Premiere Elements 8 Initial Impressions

[A_T__Romano]

Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Part 1.

Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 are now installed on my Windows XP SP3 with about available 1 GB RAM and 70 GB free hard drive space and the virtual memory controlled by the operating system…not great for a heavy duty project, but adequate to overview the programs.

1. Download & Installation. Both programs took about 3 ½ hours to download, using high speed DSL. Premiere Elements 8 downloaded and installed without problems. Installation went much quicker. But, Photoshop Elements 8 download did present challenges, first, it kept downloading Premiere Elements 8 instead of Photoshop Elements 8. Finally in the early hours of the morning, the download from the Adobe site was named Photoshop Elements 8. Great, except, once downloaded it would not launch. The launcher did not know what to do with the .7z  file. Download and use of WinZip took care of that. My default browser Mozilla Firefox was worthless for the download of either Photoshop Elements 8 or Premiere Elements 8, but no problems with my Internet Explorer 6. I had this same problem with the Photoshop Elements 7/Premiere Elements 7 downloads last year.

2. Premiere Elements 8

a. Organizer. I would take exception to Steve Grisetti’s picture of the Organizer in “What’s new in Premiere Elements 8?”, but maybe I was overly optimistic by “The most visible change to version 8 is that the Organizer is no longer a sub-program of Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements. It now lives as its own, separate, pretty much independent program – behaving more than ever like its professional big brother, Adobe Bridge.” He went on to say “In version 8, both programs have equal access to a single, full-featured Organizer.”

Here is my dilemma for some who want a separate video and photo catalog. If you had Photoshop Elements 7/Premiere Elements 7, you could create additional catalogs in Photoshop Elements 7. Premiere Elements 7 could use one of these catalogs, but could not create new catalogs. So then, you could have a photo catalog displaying in the Photoshop Elements 7 Organizer and a video catalog displaying when you opened Premiere Elements 7. You cannot do that anymore, and File Menu/Catalog is gone in Premiere Elements 8. You still cannot create catalogs in Premiere Elements 8, so, if you just have Premiere Elements 8, you have ONE catalog. If you have Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8, you can create additional catalogs in Photoshop Elements 8 that can be used in Premiere Elements 8, but these programs will display the same ONE catalog.

b. Project Presets. The “New Preset” button is gone. The categories of the presets for NTSC and PAL remain the same: AVCHD, DV, “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder”, HDV. However, two choices have been added to the “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder” categories. Now we have HD 1080i30, HD 1080i30 (60i), Standard, and Widescreen. Here I have a problem reconciling the names and the descriptions. It was my understanding, in Premiere Elements 7 for standard and widescreen in this category, this preset category reverses the Fields: from Upper Field First to Lower Field First in Premiere Elements edits. So, now with these new choices described as follows:

HD 1080i30: 1920 x 1080i; pixel aspect ratio = square pixels (1.0); camcorders like JVC GZ-HD7; 16:9 interlaced HD video at 29:97 frames per second.

HD 1080i30 (60i): HD video from 1440 x 1080i camcorders; 16:9 interlaced HD video at 29:97 frames per second HDV 1080i Anamorphic.

When thinking HD 1080i30 preset….the JVC camcorder captures to a progressive sensor, assumed at 30 frames per second, and can record to it’s built in hard drive as 1920 x 1080i with 30 frames per second each frame with 2 fields. So, what prevents us from calling this preset HD 1080i30 (30p) Square Pixel?

When thinking HD 1080i30 (60i))…the camcorder involved captures to an interlaced sensor at 60 fields per second, and can record to it media as 1440 x 1080 with 30 frames per second, using a HD Anamorphic. So, what prevents us from calling this preset HD 1080i30 (60i) Anamorphic?

When I start comparing preset choices, the only reason for using these “Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorder” new choices appears to be, like for standard and widescreen, to have the Fields reversed. Do you agree? Any comments on the nomenclature for these new preset choices?

