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Tip #1780: How & Why to Change Label Colors

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Menu colors can also be sorted, helping to group similar clips.

Labels displayed in the Project panel (left) and Preference > Labels panel.

Topic $TipTopic

A menu preference that I skip over ALL the time is “Labels.” However, these can be really useful – especially to help organize larger projects.

Label colors are assigned to different media types by default. These default colors are set using Preferences > Labels. (See screen shot.)

However, you can change these colors to something that works better for you.

NOTE: One reason where changing label colors might help is color blindness. Or, you may have preferred colors that help you organize media.

An added benefit to using colors is that you can sort on them in both Project and Bin panels. To sort on color, click the empty column header just above the colors. Click a second time to reverse the sort order.

NOTE: The sort order is actually based on the color order of a spectrum – from red to violet.


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Tip #1781: What the Render Bar Colors Mean

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Premiere is fast, but sometimes not fast enough.

Different render bar colors in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
Render bar colors indicate what needs to be rendered before playback.

Topic $TipTopic

Most of the time, Premiere can play back your sequence in real-time displaying high-quality, full frame-rate images by harnessing the power of the Mercury Playback Engine.

However, every so often, you’ll create an effect that is so complex, it needs to render for optimum playback.

DEFINITION: Render means to calculate. But “calculate” is a very boring word. “Render” is much sexier. To render an effect means we are calculating the effect and turning it into video.

How can you tell if rendering is necessary? By the color of the render bar at the top of the Timeline.

  • No bar. Everything is playing perfectly. No rendering is necessary.
  • Yellow. An unrendered section that is complex, but may not need to be rendered in order to play back the sequence in real-time and at the full frame-rate.
  • Red. An unrendered section that needs to be rendered in order to play back the sequence in real-time and at the full frame-rate.
  • Green. A fully-rendered section of the sequence.

EXTRA CREDIT

To render some or all of a sequence, select the clips you want to render, then choose Sequence > Render Selection. A dialog appears showing the render status.


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Tip #1753: New Quick Export (Premiere beta)

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Quick Export simplifies compressing and exporting sequences.

The new Quick Export menu in the beta version of Adobe Premiere Pro.

Topic $TipTopic

In the latest beta version of Adobe Premiere, Quick Export was updated to support creating new export presets.

In the current version of Premiere, Quick Export allows you to quickly select a compression preset and export the selected sequence. But it doesn’t allow you to easily create new presets.

The beta version does.

  • Click the Quick Export icon (top red arrow) in the top right corner of Premiere.
  • In the Preset menu, select More presets (lower red arrow). This displays a list of almost 100 compression presets you can use to export your sequence.
  • Click the Star icon to the left of the preset name, then click OK to add it to this list.

EXTRA CREDIT

Currently, all Match Source presets create H.264 files. The only way to create an uncompressed file is to create a custom preset using the beta version of Premiere.

This webinar – New Features in Adobe Premiere Pro (beta) – shows how that’s done.


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Tip #1754: Webinar Showcases Premiere Beta Features

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Adobe begins a total revision of Premiere Pro.

Larry’s webinar illustrating the new features in Premiere Pro (beta).

Topic $TipTopic

Adobe introduced two major new features and two new redesigns in the latest beta release of Premiere Pro. These include:

  • New media import workflow
  • New sequence export workflow
  • Redesigned header bar and workspace menu
  • Redesigned Quick Export menu

I created a webinar to illustrate these new features. You’ll find it here.


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Tip #1755: The Slip Tool is Under-rated

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

The Slip tool adjusts the content of a shot, without changing location or duration.

The Program Monitor showing the In (left) and Out (right) frames during a Slip edit.

Topic $TipTopic

One of the most helpful tools in Premiere Pro is the Slip tool – yet it is often overlooked when working with B-roll. Here’s what it does.

The Slip tool adjusts the content of a shot, without affecting its location or duration.

Imagine you just added a B-roll clip to the timeline. You trimmed the In and Out so it precisely fits within the time you have. But, though this is the right duration, is it really the best content?

Most often, it isn’t.

Select the Slip tool (shortcut: Y), click in the middle of the B-roll clip and drag. (This is called a “Slip Trim.”)

Two images immediately appear in the Program Monitor: the In and Out frames of the clip. As you drag, these frames will change, allowing you to precisely adjust the contents of the shot.

I find myself using the Slip tool all the time to make sure the B-roll I just edited into the timeline has the right visuals for my sequence.


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Tip #1737: A Very Cool – Very Simple – Premiere Pro Shortcut

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Full-screen playback is one shortcut away.

Topic $TipTopic

Here’s a very cool – and very simple – keyboard shortcut for Premiere playback that I didn’t learn until last week.

To instantly switch to full-screen playback, type Control – ~ (tilde).

Yup. Easy.

NOTE: On most keyboard the tilde key is in the top left corner of an American keyboard, just under the ESC key.


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Tip #1742: Premiere Beta Showcases New Interface

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Adobe begins modernizing Premiere Pro for today’s media.

Image courtesy of Adobe Systems.

Topic $TipTopic

Last week, Adobe released a significant update to Premiere Pro as a beta release. This is the first step in a multi-step process to overhaul and refresh the Premiere interface.

NOTE: Beta software, by definition, is unstable and likely to change. You can install the beta version without losing access to the current release of Premiere. However, use beta software only for exploration and experimentation; because there is always the possibility of losing your work due to a software bug.

