This article contains some of the common terms that you must be familiar with to efficiently use Adobe Premiere Elements.
Project
For a video on creating a project, see http://goo.gl/ePRCw
In Adobe Premiere Elements, a project is a container of all the items (assets) that you add to a movie. Your movie will contain the movie clips that you have shot. In addition, you might want to add some photographs, background music, and narration. Also, when you add special effects, transitions, and titles to your movie in Adobe Premiere Elements, they are added to your project.
When you create a movie out of your project, Adobe Premiere Elements bundles the contents of your project into a movie file.
Things you MUST know about a project
- Projects do not embed any of the content you get (import) into them. When you add an item to your project, Adobe Premiere Elements uses only the reference of the location. This is one of the reasons why it is not a good idea to move around items on your computer that you have imported into Adobe Premiere Elements. Remember to re-import the files if you have to move them for any reason.
If you are unable to work with Adobe Premiere Elements for some reason, remember that the items that you imported are safe at the location from where they were imported.
- Your original files are not edited when you work on them in Adobe Premiere Elements. You can reuse the same files in another project and the changes you made in a project where you used them will not be reflected.
Project preset
For a video on project presets, see http://goo.gl/ePRCw
A project preset is a collection of preconfigured project settings.
In most cases, you do not have to worry too much about project presets for the following reasons:
- The default project preset, (4:3 DV footage for the television standard [NTSC or PAL] is good enough in most cases. The television standard is automatically chosen based on the country you chose when installing Adobe Premiere Elements.
NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) is the television standard for the Americas, the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is the standard format for Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, China, and other parts of Asia.
- When you try to add a movie clip whose preset does not match the project’s preset to the timeline, a message appears. Click Yes in the message to allow Premiere Elements to change the project’s settings to use the closest available preset.
Media
Media refers to all the items that you add to your project such as movie clips, audio files, graphic files, text, and so on.
Movie clip and video clip
In the context of Adobe Premiere Elements at least, they refer to the same thing.
Frames
You can think of a movie as a series of frames with minute variations in each succeeding frame. When you play the sequence, you get a movie. So, you work with a frame or a set of frames pretty much the same way as you would do with a set of photographs.
You can select a frame or a set of frames and apply effects, sound, and so on much the same way you work with photographs or slide shows.
Keyframes
If you want to apply an effect to a set of frames, you need markers that identify the frames to which the effect will be applied. Keyframes help you to do that. For example, to create a blur effect that changes over time, you could set three keyframes—the first with no blur, the second with blur, and the third with no blur. Through interpolation, the blur gradually increases between the first and second keyframes and then gradually decreases between the second and third keyframes.
Import
Importing media is the process of adding content to your movie project. You can add content from your computer, camera, camcorder, USB drives, and so on.
Export
When you export content, you convert it to a format that can be shared with other users. For example, you can export movies for DVD burning or to upload them to Facebook.
Capture movie
The process of transferring a video, or portions of it, from a recording device to your hard disk is called capturing. When you capture a movie using Adobe Premiere Elements, the captured movie clips are converted to a compatible format and saved on your hard disk. References to the captured movie clips are created in the project.
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the television color encoding system that is used in most of North America, most of South America (except Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and French Guiana), Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories (see map).
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a television color encoding system used in broadcast television systems in countries other than those listed for NTSC.
Monitor resolution
A computer monitor is made of pixels (short for “picture element”). Monitor resolution is measured in pixels, width by height. 640 x 480 resolution means that the screen is 640 pixels wide by 480 tall, an aspect ratio of 4:3.
Playback
The reproduction of previously recorded sounds or moving images.
Rendering
When you add effects, titles, or clip art to your movie, the file must be processed for the items you added to appear as intended when the movie is played. This process is referred to as rendering.
The red line indicates that the movie clip has not been rendered. Use Timeline > Render Work Area to render your movie. The red line changes to green after the movie has been rendered. Even if you forget to render a movie, Premiere Elements prompts you to render it when publishing your movie.
The time to render a movie depends on the complexity of effects and animation that you add to your movie. It definitely helps to have a computer with higher processing power for rendering very complex content.
File format
Adobe Premiere Elements supports most of the standard file formats for movie, audio, and graphic files. For a list of file formats that are supported, see http://goo.gl/xMOYf. If your file format isn’t listed here, Adobe hasn’t tested the file format in Adobe Premiere Elements. Go ahead and try to use it though. Let us know your results on http://feedback.photoshop.com.
Devices
For the list of devices from which you can import content are listed in the KB article http://goo.gl/U7JAp. This page also contains devices to which you can copy your movies. Like with file formats, the list contains devices that were tested by Adobe for Adobe Premiere Elements. Go ahead and use your device. Let us know your results on feedback.photoshop.com.
Sceneline
Helps you arrange your movie clips in a sequence. The sceneline contains slots to which you can drag your assets (movie clips, audio files, images files, and so on). The movie plays in the order in which you arrange the clips in the Sceneline. For a video on using the Sceneline, see http://goo.gl/4AN0J
Timeline
After you are familiar with using the Sceneline, you can start arranging clips using the Timeline. The timeline provides more options for editing your movies than the Sceneline. Move to using the Timeline as soon as you feel comfortable with the Sceneline. For a video on using the Timeline, see http://goo.gl/4AN0J
Workspace
Workspace is the view that appears after you create or open a project in Adobe Premiere Elements. The Adobe Premiere Elements workspace is made up of three components:
- The Monitor Panel
- The Tasks Panel
- The Timeline/Sceneline Panel
Monitor Panel
Like the name suggests, you can view the video that you create in Adobe Premiere Elements in the Monitor panel. You can also use the monitor panel to do a host of other things, some of which are listed below:
- Trim and split clips
- Apply effects : You can drag an effect from the Edit panel into the Monitor to preview it.