3. Adobe Folder, folders and files

If you go to the default location of the Adobe Folder (My Documents\Premiere Elements\8.0), there are some differences there:

For Premiere Elements 7 and earlier versions there were:

Adobe Premiere Elements Previews Folder

Encoded Files Folder

Media Cache Folder that piled up with conformed audio files (.cfa and .pek)

Project Prel file

Styles Folder

And sometimes 2 .log files

Now in Premiere Elements 8, the Media Cache Folder is gone and we have the arrangement:

Adobe Premiere Elements Previews Folder

CA Object Track Results

Encoded Files

Layouts

Styles Folder

(You no longer see the endless conforming of DVD Menus (not even used) at the beginning of the project. But, I am still trying to figure out what they did with the conformed audio files (.cfa and .pek). More on that next time, along with Premiere Elements 8 Exports as well as Photoshop Elements 8/Premiere Elements 8 intergration.

ATR

[A_T__Romano]

Ozpeter

Thank you for your comments.

From my point of view, I would prefer more comprehensive and significant upgrades of these programs on a less frequent basis, rather than token upgrades on a yearly basis. But, I guess one might argue that the yearly upgrade is necessary to keep up with the competition. Yet, from your example, we can clearly see that they are not accomplishing that with the yearly new version marketing strategy.

Right now, I suspect that top of the user wish list is the application you mention as well as introduction of a 64 bit version. But, there is an old expression, "Be careful what you wish for."

Thanks again for taking the time to comment.

I still need to finish off the Exports part of my First Look and add some miscellaneous interesting features. I still do not have a final answer to the question from those who ask "Upgrade to Premiere Elements 8?".

ATR

[Guest]

I still do not have a final answer to the question from those who ask "Upgrade to Premiere Elements 8?".

That is bound to be such a personal thing.  For instance, in my case, I'm really really hoping that video from the Pansonic GH1 will now be properly supported, though I'm not holding my breath.  My download of the paid-for upgrade is about to complete and then I will know!  Others of course will have their own criteria.

You know, one tiny feature makes me keep coming back to Premiere Elements, and that's the audio-only crossfade, which competitor apps don't have.  In professional video and film, almost all edits are butt joins with an audio crossfade - when did you last see a fancy transition on TV?  But most apps at the PE price point don't have that most basic method of joining two clips (despite fancy transitions galore).

I shall take the liberty of adding my first impressions to yours later, though mine will lack the depth of yours (and you've got it all well covered anyway!)

[A_T__Romano]

Ozpeter

You have definitely caught my attention with mention of your Panasonic Lumix DMC-GHI and how its video edits in Premiere Elements 8. Have you been able to edit the video from this camera in Premiere Elements 7?

Your post sent me online to check out your Panasonic. Very impressive, but from the point of view of Premiere Elements 7 or 8....  From what I have read and my understanding of it:

1. AVCHD with Dolby Digital Stereo

2. 1920 x 1080

NTSC, sensor captures 60 fields per second with recording at 24p.

PAL, sensor captures 50 fields per second with recording at 25p.

3. NTSC, 1280 x 720, sensor captures 60p (60 progressive frames per second) with recording at 60p.

PAL, sensor captures 50p (50 progressive frames per second) with recording at 50p.

I will be watching for any corrections to my look at your camera specifications and your follow up comments, especially how the programs dealt with the 1280 x 720 and associated frame rates.

Hope that by now the news is good on your side.

ATR

[A_T__Romano]

Premiere Elements 8: First Look

IMPORTANT ADD ON:  ENABLE GPU PLAYBACK OPTION

In a recent thread here Marc Barriere reported on purple screen for the Premiere Elements 8 with use of his video MotionJPEG with an AVI format. He said that he did not have this problem with the same video in Premiere Elements 7. This Premiere Elements 8 problem was resolved by going to the Edit Menu/Preferences/General and unchecking “Enable GPU Playback”. See his thread for details:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/498747?tstart=0

Background Summary.

In Premiere Elements 7, the Playback Settings (via right clicking Edit Mode Monitor and selecting Playback Settings) includes an area for Desktop Display Mode and gives the choices of Compatible, Standard, and Accelerated GPU Effects. There is no “Enable GPU Playback” in its Edit Menu/Preferences/General.

In Premiere Elements 8, the Desktop Display Mode with its choices are gone from Playback Settings. In Edit Menu/Preferences/General, there is now an option called “Enable GPU Playback” to check or uncheck.

Unchecking this “Enable GPU Playback” worked for Marc so that he no longer has that purple screen in his Edit Mode Monitor with the MotionJPEG with AVI format.

