Computer Beginner Guide

To edit efficiently in the Timeline window, you should be familiar with all of its features. You need to be able to navigate your way through the Timeline window and zoom in to see close-up views of frames. In this section, you tour the Timeline window and learn how to navigate and master it. The best place to start touring the Timeline window is at the top, where the Work Area Band appears. This band simply shows you the entire working area of Premiere. The yellow bar within the Work Area Band is called the Work Area Bar. The Work Area Bar determines the area that is rendered by Premiere in a preview. The Work Area Markers appear at either end of the Work Area Bar. By clicking and dragging the left and right markers, you can change the area onscreen that will be previewed or exported. Below the Work Area Bar is the Timeline Ruler for the project. Above the Timeline Ruler appears the Timeline Marker. You click and drag the Timeline Marker to view different parts of your proj...

Before you begin editing video in Premiere, you need a basic idea of different techniques that you can use to edit a digital video production. Premiere provides two main areas for editing clips and assembling them: the Timeline window and the Monitor window. The Timeline provides a visual overview of your project. You can begin creating a rough edit by simply dragging clips from the Project window into the Timeline. Using the selection tools in the Timeline, you begin arranging the clips in a logical order. As you work, you can fine-tune your production by performing edits in the Monitor window. When you edit in the monitor window you can set up the Source view to show you a clip that isn’t in the Timeline, while the Program view shows you a clip that is already in the Timeline. Using controls in the Monitor window, you can insert the source clip into the clip that’s already in the Timeline, or overlay the source clip so it replaces a portion of the clip that’s in the Time...

Before you get started capturing video and audio, it’s important to understand that many settings in Premiere depend upon the actual equipment you have installed in your computer. It’s also important to understand that the dialog boxes that appear when capturing change depending upon the hardware and software installed in your computer. The dialog boxes that appear in may vary from what you see on your computer, but the general steps for capturing video and audio are pretty much the same. However, if you have a capture board that digitizes analog video, the setup process is different than if you have a FireWire port installed in your computer. Whether you are capturing digital video or digitizing analog video, one of your first steps should be to ensure that Premiere’s scratch disk is set up properly. The scratch disk is the disk used to actually perform the capture. You want to make sure that the scratch disk is the fastest one connected to your computer, and that the ha...

The quality of video clips in a Premiere project can often mean the difference between a production that attracts viewers and firmly holds their attention, or one that sends them looking for other sources of information or entertainment. Undoubtedly, one of the primary factors in determining the quality of source material is how the video is captured on a computer hard disk. If you have a capture board that digitizes analog video, you may be able to access the capture board directly from Premiere to digitize video. If you have a FireWire (IEEE1394) DV port, you may also be able to use Premiere’s Capture window to transfer clips directly from your DV video camera. Depending upon the sophistication of your equipment, and the quality requirements of your production, you may be able to capture all of your video source material by using Premiere. Before you get started capturing video for a production, you should first realize that the quality of the final captured footage dep...

Once you have a basic understanding of frame rate, frame size, and compression, you can better choose settings when you create a project in Premiere. If you choose your project settings well, you’ll produce the best quality video. You first choose Project settings when you create a new project. The Load Project Settings dialog box shown in below appears when you first load Premiere, or when you choose File » New Project. The creators of Premiere have streamlined the process of choosing project settings. To get started, you simply need to click on one of the available presets. Notice that Premiere provides DV (Digital Video format presets) for NTSC television and the PAL standard. For Web and CD-ROM work, Premiere supplies Multimedia presets. Clicking one of the presets displays the prechosen settings for compression, frame size, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and bit depth, as well as for audio settings. Although the project settings provide an excellent starting point, y...

Before you begin creating a digital video project, it’s important to understand some basic terminology. Terms such as frame rate, compression, and frame size abundantly populate Premiere’s dialog boxes. Understanding these terms will help you to make the right decisions as you create new projects and export them to videotape or to disk. Video frame rates If you take a strip of motion picture film in your hand and hold it up to the light, you’ll see the individual picture frames that comprise the production. If you look closely, you’ll see how motion is created—each frame is slightly different than the previous frame. A change in the visual information in each frame creates the illusion of motion. If you hold up a piece of videotape to light, you won’t see any frames. However, the video camera does electronically store the picture data into individual video frames. The standard frame rate in video is approximately 30 frames per second. (The standard frame rate of film is ...

In the past few years, the term digital video has taken on a variety of new meanings. To the consumer, digital video might simply mean shooting video with the latest video camera from Canon, Sony, or JVC. A digital video camera is named as such because the picture information is stored as a digital signal. The camera can translate the picture data into digital signals—saving it on tape in much the same way that your computer saves data to a hard disk. Older systems that don’t store data digitally to tape, store the information in an analog format on tape. In analog format, information is sent in waves rather than as specific individual bits of data. For video clips, stills, and audio information to be used by Premiere, they must be converted to digital format. Video and audio information stored in digital format from digital video cameras can be transferred directly to the computer (provided you have an IEEE1394 port. Apple’s IEEE port is called FireWire). Because the dat...

When you first load Premiere, several windows automatically load onscreen, each vying for your attention. Why do you need more than one window open at once? A video production is a multifaceted undertaking. In one production, you may need to capture video, edit video, and create titles, transitions, and special effects. Premiere’s windows help keep these tasks separated and organized for you. Because the History, Navigator, Video/Audio Effects, and Transitions windows float above all other windows, they are treated separately in the section about Premiere palettes. Although Premiere’s primary windows open automatically onscreen from time to time, you may wish to close one of them. To close a window, simply click on its close box (Windows users: click on the close window X icon). If you try to close the Project window, Premiere assumes that you want to close the entire project, and prompts you to save your work before closing. If you wish to open the Timeline, or Monitor ...

Whether you need to create a simple video clip on the Web or a sophisticated documentary or presentation, Premiere has the tools you need to create a dynamic video production. In fact, the best way to think about Premiere is to visualize it as a complete production facility. You’d need a roomful of videotape and special effects equipment to do everything Premiere can do. Here’s a short list of some of the production tasks that you can accomplish with Premiere: Edit digital video clips into a complete digital video production. Capture video from a digital camcorder or videotape recorder. Capture audio from a microphone or audio recording device. Load stock digital graphics, video, and audio clips. Create titles and animated title effects, such as scrolling or rolling titles. Integrate files from different sources into your production. Premiere loads digital video and audio files. It also loads graphics created in Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as reading JPEG and TIFF f...