Effects and transitions

Grid effect

Use the Grid effect to create a customizable grid. Render this grid in a color matte or as a mask in the alpha channel of the source clip. This effect is good for generating design elements and mattes within which other effects can be applied.

Original image (left) and with variations of effect applied (center and right)

Anchor The point of origin of the grid pattern. Moving this point offsets the pattern.

Size From How the dimensions of the rectangles are determined:

•Corner Point Each rectangle’s dimensions are those of the rectangle with opposite corners defined by the Anchor and Corner points.

•Width Slider A rectangle’s height and width are equal to the Width value, meaning the rectangles are squares.

•Width & Height Sliders A rectangle’s height is equal to the Height value. A rectangle’s width is equal to the Width value.

Border The thickness of the grid lines. A value of 0 causes the grid to disappear.

Note: The anti-aliasing of the grid borders may cause the visible thickness to vary.

Feather The softness of the grid.

Invert Grid Inverts the transparent and opaque areas of the grid.

Color The color of the grid.

Opacity The opacity of the grid.

Blending Mode The blend mode to use to composite the grid on top of the original clip. The default None mode renders the grid only.

Lens Flare effect

The Lens Flare effect simulates the refraction caused by shining a bright light into the camera lens. See an example of the Lens Flare effect in this video.

Flare Center Specifies a location for the center of the flare.

Flare Brightness Specifies the percentage of brightness. Values can range from 0% to 300%.

Lens Type Selects the type of lens to simulate.

Blend With Original Specifies the degree to which the effect is blended with the source clip.

Lightning effect

The Lightning effect creates lightning bolts, Jacob’s Ladders, and other electrical visuals between two specified points in a clip. The Lightning effect is automatically animated without keyframes across the time range of the clip.

See an example of the Lightning effect in this video tutorial.

Start Point, End Point Where the lightning begins and ends.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Segments The number of segments that form the main lightning bolt. Higher values produce more detail but reduce the smoothness of motion.

Amplitude The size of undulations in the lightning bolt as a percentage of the clip width.

Detail Level, Detail Amplitude How much detail is added to the lightning bolt and any branches. For Detail Level, typical values range from 2 through 3. For Detail Amplitude, a typical value is 0.3. Higher values for either control are best for still images but tend to obscure animation.

Branching The amount of branching (forking) that appears at the ends of bolt segments. A value of 0 produces no branching; a value of 1.0 produces branching at every segment.

Rebranching The amount of branching from branches. Higher values produce tree-like lightning bolts.

Branch Angle The angle between a branch and the main lightning bolt.

Branch Seg. Length The length of each branch segment as a fraction of the average length of the segments in the lightning bolt.

Branch Segments The maximum number of segments for each branch. To produce long branches, specify higher values for both Branch Seg. Length and Branch Segments.

Branch Width The average width of each branch as a fraction of the width of the lightning bolt.

Speed How fast the lightning bolt undulates.

Stability How closely the lightning follows the line defined by the start and end points. Lower values keep the lightning bolt close to the line; higher values create significant bouncing.

Fixed Endpoint Determines whether the end point of the lightning bolt remains fixed in place. If this control isn’t selected, the end of the bolt undulates around the end point.

Width, Width Variation The width of the main lightning bolt and how much the width of different segments can vary. Width changes are randomized. A value of 0 produces no width changes; a value of 1 produces the maximum width changes.

Core Width The width of the inner glow, as specified by the Inside Color value. Core Width is relative to the total width of the lightning bolt.

Outside Color, Inside Color The colors used for the outer and inner glows of the lightning bolt. Because the Lightning effect adds these colors on top of existing colors in the composition, primary colors often produce the best results. Bright colors often become much lighter, sometimes becoming white, depending on the brightness of colors beneath.

Pull Force, Pull Direction The strength and direction of a force that pulls the lightning bolt. Use the Pull Force value with the Stability value to create a Jacob’s Ladder appearance.

Random Seed An input value for the random noise generator that’s the basis of the Lightning effect.

Note: The random movement of the lightning could interfere with another image in the clip. Try different values for Random Seed until you find one that works for the clip.

Blending Mode The blend mode to use to composite the lightning on top of the original clip.

Rerun At Each Frame Regenerates the lightning at each frame. To make the lightning behave the same way at the same frame every time you run it, don’t select this option. Selecting this option increases rendering time.