ATR

[Guest]

I wonder whether the reworded "Enable GPU playback" has any implications involving (for instance) Cuda on Nvidia cards, or whether there's nothing behind it other than a rewording?  Among the (many....) video editing apps I have,  downloaded in the fruitless search for the NLE Holy Grail, is one that is Cuda enabled, and it does produce remarkable benefits with AVCHD and possibly other file types.  Another thing I'll try shortly... still going through the installation due to domestic interruptions.  (But I'm very fond of her).

[A_T__Romano]

Premiere Elements 8: First Look
IMPORTANT ADD ON .... DISABLE TRACKING OF INFORMATION

Soon after I installed Premiere Elements 8 and started working with it in the studies that I have been reporting on, I started to hear computer noises of a few seconds duration about every 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour. When I heard the noise, I noticed that the light lit for my A: drive (3 1/2" Floppy Drive) and disappeared with the disappearance of the noise.

I did not associate this with Premiere Elements 8, so I did virus checks, disc error checks, drive cleanups, which did not resolve the issue. So, I decided to continue with my Premiere Elements 8 first look and "ignore" the noise. When looking up something else online, I think I ran across the answer in the Adobe Premiere Elements Help PDF, namely "Disable tracking of information". When I disabled "the tracking of information" in the Registry as described in the PDF, the problem went away and has not returned for several hours now.

So you may need the following information if this is happening to you. I think it important enough to quote the entire PDF writeup below:

"Disable tracking of information

The Welcome screen by default records and relays some usage information to Adobe to assist in the improvements of the Welcome screen experience. The Welcome screen usage data is anonymous and does not link the information to your personal data or your Adobe ID account information. Usage information from the Photoshop Elements Editor, Adobe Premiere Elements Editor or Adobe Premiere Elements is not tracked. To disable the tracking of information in the Welcome screen:

1. In Windows XP, click start > Run (or in Windows Vista click the Start button and select Run) and type regedit.exe and click OK.

The Windows Registry Editor opens. Using the tree navigator on the left navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Elements Organizer\8.0\Organizer.

2. Right click anywhere on right panel and select New > DWORD Value.

A new DWORD Value with the name New Value #1 is created.

3. Rename New Value #1 to DisableTracking.

4. Double-click DisableTracking.

The Edit DWORD Value dialog opens.

5. Enter 1 in the Value Data field, click OK, and close the Registry Editor."

The above can be found in the Premiere Elements 8 Help PDF under

Adobe Premiere Elements Workspace

About the workspace

Welcome screen

Since this procedure involves the Registry, please double check instructions that I have given against those in the PDF. They should be one and the same.

Please let me know if you ran into this issue.

ATR

[Guest]

"New Project

Then a Window opens with a menu bar across its top and everything else in the Window gray."

So is this normal? I can't reproduce it myself, but customer asked about this, if there is some error. He has reinstalled it, and same issue.

He can only select New project/Open project from the File.He uses 64bit Vista.

My application also takes usually very long time to open or it doesn't open at all, I can see the process in task manager consuming 50% CPU, but nothing actually happens. I use Win XP SP2.

I will post more info later when I got it.

Thanks,

Jugemon

[A_T__Romano]

Jugemon76

I have been doing my evaluation of Premiere Elements 8 from the tryout version downloaded from Adobe. My computer operation system is Windows XP Professional SP3 (32 bit).

Except for DVD Templates and items like that, it has been my experience (versions 2, 6, and 7) that what you get in the tryout is what you will also get in the purchased version in the retail store or by making the purchase online.

As I stated earlier, the appearance in the opening sequence of that window with just the menu bar and everything else gray was a scary moment. I waited and waited, thinking that it would dissolve into something else. It did not. That is when necessity forced me to try File Menu where the New/Project allowed for continued progress in opening the program (new project dialog, followed by workspace).

Are you saying that, if you wait long enough, your window with the menu bar/gray will dissolve and progress into the next stage of opening automatically??

I suspect that the Premiere Elements 8 Welcome Screen may be a new concept for the Adobe designers. This default tracking of information from the Welcome Screen business may be generating more than it is worth. But these thoughts are just speculation at this point. So any further observations relating to the program opening would be very helpful.

ATR

[Guest]

No, I am not saying that it will dissolve itself, and actually I didn't wait for long. I downloaded the trial in my home computer but didn't have time to test it yet. I will do so during the weekend, and then report my experiences, if something worth.