- Add titles or text on top of your movie clips
- Position content
Tasks panel
The Tasks panel appears by default for all workspaces. It is the central location for adding, organizing and editing media, creating menus, and sharing finished projects.
The Tasks panel is organized into four main task workspaces: Project, Edit, Disc Menus, and Share.
Project panel
Media : Contains media that you imported into your project. You can drag assets from this panel to the timeline, sceneline, or monitor for assembling and editing purposes.
Get Media : Contains options for importing media from various storage media such as camcorders, cameras, hard disks, and Elements Organizer.
InstantMovie : Quickly create a movie using assets in the Project view. Select the assets in the Project view, click InstantMovie, and follow instructions to create your movie.
Edit panel
Use this panel to add special effects, transitions, titles, themes, and clip art to your movie.
Disc menu panel
Menus help users navigate to specific portions of your movie. Use this panel to create a menu that is displayed at the beginning of the movie. You can also use menu templates in Adobe Premiere Elements to add menus to your movie.
Share panel
Use the share view to save and share (export) your finished project. You can save your project for viewing on the web, a mobile phone, a Computer, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and more.
Effects
Displays effects and presets you can use in your movie. To apply an effect, select a movie clip in the Timeline or Sceneline. Select an effect and click Apply. To edit an effect after applying it, select it, and click Edit Effects. For a movie on applying effects, see http://goo.gl/alndg
Transitions
Transitions are effects you apply to phase out one clip and phase in the next. To apply a transition between two clips in the Timeline the clips must be on the same track, with no space between them. Drag the transition from the Tasks panel to the cut between two clips in the Timeline, and release the mouse button when an icon appears.
Titles
Titles refer to textual content that you add on top of your movie. You can use titles to create menus or add textual information to your movie.
Clip art
Fun objects that you add to your movie to make them more interesting. Clip art could include caricatures of people, cartoons, or any such image.
Themes
Themes are similar to the themes you add in Microsoft PowerPoint. Themes make your movie interesting by providing it with the correct mood and ambience. For example, you could use a birthday theme for a movie of your grandson’s birthday. The theme includes color schemes, graphics, and background that are best suited for movies related to birthday celebrations.
Undo
Undoing changes helps you to cancel the most current task that you performed and go back to the previous change. The simplest way to do this is to use the Ctrl+z/Cmd+z keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, you can use the undo button in the application.
Another way of undoing changes is to use the History panel. The History panel contains a list of changes you made in the project. Open the History panel using Window > History. Select the task that you want to delete and click the Trash icon.
Slide show
A slide show is much like a Microsoft Power point presentation. Each photo is treated as a single slide and appears in the order in which you have placed it in the movie. You can apply and effects and transitions to a slide show much like how you do for video clips.
Placing objects on top of the other
When you place objects from Premiere Elements such as text and clip art on a movie clip in the monitor, the object automatically get placed on top of each other. You can also have one clip on top of the other in the timeline. When you add transparency to the clip on top, portions of the video below are displayed in your movie. This method helps you create fascinating effects using two movie clips.
Trimming
As the word suggests, trimming is the process of removing unwanted portions of your clip. Trimming is an essential part of editing. In fact, most editors trim their content before adding effects and narration to their video.
Always remember that during any editing process, your original files are unaltered. So, do not be too scared when you are trimming clips.
Smart trimming
Adobe Premiere Elements automatically detects low-quality portions of your video clips and removes them. You can also manually smart trim a video clip. Refer to the documentation on smart trim for more information.
Freeze frame
When you click the Freeze Frame button in Adobe Premiere Elements, a snapshot of the frame is created. Think of a snapshot as a photograph that you insert into a movie, or something that you can save as a photograph and share with others.
Layers
You can think of layers as photos stacked on top of each other. When you stack one photo above another, it is obvious that you cannot see the photograph below. But what if the photo that you add is not opaque but semi-transparent? You will be able to see portions of the image below. By moving the photo on top around, different portions of the photo below can be exposed.
When you use layers using software you do precisely that. When you open a photo, a layer is automatically created (background layer). Using the Layers panel, you can create layers on top of the background layer, change their transparency, add objects to them, and so on.
Mask
Think of a mask as a white opaque sheet between two layers. When you clear portions of the white layer, the content on the photo below is juxtaposed with the content on the top photo providing interesting visual effects.
Markers
Much in the same way as you use bookmarks to identify areas in the book that help you remember and jump to sections in a book, movie markers help identify portions of a movie. When creating menus, you create a button and link it to a movie marker. When users click on the button, they are taken to that section of the movie.
Another way is to think of markers in the same way as you think of hyperlinks and anchors for text material.
Audio Mixing
Audio mixing helps you provide a professional touch to the audio in your clips. It helps add variation to the audio and keeps the narration interesting when you have parallel audio tracks going on simultaneously. You can increase the volume of the background score when there is no narration and minimize it as soon as the narration begins.
