Effects and transitions

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“Adding, navigating, and setting keyframes” on page 415

Image Control effects

Black & White effect

The Black & White effect converts any color clip to grayscale; that is, colors appear as shades of gray. You cannot animate this effect with keyframes.

•In the Effect Controls panel, click the box to the left of Black & White, if necessary, to turn on the Black & White effect. Click that appears in the box to toggle the effect off.

Color Balance (RGB) effect

The Color Balance (RGB) effect changes the amount of red, green, and blue in a clip.

Color Pass effect (Windows only)

The Color Pass effect converts a clip to grayscale, with the exception of a single specified color. Use the Color Pass effect to highlight a particular area of a clip. For example, in a clip of a basketball game, you could highlight the basketball by selecting and preserving its color, while keeping the rest of the clip displayed in grayscale. Note, however, that with the Color Pass effect, you can isolate only colors, not objects within the clip.

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“Isolate a single color using Color Pass” on page 327

Color Replace effect (Windows only)

The Color Replace effect replaces all occurrences of a selected color with a new color, preserving any gray levels. Using this effect, you could change the color of an object in an image by selecting it and then adjusting the controls to create a different color.

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“Replace a color” on page 325

Gamma Correction effect

The Gamma Correction effect lightens or darkens a clip without substantially changing the shadows and highlights. It does this by changing the brightness levels of the midtones (the middle-gray levels), while leaving the dark and light areas unaffected. The default gamma setting is 10. In the effect’s Settings dialog box, you can adjust the gamma from 1 to 28.

Keying effects

Alpha Adjust effect

Use the Alpha Adjust effect in place of the Opacity effect when you need to change the default render order of Fixed effects. Change the opacity percentage to create levels of transparency.

The following Alpha Adjust effect settings let you interpret the alpha channel in the clip:

Ignore Alpha Ignores the alpha channel of the clip.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Invert Alpha Reverses the transparency and opaque areas of the clip.

Mask Only Applies the effect only to a masked area.

Blue Screen Key effect (Windows only)

The Blue Screen Key effect creates transparency from true chroma blue. Use this key to key out well-lit blue screens when creating composites.

The following Blue Screen Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Threshold Sets the levels of blue that determines transparent areas in a clip. Dragging the slider to the left increases the amount of transparency. Use the Mask Only option to view black (transparent) areas as you drag the Threshold slider.

Cutoff Sets the opacity of nontransparent areas specified by the Threshold setting. Dragging the Cutoff slider to the right increases the opacity. Use the Mask Only option to view white (opaque) areas as you drag the Cutoff slider.

Smoothing Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing (softening) applied to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

Subject is photographed against blue background (left). Blue Screen Key effect is applied (right) to superimpose subject over underlying track.

For more information about using blue screen and green screen effects, see the Metacafe website.

Chroma Key effect (Windows only)

The Chroma Key effect keys out all image pixels that are similar to a specified key color. When you key out a color value in a clip, that color or range of colors becomes transparent for the entire clip. Control the range of transparent colors by adjusting the tolerance level. You can also feather the edges of the transparent area to create a smooth transition between the transparent and opaque areas.

A B C D

Chroma Key effect

A. Original image B. Blue color keyed out C. Image on second track D. Final composite image

The following Chroma Key effect settings are adjusted in the Effect Controls panel:

Similarity Broadens or reduces the range of the target color that will be made transparent. Higher values increase the range.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Blend Blends the clip you are keying out with the underlying clip. Higher values blend more of the clip.

Threshold Controls the amount of shadows in the range of color you keyed out. Higher values retain more shadows.

Cutoff Darkens or lightens shadows. Drag to the right to darken shadows, but do not drag beyond the Threshold slider; doing so inverts gray and transparent pixels.

Smoothing Specifies the amount of anti-aliasing that Premiere Pro applies to the boundary between transparent and opaque regions. Anti-aliasing blends pixels to produce softer, smoother edges. Choose None to produce sharp edges, with no anti-aliasing. This option is useful when you want to preserve sharp lines, such as those in titles. Choose Low or High to produce different amounts of smoothing.