Paint Bucket effect

The Paint Bucket effect is a nondestructive paint effect that fills an area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use Paint Bucket for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing areas of color in an image.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Jeff Sengstack explains how to use the Paint Bucket effect to change the color of an object in this lynda.com video from his tutorial -- Premiere Pro: Color Correction and Enhancement.

Colors fill spiral shapes on separate tracks (left and center); effect applied to saucer with Color blend mode (right)

Fill Point The effect fills an area that contains the Fill Point. The area is determined by analyzing pixels that neighbor the Fill Point and expanding the fill area by adding matching pixels. How far the fill color spreads depends upon the Tolerance setting, as well as the option you choose from the Fill Selector menu.

Fill Selector Which values to operate on:

•Color & Alpha Specifies that the effect fills the fill point’s RGB and alpha channels with the new color.

•Straight Color Specifies that the effect fills only the fill point area’s RGB channel with the new color.

•Transparency Specifies that the effect fills only the transparent areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in a transparent area for this option to work.

•Opacity Specifies that the effect fills only the opaque areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in an opaque area for this option to work.

•Alpha Channel Specifies that the effect fills either the opaque or transparent areas in the whole image, depending upon the alpha channel value at the point you set the fill point.

Tolerance How far a pixel’s color values can be from the Fill Point color values and still match. Higher values expand the range of pixels that the effect fills.

View Threshold Shows what pixels match—that is, which pixels are within the Tolerance value of the color values of the Fill Point pixel. This option is especially useful in tracking leaks. If there is a small gap, the color can flow over and fill areas not intended to be filled.

Stroke How the effect treats the edges of the filled area:

•Antialias Anti-aliases the edges of the filled area.

•Feather Creates a feathered edge for the filled area. Feather Softness values create a more gradually disappearing edge.

•Spread Expands the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color extends beyond the edge of the fill area.

•Choke Contracts the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color shrinks from the edge of the fill area.

•Stroke Confines the fill to just the border of the selected area. The Stroke Width value indicates the width of the stroke, in pixels.

Color The fill color.

Opacity Opacity of the filled area.

Blending Mode The blend mode to use to composite the result of effect on top of the original clip. Use Fill Only to show only the fill.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Note: If you apply multiple instances of Paint Bucket to a clip, be sure not to set more than one to use the Fill Only blend mode. If you set more than one instance to use this blend mode, only the first application of the effect is shown.

Ramp effect

The Ramp effect creates a color gradient. You can create linear or radial ramps and vary the position and colors of the ramp over time. Use the Start Of Ramp and End Of Ramp properties to specify the start and end positions. Use the Ramp Scatter control to disperse the ramp colors and eliminate banding. For a video tutorial on using the Ramp effect and the Calculations effect, see Coloring A Washed-out Sky With A Gradient In Premiere Pro CS by Jeff Schell on his Digital Media Net blog.

Note: Ramps often don’t broadcast well; serious banding occurs because the broadcast chrominance signal doesn’t contain sufficient resolution to reproduce the ramp smoothly. The Ramp Scatter control dithers the ramp colors, eliminating the banding apparent to the human eye.

Write-on effect

See an example of the Write-on effect in this video tutorial.

The Write-on effect animates strokes on a clip. For example, you can simulate the action of hand-writing of cursive text or signatures.

For instruction on how to use the Write-on effect, see the video tutorial Using the Write-On Effect to Create Handwritten Text in Premiere Pro CS3 and The Write-on Video Effect In Premiere Pro CS3 on the Digital Media Net website.

Write-on effect: Animating strokes

Brush Position The position of the brush. Animate this property to create a stroke.

Stroke Length (Secs) The duration, in seconds, of each brush mark. If this value is 0, the brush mark has unlimited duration. Use a single, constant, non-zero value to create a snakelike movement of the stroke. Animate this value to make the stroke expand and contract.

Brush Spacing (Secs) The time interval, in seconds, between brush marks. Smaller values produce smoother paint strokes but take more time to render.

Paint Time Properties and Brush Time Properties Specifies whether paint properties and brush properties are applied to each brush mark or to the entire stroke. Choose None to apply values at each time to all brush marks in the stroke. Choose a property name for each brush mark to retain the value for that property at the time that the brush mark was drawn. For example, if you choose Color, then each brush mark keeps the color specified by the Color value at the time that the mark was drawn.

Paint Style How the paint stroke interacts with the original image:

•On Original Image Paint stroke appears over original image.

•On Transparent Paint stroke appears over transparency; the original image doesn’t appear.

•Reveal Original Image The original image is revealed by the paint stroke.

Last updated 1/16/2012