dlform.htm

[Snowflake 0]

Ninja skills are required, brute strength only goes so far. Lets take your first example. The function you were looking for was crop with the zoom box checked that will leave you with what ever you select as the full screen. Example two crop again zoom box checked then use a fade. Like I said Ninja skills

PS move does just that it moves the video which means some will leave the screen and black will take up the space that has been vacated by the video unless you have a video track underneath it.

[mr2mk1g 10]

Damnit - it took me a day to figure this out.... it works now exactly as I want it so there's no point changing things but I'll know for next time, cheers.

Like I said - "When you do find the effect you were looking for, it’s got some strange name that doesn’t appear to be at all related to the effect it produces."

And cheers for the plugin headsup zoter - I'm sure I can locate a copy.

[diverds 0]

Go down to Barns and Noble and get a copy of Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Premiere Pro in 24 Hours (I've attached a pic to this post). It sells for $30. Both problems in your rant are easily solved with the use of motion menus and nested sequences. If you take the time to learn Premiere you'll find it's pretty intuitive.

Edit for spelling...I hope.

Skydive Radio

[Zoter 0]

I have always found there is a stage of 'messing around' with the program ( and for me thats usually 3/12) before any of these wonder books are actually useful....

[pope 0]

Quote

Adobe Premier is like an errant child; it always wants to get its own way.

3 words for you:

FINAL CUT PRO[/B]
pope

[diverds 0]

Agreed. But not everyone works that way. I use the book more as a reference for specific problems.

Skydive Radio

[mccordia 74]

What a lot of people also don't seem to realise is that Premiere is a Video Editing package, not a an image editing/animation package.

If you want specific effects, animation, movements.
Don't complain about the stuff that's missing in a program like premiere that was designed to just edit/join/cut video/sound.
Just use the actual program they designed for animated stuff and cool playthingies...After Effects

But even when you use premiere...
The movement/zooming transitions you want could also be done in a few other ways (instead of the ready to go transitions)
Using the clip>'motion' tab for instance, you can adjust and keyframe over time, every thing from zooming to rotation, distortion...whatever you want. Then use a normal dissolve (or the transparancy settings when using overlay tracks) to dissolve your cool zooming effect into another clip.

And when everything else fails..there's always the manual (haven't seen that one up close though:)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[nacmacfeegle 0]

Nice rant Matt, quality stuff. I know exactly where you are coming from, but having been a Premiere user since 4.2, its all in how you ask the beastie to do what you want.
Your example could easily be done via clip motion properties as Jarno suggests, in fact it is the probably the best way to do it.
As with with many applications, there is normally more than one way to skin a cat, and only messing around with the prog for months will show you the best way.

To extend your analogy, you can't talk to a kid for half an hour and assume he will grow into a socially integrated adult member of society, it takes years (and tears).

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[mr2mk1g 10]

Thanks for everyone's ideas - just remember that my "rant" was supposed to be 90% for amusement purposes.

I'm happy that Adobe does everything I need and I've got After Effects, knew that's what I was "supposed" to be using and simply couldn't be bothered to pull it out and use it.

As for the motion controls - that's the first thing I tried but it came out all jerky and looked crap... I thus resorted to my mind tricks having concluded that I was probably "supposed" to use the unsatisfactory motion controls and that there was therefore unlikely to be any other way provided by the program 'out of the can'.

[nacmacfeegle 0]

"just remember that my "rant" was supposed to be 90% for amusement purposes. "

It worked at this end.

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He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson

[br0k3n 0]

Well I have used PPro 1.5 for about 6 months now and love it, yes I agree there it is far from perfect.

To really get the most ourt of it you will need to use it in conjunction with After Effects. Once you get to grips with both these programs there is very little you wont be able to achieve....

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