DISCUSS: Upgrade Captions to Graphics

[AnnikaKoenig]

In Premiere Pro beta (starting with 23.1x61) you can now upgrade your captions to graphics! We'd love your feedback!

(How do I install Premiere Pro beta?

In the Creative Cloud desktop app, select Beta apps in the left sidebar of the Apps panel. Then select Install for Premiere Pro. You can run beta builds side by side with the release versions of Premiere Pro.)

Why would you want this? 

• You want to animate your subtitles (animation is not supported for captions) 
• You want to add effects to your subtitles (effects are not supported for captions) 
• You want to create overlapping subtitles on different tracks for multiple speakers (for captions only one track can be visible at a time) 
• You want to create different styles for your subtitles (a caption track can only have one style) 

Command in the Graphics and Titles menu

Here some basics: 

• You can upgrade captions to graphics through the menu command Upgrade caption to graphic in the Graphics and Titles menu or use a keyboard shortcut (unassigned as the default). The command will work with the Timeline or the Essential Graphics Panel in focus 
• You can upgrade a single selected caption, a multi-selection or do a ctrl/cmd A and upgrade all of them 
• You can upgrade captions on multiple caption tracks at the same time 
• An upgraded graphic is not different than other Premiere Essential graphics*.

* Note that this text will always be "text in a box". This is the same kind of graphic you achieve by selecting the Type tool and dragging a box tthat you can then add text to. 

Track behaviors: 

When upgrading captions to graphics the captions will always land on the top track. If there are collisions with other track items we create a new track and place the graphics there. 

Styles: 

If a caption track has a style attached to it, that style will stay attached to the upgraded graphic. 

[JAkalaonu]

You have no idea how much this is needed. Every AE or Premiere forum I'm in, this question of how to animate captions is asked and it always seems to be a convoluted answer. Hopefully, this makes it into a release within the next 3 months

[Kevin-Monahan]

Agree, @JAkalaonu. This addition to captions is a huge feature request in the wider Premiere Pro community. Implementing this feature shows the team does listen, I think. 

Thanks,
Kevin

[Stan Jones]

Yes, this is a much needed option. Took a quick look. Works as described.

Stan

[Kes Akalaonu]

Will you add another function to turn the caption into graphic but keep it as a caption disabled in case people want to keep it as a caption for safe keeping?

[AnnikaKoenig]

No, this is not planned to get added. You could however do this yourself by copying your captions onto a second captions track and only upgrade the caption on one of the tracks.

[Stan Jones]

A good question; my thought was that I would always duplicate the caption track, disable it (so it doesn't show), and keep it as such. You could also export as srt and reimport.

As Annika points out; it is an easy workaround, so I am okay with that.

For me the other extension of the concept would be converting graphics to captions. But that would be a more complex task, since graphics text has more variation.

Stan

[mohammadd57392142]

That's great it is very important for social media

[Mike Dziennik]

This is a very, very welcome addition.

[nino255519222sjq]

This does not work..

I selected the caption, the option Upgrade caption to graphic is simple not there... ?

[AnnikaKoenig]

It's in beta still until the next release. 

(How do I install Premiere Pro beta?

In the Creative Cloud desktop app, select Beta apps in the left sidebar of the Apps panel. Then select Install for Premiere Pro. You can run beta builds side by side with the release versions of Premiere Pro.)

[nino255519222sjq]

Oh OK! When will the next release be ?

Tis feature is soo important, glad it's coming

[AnnikaKoenig]

Should not be for long. Premiere Pro releases multiple times per year! 🙂

[Lumynx]

For some reason, animation presets that are anchored to "Anchor to Out Point" do not work for the upgraded Captions to Graphics. This is extremely annoying for those who want to animate the captions to pop in and pop out in large sections.

[Pierre Louis B.]

This will be a very welcome addition to Pr!

[Stan Jones]

"Upgrade Caption to Graphic" is in the release version of PR 23.1.0 (Build 86).

Stan