Mask Only Displays only the clip’s alpha channel. Black represents transparent areas, white represents opaque areas, and gray represents partially transparent areas.

Chromakey with the Ultra Key effect

Karl Soule provides an overview of the Ultra Key effect on the Adobe website.

Tracy Peterson provides a video tutorial that demonstrates the Ultra Key effect on the Adobe website.

Will Head of MacUser shows tips and tricks for keying using the Ultra Key effect here.

For more information about creating key effects with the Ultra key in Premiere Pro, see this video by Video2Brain by Jan Ozer.

Eran Stern shows you how to use the Ultra Key effect in this tutorial.

The Ultra Key effect is GPU accelerated, for improved playback and rendering performance, in computers with a supported nVIDIA card.

1Apply Ultra Key to a clip or clips.

2In the Timeline, place the current-time indicator over a frame containing a key color.

3In the Effect Controls panel, select the desired options from the Output and Setting menus.

4Do one of the following:

•Click the Color Picker box to open the Color Picker. Then select a key color and click OK.

•Click the Eye Dropper, and select a key color.

•Set the other parameters as desired.

Ultra Key effect parameters

Matte Generation

Transparency Controls the transparency of the source when keyed over a background. Values range from 0 through 100. 100 is fully transparent. 0 is opaque. The default value is 45.

Highlight Increases the opacity of light areas of the source image. You can use Highlight to extract details like specular highlights on transparent objects. Values range from 0 through 100. The default value is 50. 0 does not affect the image.

Shadow Increases the opacity of dark areas of the source image. You can use Shadow to correct a dark element that became transparent because of color spill. Values range from 0 through 100. The default value is 50. 0 does not affect the image.

Tolerance Filters out colors in the foreground image from the background. Increases tolerance to variation from the key color. You can use Tolerance to remove artifacts caused by color shift. You can also use Tolerance to control spill on skin tones and dark areas. Values range from 0 through 100. The default value is 50. 0 does not affect the image.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

Pedestal Filters out noise, often caused by grainy or low light footage, from the alpha channel. Values range from 0 through 100. The default value is 10. 0 does not affect the image. The higher the quality of your source image, the lower you can set Pedestal.

Matte Cleanup

Choke Shrinks the size of the alpha channel matte. Performs a morphological Erode (fractional kernel size). Choke Level Values range from 0 through 100. 100 represents a 9x9 kernel. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 0.

Soften Blurs the edge of the alpha channel matte. Performs a box blur filter (fractional kernel size). Blur Level values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 0. 1.0 represents a 9x9 kernel.

Contrast Adjusts the contrast of the alpha channel. Values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 0.

Mid Point Chooses the balance point for the contrast value. Values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 50.

Spill Suppression

Desaturate Controls the saturation of the color channel background color. Desaturates colors that are close to being fully transparent. Values range from 0 through 50. 0 does not affect the image, The default value is 25.

Range Controls the amount of spill that is corrected. Values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 50.

Spill Adjusts the amount of spill compensation. Values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 50.

Luma Works with the alpha channel to restore the original luminance of the source. Values range from 0 through 100. 0 does not affect the image. The default value is 50.

Color Correction

Saturation Controls the saturation of the foreground source. Values range from 0 through 200. A setting of zero removes all chroma. The default value is 100.

Hue Controls the hue. Values range from -180° to +180 °. The default value is 0°.

Luminance Controls the luminance of the foreground source. Values range from 0 through 200. 0 is black. 100 is 4x. The default value is 100.

Color Key effect

The Color Key effect keys out all image pixels that are similar to a specified key color. This effect modifies only the alpha channel of a clip.

Nonstandard blue screen (left) and background (center) are combined with Color Key effect (right).

When you key out a color value in a clip, that color or range of colors becomes transparent for the entire clip. Control the range of transparent colors by adjusting the tolerance level. You can also feather the edges of the transparent area to create a smooth transition between the transparent and opaque areas.

Last updated 1/16/2012