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Participating Frequently
May 22, 2013
Question

How to make adjustment layer affect only for one track? Please

  • May 22, 2013
  • 18 replies
  • 118028 views

Hello. I'm using Premiere for many years but I got stuck with this.

I have a bunch of tracks with the video parts (music video) and I need to correct (color) some of these tracks with the Adjusment layer.

But the adjusment layer affecting for all the tracks below!(

Need your PRO help please.

18 replies

Honiantic
Participant
November 20, 2018

Adobe crew, it has been created in 2013. Now is almost 2019 and nothing changed. Please add an ability to make the adjusment layer affect for only one track. It's simple and we need it. Nesting isn't a solution because I should see all the tracks and edits while working with adjustment layers, Please add this functionality.

R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 20, 2018

This isn't the place for ideas/suggestions as this is designed as primarily a user to user tool for questions and answers.

To ask for or up-vote an idea, use the UserVoice system. All posts/votes there go directly to the engineers system and also to the upper managers who decide budgets and features.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Inspiring
July 6, 2018

The function you are talking about is actually in Premiere, just not in the way you might think.  IF you look at photoshop, the layers are vertically aligned in a single STACK.  The STACK is how they get to the next step in the processing. One stack is equivalent to one TRACK in PREMIERE.   But TRACKS are HORIZONTAL and stretch according to TIME in Premiere (and in the photoshop video editor).  You can NEST stacks in photoshop by placing layers in "GROUPS" that are like a folder of layers.  You can have groups within groups, etc.  You can apply effects at the layer, and at the group level.  The group level applies to the entire groups output.  The outer STACK only does this with the TOP LAYER if it's an adjustment layer, or you can group the entirety first, then apply effects to that total output.

In Premiere:

Tracks are transport wrappers that split the frame information, then apply any effects at keyframe markers.  An adjustment layer is a CLIP.  Don't argue.  Clips and frames go onto tracks for transport.  An adjustment layer goes onto a track with a special instruction set to the FRAMESERVER and an alpha channel video that grabs the video immediately below.  The alpha channel is a transparent video, like a blank film sheet for an overhead projector.  The effects that go onto it are translucent, as the pixels that show through are affected by any effect on the film, but continue to show through.

Just a thought:

You could apply the effect to the clip itself, within the track and copy\paste it to any other clips necessary.  (NOT MY RECOMMENDATION, just a thought)

For your given situation:

To get your desired setting (an adjustment layer on a single track), remember that an adjustment layer is a clip like any other clip or image you place onto a track.  The track is the train that takes it to the processing chips.  Open a new sequence, put your video clips you want the layer to affect onto one track, then put the adjustment layer on the top track above them.  Replace the clips in the track in your original sequence with the new sequence you just created; it will act and function like a single clip.

Faster route:

Highlight and rightclick the section you want to apply an adjustment to.  Now select NEST, which will open a new sequence with the selected clips.  Now you can apply the adjustment layer to the track above them.

I like this the way it is.  If you're looking for a more "my deadline is 10 minutes ago" software, pay $30 once for a cheap piece of software that'll leave your video a bit broken if you have VFR issues.  IF you're like me, the only part you're still looking for is the ability to render effects in the background.  I'll be asking about that in the feature forum.

Inspiring
October 23, 2018

To shorten my previous...

use control/cmd shift to select the clips, at select them another way, all from same track is best.

right click one of them, nest.  Now apply the fix in a nested sequence.  Won’t affect other tracks.  Yes it’s a one time fix.  I nest footage from different cameras tho way all the time.  It’s a quick way to fix color or add other effects to a single track.  Then I use the multi cam setup to switch.  Another way is to apply a color fix to all of them in prelude and teen code them all through ame or prelude, using a lut

Participant
July 6, 2018

Hey guys, I FOUND A SOLUTION!!!

It´s quite simple.

1) Create a NEW SEQUENCE, and put the video to wich you want to apply the EFFECT or EFFECTS

2) Don´t edit this video, live it as is inside that sequence

3) Insert the NEW SEQUENCE in a track in your production and EDIT it as any video track

R Neil Haugen
Legend
July 6, 2018

Ahh, yes, that is "nesting".

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Inspiring
July 24, 2017

Hi everybody.  I too would see this as a great feature, to be able to link an adjustment layer to only the first layer below, it would allow me to work much more fluidly.