Adobe writes: “Our new vision for Premiere Pro starts with refreshed import and export experiences, as well as a streamlined header bar — making workflows easier to learn, more efficient and more enjoyable. We want Premiere Pro to become a more intuitive, yet powerful editing tool that is ready to meet the demands of tomorrow while also helping today’s creators to meet the demands of delivering high-quality content at quick turnarounds and optimizing content for multiple social platforms.

“This interface refresh is a journey that has been a long time coming. It’s a nuanced challenge to take a thirty-year-old app and modernize it for new types of video content (like social video which simply didn’t exist when Premiere Pro was first built), while respecting the needs and demands of traditional post-production. We knew we had to get it right, so we brought together a cross-functional team from product design, research, engineering and customer experience, who collected data and worked closely with our customers on their wants and needs to ensure the new experience is as beautiful as it is functional.”

The changes in this version focus on three areas:

  • Streamlining the header bar and workspaces
  • Improve the import process
  • Improve the export process

Adobe concludes: “We’ll be rolling out these new experiences on a timeline starting with this public Beta to ensure that our customers can provide feedback, explore the changes and continue to use Premiere Pro to its fullest potential. These changes are additive and not a replacement to current workflows. We understand how important muscle-memory is and we don’t want to disrupt your flow in any way.”

Here’s a link to Adobe’s blog with more details.


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Tip #1743: Adobe Cleans Up the Header Bar

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Adobe’s on-going interface cleanup continues in the Header Bar.

New Premiere Pro header bar. Left side on top, right side on the bottom.

Topic $TipTopic In the beta release of Adobe Premiere Pro last week, Adobe cleaned up the Header Bar. While the big news surrounds the new import and export workflows, the newly-cleaned-up look of the Header Bar is also worth mentioning.

NOTE: Beta software, by definition, is unstable and likely to change. You can install the beta version without losing access to the current release of Premiere. However, use beta software only for exploration and experimentation; because there is always the possibility of losing your work due to a software bug.

THE HEADER BAR

Starting with the initial Creative Cloud release several years ago, Adobe began the process of cleaning up the Premiere interface. Because, frankly, there were so many icons, controls and widgets it was almost impossible to figure out what you needed to tweak to accomplish even simple tasks.

The latest beta release continues that trend. Once you create a new project – or open an existing one – you’ll see a lot fewer icons at the top of the interface.

Adobe calls this the Header Bar and it now divides into two sections. On the left (at the top of the screen shot) are:

  • Home. This brings you back to the opening screen where you can choose which project to open or create.
  • Import. This opens a new approach to importing media and creating a new project.

NOTE: You can by-pass this window by clicking Create in the lower right corner.

  • Edit. This opens the editing window with the familiar Premiere interface.
  • Export. This opens a new approach to exporting projects.

NOTE: I’ll cover both import and export workflows in future tips.

On the right (lower portion of the screen shot) are icons to:

  • Quick Export. This expands on the Quick Export option in the current release version of Premiere.
  • New Features. This, not surprisingly, displays a “What’s New in Premiere” screen.
  • Feedback. This speeds sending feedback to Adobe during the beta process.
  • Workspaces. Rather than listing all workspaces across the top of the screen, they are now consolidated into this menu. Their function is the same, however.
  • Maximize video output. This displays video in the current timeline full screen.

Adobe concludes: “We’ll be rolling out these new experiences on a timeline starting with this public Beta to ensure that our customers can provide feedback, explore the changes and continue to use Premiere Pro to its fullest potential. These changes are additive and not a replacement to current workflows. We understand how important muscle-memory is and we don’t want to disrupt your flow in any way.”

Here’s a link to Adobe’s blog with more details on all the changes.


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Tip #1722: The New Quick Export Menu

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Quick Export is designed to create H.264 files for the web.

The Quick Export panel (top) and the contents of the Preset menu (bottom).

Topic $TipTopic

One of the newer features in Adobe Premiere Pro is Quick Export. This is a one-click icon to quickly export a project for review or distribution via the web or social media.

  • In the top right corner of the Premiere interface is a “Send” icon (top red arrow).
  • Click it and the Quick Export panel pops up.
  • Click the menu (middle arrow) to reveal a variety of compression choices (bottom arrow). Select the option you want based upon the frame size of the exported file.

These options all create H.264 movies, suitable for posting to social media or websites.

You can see the specific compression settings at the bottom of this menu.

EXTRA CREDIT

This menu was designed to simplify exports for social media. As always, you can create custom settings and choose from a much wider variety of codecs using File > Export > Media.


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Tip #1723: How Much Faster?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Adobe continues its focus on stability and performance with Premiere Pro.

H.264 encoding using Intel Quick Snyc (Windows). (L-R) Software-only, Premiere 14.0, 14.8 and 15.1.

Topic $TipTopic

Adobe recently improved the performance of H.264 encoding on Windows using Intel Quick Sync hardware acceleration.

The latest numbers show Premiere Pro 15.1 to be:

  • 77% faster than software encoding using H.264 with HD media.
  • 68% faster than software encoding using H.264 with UHD media.
  • 36% faster than Premiere 14.0 using H.264 with HD media.
  • 45% faster than Premiere 14.0 using H.264 with UHD media.

HEVC encoding showed similar speed gains.

EXTRA CREDIT

Premiere Pro 15.1 was released in April, 2021. The chart illustrates the specific results by version.


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