What happened is, when I opened PRE 8 on the other machine, the gray window appeared only on first time. After that it has been working ok. If these occasions emerge more, and we report them, maybe it will be fixed in future updates. But yes, it might be the New Welcome Screen related. We'll see.

Jugemon

[Guest]

It's worth noting that if you run "Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0.exe" you get the welcome screen and so forth - but if you run "Adobe Premiere Elements.exe" (in the PE8 program directory) you go straight into the program, where you can then use the file menu to open an existing project or create a new one.  I'm not sure if that's relevant to what is being discussed above.

[A_T__Romano]

Ozpeter

I cannot confirm your observation about the opening sequences for Premiere Elements 8.

I cannot escape the Welcome Screen. I have tried opening the program Start/All Programs/Adobe Premiere Elements 8 as well as the shortcut on the Desktop that was automatically placed during installation, and I get the same sequence as described in an earlier post.

Please advise if I have understood your observations and how they were obtained?

ATR

(using tryout version Premiere Elements 8, Windows XP SP3)

[Guest]

You should be able to navigate to C:\program files\C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 - and then double click on "Adobe Premiere Elements.exe" (not "Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0.exe") - create a shortcut to that if you like.

[A_T__Romano]

Ozpeter

I can now confirm your observation and am now able to bypass the Premiere Elements 8 Welcome Screen and get directly to the window with the Menu Bar across the top and everything else gray. At this point, I select File Menu/New/Project, followed setting up the New Project dialog, OK and am in the workspace. The choreography could be better designed, but....

It does seem strange to have those two files sitting next to one another in the Program Files (Adobe Premiere Elements 8.exe and Adobe Premiere Element.exe) and the Desktop shortcut set by the installation process set to target = Adobe Premiere Elements 8.exe which forces you to go through the Welcome Screen whereas the other does not. How did this get by the beta testers or was that just a mishap in the build of the new tryouts and copies for purchase??

For those interested in details, these are the details that I used to bypass the Premiere Elements 8 Welcome Screen, thanks to the observation and follow up of Ozpeter. There may be variations along the route, but this worked for me.

1. Right click the Premiere Elements 8 shortcut that the installation process places on your Desktop.

2. Select Properties, and, in the Properties Dialog, click on Find Target.

3. Find Target will take you to Program Files/Adobe Premiere Elements/8.0 where you will see the file "Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0.exe" highlighted.

4. Right next to the "Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0.exe" file is a file named "Adobe Premiere Elements.exe".

5. Right click the "Adobe Premiere Elements.exe" file and select "Create Shortcup".

6. You can cascade the Windows if you like and drag the "Create Shortcup" icon to the Desktop. (I guess you could do this with a copy/paste also)

7. Continue to use this new Adobe Premiere Elements 8 shortcut if you want to bypass the Welcome Screen when opening Premiere Elements 8.

Thank you for sharing this observation will prove very helpful to all.

ATR

[ruzun]

GPU Playback - Will this allow one to edit AVCHD files more efficiently on non quad core systems?  One problem with PE7 is that you need a fast quad core to edit AVCHD files since the playback is a slideshow in the project while you are working on it.  It renders fine but its just unwieldy to preview anything in the sceneline or timeline as it just stutters and skips frames.

I'm hoping with PE8 and  a decent NVidia video card that supports CUDA you could now edit AVCHD files on PCs that were too slow using PE7.

Have you been able to see what GPU playback does for AVCHD source material?

[Guest]

Here - on a quad core with a CUDA enabled card - I can't see any difference with the "Enable GPU playback" on or off.  It's not impressive in terms of CPU use either way (by which I mean, I've seen other apps using less CPU for AVCHD playback).  And as far as I'm concerned anyway, there seems to be something amiss with PE8 AVCHD timeline replay full stop (compared with PE7), concerning which I await a response from Adobe.

In previous tests I've found no material end-quality difference between 'native' AVCHD editing on various NLE's compared to using high bitrate mpeg2 transcoded files, evaluating the results on a 42" Bravia LCD TV.  "MediaShow Espresso" can create those quickly as it's CUDA enabled.  Google would tell you where you can buy it.  Or for free, there's "Free AVCHD Converter" - and many others.

But something still makes me want to edit native AVCHD just as a matter of principle!

