Add ScreenFlow-Style “Video Actions” for Fast, Eased Animations in Premiere

ScreenFlow has a brilliantly simple animation system that would be a huge workflow improvement if adopted in Premiere Pro.

Here’s how it works in ScreenFlow:

• Add a “Video Action” (like a transition in Premiere) to a clip.

• On one side of that action, the clip has its original properties (position, scale, rotation, etc.). On the other side, you adjust those properties to their new values.

• The software automatically interpolates between the two states over the action’s duration, with smooth easing built in.

• You can drag the ends of the action bar to make the animation faster or slower, reposition it on the clip, and choose between a set of custom ease-in and ease-out values for the interpolation.

No keyframes. No graph editor. Just drop in an action, adjust the transform properties, and ScreenFlow handles the animation. See it in action here.

Why this would be a game-changer for Premiere Pro:

• Fast + intuitive: Premiere isn't set up for easy graph editor work. It would be great for editors who don’t want to be motion designers, or motion designers who want to do more of their work in Premiere.

• Clean timeline: Animations are represented as clip-level blocks, not buried in effect controls.

• Polished motion every time: Preset easing interpolation (Sine, Cubic, Quad, Quart, etc.) ensures animations feel smooth without extra tweaking and maintains consistency.

This would make everyday animations like zooms, pans, and repositioning so much faster to create in Premiere. I am constantly adding push-ins on screen recordings in my tutorials, or transitioning between full-screen camera to picture-in-picture view. My current setup involves using a custom MOGRT that gets the job done, but it is a much more complicated process than it should be for such a simple task, and it doesn't give me any control over timing or easing. This "Video Action" concept lowers the barrier for beginners, speeds up workflows for pros, and brings a level of polish by default that Premiere currently requires a very manual setup to achieve.

Thanks for reading!