That said...

Depending on your adjustment, you could use the select and paste.  It's old, but it works.  You need to build the adjustment into the effects on a clip, copy the clip on the timeline, and then select all the clips on the timeline and Paste Effects\attributes\properties (cannot remember which) rather than Paste.  This should apply the effect to all the clips on that track.

Downside: This has to be the first edit.  Basically, because it overwrites all the effects in all the clips, you'll have to perform all your common edits to one clip, then apply them to all the others using this paste style.

February 14, 2018

I'm not making any excuses for Adobe here, I think it is poor that you can't dedicate adjument layers to individual video layers and I'm in the same spot as you. Seeing as you can slice up the adjustment layer, I think I'm going to wait until I'm done my multicam selection then just cut out the adjustments when the camera switches

ProductBeats
Participant
June 27, 2016

I just wanted to add that such a function would be wonderful! Maybe something similar to photoshop in which you can tell the program to only affect the layer underneath or something.

Participant
February 10, 2017

It is really strange to me that this is not an obvious capability. It adds so much time when you have a long timeline and you only want to apply an adjustment layer to one track. I agree that nesting everything, by experience, is not helpful for me as a solution. All of the suggestions in here are hacks that don't really answer the original question, but it's nice that everyone is trying to help. Sometimes I wonder how much contextual usability testing adobe does with power users because I run into missing features on a regular basis. I'd love to see them try to handle premiere and ae the way that they are trying to have XD be user focused.

k67930448
Known Participant
December 2, 2021

This. 

Within 15 minutes working on any non-trivial project you immediately need

1) adjustment layers that can target specific tracks

2) ability to have (pre)sets of effects that can be edited over time and every clip subject to the preset will be auto-updated

This is so painfully obviously necessary I cannot believe this product is as old as it is and still missing it. 

Inspiring
May 27, 2016

Yes, 3 year old thread... but a very useful one, because unfortunately that feature (target an adjustment layer to specific tracks) has never been implemented! All I can say is that I met Al Mooney (Premiere product manager) a week ago, and brought up the idea of applying effects at track level. He said "interesting idea".

One thing that has been added is "master-side fx": the ability to add effects at the master clip level. Turns out it works for adjustment layers, too! So to add to the thread's list of workarounds, I sometimes like to throw an adjustment layer, chop it up so it's only above the clips I want to affect, and then any effect adjustment applies to the entire, customized section. It's worth it in certain circumstances.

For some reason, masks are excluded from master-side fx. Hopefully it gets added in the future.

Community Expert
May 27, 2016

I put in a feature request for 'effects groups', the ability to add group, say a or b or c....to a clip and then and then be able to add effects to that group. Any changes to the group effect settings would change for every clip in that group.

dsfsdsdfsdffdsf
Inspiring
May 22, 2013

I think you're going to have to lift all the footage you don't want corrected onto a track above the adjustment layer track. The only other option would be to shoot the project through to AE and get funky with precomposing adjustment layers or linking your CC filters with an expression.

Participating Frequently
May 22, 2013

PaulM-Aus

Thanks for your suggestion.

But if I'll lift my footage above (with the Adjutment layer) this adjustment layer will now affect to all the tracks below( so I have the same problem.

Yes, I can do this with AE, but is there is no way to do the same "simple thing"  in Premiere only?

dsfsdsdfsdffdsf
Inspiring
May 23, 2013

So your situation is you've got two sets of clips and you want to apply an adjustment layer to each? In that case I'd wait till the edit was locked off, keeping your two sets of clips on separate layers, then duplicate the timeline, apply one adjustment layer overall and turn off the unwanted vision layer and do likewise in the other timeline, then combine the two. A bit complex but not too difficult to make revisions (just keep one of the two timelines as your master and slab copy paste any edit changes into the other). Alternatively just copy and paste the two grades individually. Either way there's lots of razoring and manual mouse/pen work but it shouldn't take you too long.

Inspiring
May 22, 2013
Participating Frequently
May 22, 2013

Thanks Joe!

The quote from your link "When you play the sequence, note that all the clips on the underlying tracks are affected by changes you made to the adjustment layer." So I dont need this

Please look at this scheme, I've tried to describe the problem in this screenshot.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26719799/11.png