[ruzun]

I wonder if a dual core machine using GPU playback and a decent NVidia card might show a difference though, perhaps it would play smoother than non gpu playback.

What is the problem with PE8's AVCHD playback vs PE7's?  Are results using AVCHD camcorders worse in PE8 than PE7 somehow, or is editing buggier than it was with PE7 when using AVCHD files?

[Guest]

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/499621?tstart=0 details the problems I have encountered here with AVCHD - but your mileage may vary as you can never really tell with video, computers, and editing systems!  If the trial version includes the AVCHD functions then I'd recommend testing with that using your particular footage on your particular PC, as your experience could quite well differ from mine.

[A_T__Romano]

Premiere Elements 8 First Look: Part 3 Exports, Share/Personal Computer/QuickTime and Image

QuickTime

The two biggest changes that caught my attention were Presets choices, addition of a 24p export, the absence of “Apple” before the names of the QuickTime video codecs listed under the Advance button/Video Codec Tab, and two relocated tenants (from previous File Menu/Export/Movie/QuickTime) in the codecs list.

QuickTime Presets…..

In Premiere Elements 7, you were faced with four Presets choices:

Cable Modem, DSL (Movie for e-mail, download over a 512 K Cable Modem/DSL connection or playback on a Mac computer)

Local Area Network (LAN) (Movie for download over a 1024 K LAN connection or playback on a Mac computer)

128 K Dual ISDN (Movie for download over a 128 K Dual ISDN connection or playback on a Mac computer)

DialUp 56 K Modem (Movie for download over a 56 K Modem connection or playback on a Mac computer)

Now in Premiere Elements 8, the “Cable Modem, DSL” and “DialUp 56 K Modem” choices are gone, and we are left with just two choices: 128 K Dual ISDN and Local Area Network (LAN), both described as in version 7. So what Preset should I select and where is my good old “Cable Modem, DSL” choice?

The answer involves Internet Connection Speed of the person receiving the file coupled with the size of the file and finding the right balance between quality, file size, and download time. The key player in the Advance setting is bitrate (also known as data rate). If you lower the bitrate, the file size decreases, quality goes down, but the download time is less. If you increase the bitrate, the file size increases, the quality is higher, and the download time is increases. I found the following link helpful in understanding Internet Speed and Data Transfer Speed (Files).

http://www.lyberty.com/encyc/articles/kb_kilobytes.html

If you set the Premiere Elements 8 QuickTime Preset on 128 K Dual ISDN, you will find included in the defaults (under Advance button):

Frame Size: 320 x 240

Frame Rate: 15

Bitrate: 90 kbps (by my conversion, this 90 kilobits per second = 11.25 kilobytes per second)

If you set the Premiere Elements 8 QuickTime Preset on Local Area Network (LAN), you will find included in the defaults (under Advance button):

Frame Size: 640 x 480

Frame Rate: 30

Bitrate: 800 kbps (by my conversion, this 800 kilobits per second = 100 kilobytes per second)

With those settings left as is, you will definitely get a much smaller file size with the 128 K Dual ISDN than with the Local Area Network (LAN). I have found that if I set the settings for the two Presets equal to one another in each’s Advance, I have gotten the same result independent of what Preset name I select in the Preset spot.

So, my answer to the question about which Preset to use would be, by example, if I had a end user with Internet Connection Speed of 1024 kilobytes per second (1 megabyte per second), I would use the LAN preset and change the bitrate of 800 kilobits per second (100 kilobytes per second) as needed to get the appropriate file size and quality. But, the higher Internet Speed involved in this example should result in a reasonable download time for a larger file.

After all is said and done, my recommendation is

a. gauge your audience Internet Connection Speed and your file size

b. check the settings in Advance under either of the two Preset choices and set the bitrate and frame size and other parameters for the file to give you satisfactory file size, quality, and file download time.

QuickTime Export Properties

The video codec offerings appear to remain the same, except:

a. “Apple” has disappeared completely from the names of those codecs whose names previously started with “Apple”. At this time I am not sure of the significance of that.

b. There is a new DV/NTSC 24p codec.

c. The Apple Component Video codec is now called “Component Video YUV 422”

d. Two other additions to the codec list include: “Uncompressed YUV 10 bit 4:2:2” and “Uncompressed YUV 8 bit 4:2:2”. These look like codecs that were dispossessed from File Menu/Export/Movie/QuickTime when File Menu/Export divested itself of everything except a Title export.

