Beginner help -- insert image into AE in same place, same location

[bradys35422060]

Hello,

First off, I am a total beginner to this, though not useless with a computer. I appreciate your patience!

I have been tasked with editing a non profit's video library (don't ask, I volunteered because I thought it would be fun) to add images in the same location, in the same size.

Basically, I have to add a logo and some other promotional banners to these video clips. There are LOTS of videos, but the image location and dimensions will not change from video to video. The image files will be consistent in file size and quality.

Is there a way where I can quickly add the images to each invidivual video file, without having to manually size and place the logos and promo banners?

I don't know where to start, I don't know the AE vernacular, so I don't know how to search online, without coming to this forum.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[David Arbor]

Hi there. For starters you should not be doing this in After Effects. It's a compositing/graphics application that's meant for heavy lifting and not for real-time playback. You would want to do this in Premiere, as it's a non-linear editor.

Alternatively, and an even easier solution is to use Adobe Media Encoder's Watermark effect. You can pick a still image and size it over your video. You can then save this as a preset, drag all your video clips into Media Encoder's Queue, apply the preset at once and never have to edit the clips individually. Check out this tutorial for how to use the Watermark effect: How to watermark your video in Adobe Media Encoder - YouTube

There is a downside to this, though, and being has much more to do with this than not being useless with a computer (although that's always a good thing too), and it's about understanding video formats. If you convert add the watermark to these videos you'll be processing them again and reducing the quality if you don't know what you're doing. What is the format of all these videos, how are they used, and why do they want these watermarks? Are the watermarked versions going to be one-off versions that will be used for a single purpose and that's it, or does the non-profit want to integrate these into other video productions? Understanding video formats is a complicated thing and a lot goes into it, so for now, I'll just leave you with the above questions.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

The trick to doing this quickly and efficiently is to create or edit your images and graphics in Photoshop or Illustrator and place them exactly where you want them to be in the frame. If you are working with HD, 1920 X 1080 comps then create a new Illustrator file with that an artboard that is 1920 pixels (points) by 1080 points, set up some guide lines or a layout grid, make sure snap to pixel is turned on, then arrange your artwork. If you are working in Photoshop make sure you have a transparent background.

Now all you have to do is add the image to a Premiere Pro timeline, or AE if you insist on using the wrong tool and taking longer to render than is necessary, and set the transitions up.