Looking to add some wow to your next video project without breaking the bank? Generally, for people who edit projects such as travel videos, vlogs, music videos, short intros, or even product presentations, trying to make these types of creative content stand out could be a daunting task. Sure, we’ve all seen videos that use slick camera moves and have appealing composition.
But what if there was a way to add even more spice to the footage you’ve already shot? Luckily, seasoned video editor Justin Odisho unveils five striking creative video techniques you can do inside of Adobe Premiere Pro CC, possibly helping you take your visuals to the next level.
The first effect Justin covers in the video above is what he calls the Stop Motion Ghosting Effect. This technique is basically an easy way to create visual interest as it appears as if your main footage is being trailed by a ghost of itself, appealingly denoting confusion and uneasiness. To do this, first, duplicate your footage and place it on top of the original clip.
Then navigate to the Effects Panel, look for the Posterize Time filter and add it to the duplicate clip. The effect’s function is to essentially drop the frame rate of your clip, making it seem even more choppy as you decrease the available frame rate value. To achieve the ‘stop-motion’ part of the effect, set the frame rate to 6 frames. The motion of your footage should now appear like it’s smoothly stuttering, almost stop-motion like.
To get the ghosting effect, go to the Opacity properties and change the blending mode to Screen. Now when you playback your footage, you’ll see how the top layer choppily trails behind the original video. If you want to fine-tune the effect further, adjust the opacity to your liking as this parameter will determine how prevalent the “ghosting” layer affects your overall image. If you want to make the effect even more complicated, you can add a Channel Blur effect to the duplicate layer. Then set the Red Blurriness to a value of 115 to achieve a bit of a visual separation of the RGB channels.
Another creative technique outlined in the tutorial is referred to as a Glitchy Mosaic Pixel Stretch. The result of the effect are these random and glitchy bands that appear over your footage, slightly distorting the image in a not-so-distracting manner (although very noticeable).
Again, the first step is to duplicate your footage and place the newly created copy above the original video. Then go to the Effects panel and add the Mosaic filter to the duplicate clip. This plug-in is mostly used for censoring inappropriate content, but in this case, it’ll be used to achieve the mosaic bands seen in the image.
Next, adjust the Horizontal Blocks value to at least 1000 as well as the Vertical Blocks value to 3. Finally, go into the Opacity Properties and set the Blending Mode to Screen. You should now see a cool glitchy reflective image over your original clip. If you want to adjust the aesthetics of the effect, you can play around with the opacity and the horizontal/vertical block values to suit your tastes.
Justin’s third effect is the Custom Light Leak. Typically, these visual effects are done through the use of third-party plug-ins. Although if you’re merely looking to mimic the haziness of a light leak, it’s rather easy to do within Premiere Pro CC.
Duplicate the clip and place it above the original clip. Next, apply the Eyedropper Fill filter to the duplicate layer. If you don’t already know, the function of the Eyedropper Fill is to take a color sample of one pixel in your image then fill the entire layer with that color.
The default position of the effect is targeted at the center of the image, so whatever color happens to be present in that spot, the filter will change the color accordingly. To have the color leak blend with your original footage, change the duplicate layer’s blending mode to Screen. The last step is to adjust the opacity to your liking to get the right balance of the colorful haze you’ve just created within your shot.
The fourth creative technique showcased in the video is called a Prism Reflection, wherein the center of the frame will be your main footage while all four corners will be taken up by the reflections of the original clip. The process starts by duplicating the original clip and placing the duplicate over the original. Next, add the Replicate filter to the duplicate layer. Under the effect, create a rectangular mask to be able to limit the impact to the mask area.
Then bump up the Mask Expansion to around 401 as this step should cover the entire middle portion of the frame. Afterward, increase the Mask Feather so that the edges of the effect are softened and blending well. Finally, under the Mask Properties click on the Inverted checkbox to invert the mask.
The last effect on Justin Odisho’s list of creative techniques is called the Comic Book Style Halftone.This effect mimics the aesthetic that you normally see in comic books. In the Effects Panel, look for the Checkerboard effect and add it to your clip. Set the Width value to 8.0 and then switch the Blending Mode of the effect to either Soft Light or Overlay (more contrasty).
Afterward, add the Posterize filter to the clip. This step will make the colors match the looks found in comic books. Once you’ve added the filter, adjust the Level value to whatever you wish. Play around with the effect to see how the colors in your shot are affected.
For more creative technique and other insightful video editing tutorials, make sure to subscribe to Justin Odisho’s YouTube channel here.
[source: Justin Odisho]
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