I would like feedback on that DV/NTSC 24p codec choice and editing and exporting native 24p. There is at least one Panasonic miniDVcamcorder that shoots NTSC 480p24. But, when you capture firewire that into Premiere Elements, the DV capture results in interlaced video, even though you recorded progressive. In addition, a pulldown is applied to change 24 progressive frames per second into 30 interlaced frames per second. There was no feature for removing the pulldown in Premiere Elements. So, I am wondering

a. in Premiere Elements 8, does exporting such a Timeline via QuickTime/”DV/NTSC 24p” remove the pulldown in such as way that you get “true” 24p” and, if so, would you start with 24p or 24 p Advanced? In chat that I have seen at Premiere Pro Forum, there was talk of 24p versus 24 p Advanced (24p, not really intended for removal of pulldown and 24p Advanced, intended for removal of pulldown).

and/or

b. if you could instead copy 480p24 to your computer hard drive, import it into Premiere Elements Timeline, could you then say you have a Premiere Elements route for editing and exporting native 480p24? .

There are a large number of audio codec choices, but none for Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound (AC-3). There is an “AAC” codec and an “Uncompressed” codec which do offer Mono, Stereo, and 5.1 channel. The “Linear PCM” appears to be missing from the choices in this version. Choices for sample rates, mono or stereo, frequency, payload encoding can be found among the codec details.

Images

This is a new category in Share/Personal Computer. Gone is File Menu/Export/Frame. But the Freeze Frame icon still remains at the bottom right of the Edit Mode Monitor. As in Premiere Elements 7, use of that icon gives you a freeze frame at the location where the Timeline Indicator (CTI) is placed on the Timeline. The Export Frame dialog that appears gives you choices for duration and further edits in Photoshop Elements. The default file type is Windows Bitmap (.bmp). Unlike Premiere Elements 7, the Export dialog in this Freeze Frame icon route does not have a settings tab for changing to GIF, JPEG, TARGA, or TIFF. The pixel dimensions of the freeze frame are the frame size of the project preset (new project dialog). So, if your project preset is NTSC DV Standard, the freeze frame would have the pixel dimensions of 720 x 480.

Now in Premiere Elements 8 Share/Personal Computer/Images, there are presets for Animated GIF, JPEG, TARGA, and TIFF. Each offers different size options, such as HD 1440 x 1080, HD1920 x 1080, 720 x 480, and 720 x 576. Each has an Advanced buttons with settings that can be changed. When checked, the “Share WorkArea Bar Only” option is only functional for the Animated GIF category. More on that later, if necessary. For JPEG, TARGA, and TIFF, your export from this area depends on where you have the Timeline Indicator placed on the Timeline and is not impacted if you have “Share WorkArea Bar Only” checked or unchecked.

The export for JPEG, TARGA, and TIFF is immediate even at the larger frame sizes. The Animated GIF (video) takes longer to export (especially the HD sizes), and I find takes what seems like a long time for the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to generate a Preview afterwards.

I hope that the first looks at the remaining exports under Share, namely, "Mobile Phones and Players" and "Tape" will be quicker to look at. I got hung up with QuickTime, especially its Presets

Your comments and observations are welcomed.

ATR

.

[Guest]

Tony,

I have just one question about the program. It's about this little gimmick it has, whereby you can add an image to a scene and make it follow any moving element in the scene. The tutorial has a flying bird following a little girl skateboarding.

Is it possible, do you think, to use this feature to do proper motion tracking and add an element to a shot in which nothing is actually moving as such?

What I mean is, say you have a straight left-to-right panning shot of a landscape. There's nothing actually moving on the landscape, but as far as the frame is concerned the landscape IS the moving element. So, would it be possible to stick an image, (say a building) on to one area of the landscape, and using the tracking feature, make that "building" follow that particular place in the landscape as it "moves" across the screen? In effect, the building would look like it was part of the landscape because it would remain stuck to (tracking) the bit of landscape where you first applied it.

Is that possible? I actually tried to do it in the demo, but since I'm even a newbie to PRe7, I was struggling.

Thank you,

Kurt.

[A_T__Romano]

Kurt_777

It is just passed midnight where I am, so the first thing later today, when the morning light appears, I will give a good look at what you want to do.

If I tried right now, I might really mess it up.

ATR

[the_wine_snob]

ATR,

Sleep well, and we'll look forward to your reports in the AM.

In the meantime, I still have 3 wines to taste and report on...

Hunt

[Guest]

Oh, sorry, Tony. (stupid spherical planet...)

I'll look forward to your results. Be neat if it worked, eh?

Cheers, and thanks a lot,

Kurt.

[Raaghavs]

Hi Kurt

You can do this by using the Manual tracking feature in the Motion Tracking feature.

If you are interested as how it happens ... here is a brief (I have tried this and it works great

Put a clip on the timeline and click on the Motion Tracking icon. Click 'NO' on the alert for Analysis. After this you are taken to the Manual motion tracking mode. In this mode you can click on add object and move the marquee to the desired area of the screen and click on 'Track Object'

Analysis happens and motion tracking boxes are created.

Raags

[Guest]

Thanks, Raaghavs. I'll give that a try.

[A_T__Romano]

Kurt_777

From your description I got the idea that you wanted to start with a photo with a landscape scene, keyframe its motion properties so that the photo is panned from left to right, and be able to add a building object at point X in the landscape that would remain at point X as the landscape was panned from left to right. You wanted to achieve the latter with Premiere Elements 8 new Motion Tracking Mode feature.

First some background information for anyone looking in.

a. This feature will NOT work with a still image, even if you keyframe it’s motion properties to give it motion (a pan or zoom) on playback. The feature needs video to work. If anyone has found otherwise, please be sure to let me know.

b. The very basic idea of this feature is to have an object on video track 2 “stick” with the motion of a person or object in video on video track 1. The simple clip in the Photoshop.com Motion Tracking tutorial is too simple, the result = a girl running across a clean scene with a bird following at her head as she runs across the screen. (See Premiere Elements Motion Tracking video tutorial, free part of Premiere Elements 8 photoshop.com.)

c. The feature has two routes,

YES (automatic analysis, looking for segments of continuous motion in the video clip on video track 1 to be able to prepare for setting up the keyframes for the object on video track 2. You could end up with several segments of your video clip if it had several discontinuous areas of motion that the analysis picked up on.)

NO (manual route).

At this point, I think example might explain this best.

1. If you are starting with a photo with a landscape scene, place your photo on video track 1.

2. Keyframe the photo’s Motion/Position properties to create the left to right pan. (If you need instructions for keyframing, that will be supplied on request.)

3. Convert your Timeline to DV AVI (if you have more than the photo on the Timeline, use the Work Area Bar technique to export selectively your photo with its left to right pan. (Details on Work Area Bar technique to be supplied on request.) Go to Share/Personal Computer/DV AVI for the export, being careful to name and designate a save area on the hard drive that you will recognize. Unlike previous versions, Premiere Elements 8 will not leave a copy in the opened project’s media, just in the hard drive save location that you designated in the DV AVI dialog for the export..

4. Bring the DVAVI version into Premiere Elements 8 with Get Media/Files & Folders and drag it to the Timeline. Get rid of the jpeg version on the Timeline. Right click the .jpeg version on the Timeline and select clear.

5. With your DV AVI version on the Timeline, highlight it and then click on the Motion Tracking Mode icon above the Timeline. Say NO to the dialog. This time around we are going to use the Manual route. YES route will be detailed later if necessary.

6. A bounding box should appear in the Monitor. Use its corner for positioning and sizing of that bounding box to target the place where you want the building to remain as the landscape scene panning progresses.

7. Then go to the top right of the Monitor and click on “Track Object”. Wait for that to complete. There should be an orange box at the site where the building will be located.

8. All this time, your file with the building image has been in the Media area. Now drag the building image into the Monitor and position it at this orange box that should have turned blue when/after the building entered the Monitor. (During this concluding part, if you should find yourself with more than one orange box, make sure the one that turns blue is at the spot where you want the building to remain during the pan...unlikely to happen, but just in case.)

That should be it. Render the Timeline by pressing the Enter Key of the computer main keyboard to get the best possible preview.

I hope that was what you were looking for. It does work as described above. The Key is whether my answer was the answer to the question that you asked. If not, we will go to plan B.

ATR