The Right Way to Prepare Sequences in Different Aspect Ratios for Social Media?

Report · Apr 04, 2025

Hi Premiere Experts!

My question for you today is about how to move all the elements from one Sequence (in for example 9:16) to another Sequence (in 4:5 or 1:1) without having a bunch of video/image/text layers shift their positions relative to each other - in differing amounts - resulting in a mess. What is the best and correct way to do this to avoid the mis-aligned mess and all the extra work that results from that?

The situation: I have a sequence that is done and 100% ready in one aspect ratio, 9:16 in this case, and want to work on it now in another aspect ratio, 4:5. This should be a very common thing to do these days because of Social Media and the varying placement sizes, right?

In the new 4:5 sequence I want to move all the elements to, I need to ensure that everything is properly in the viewport and not obscured by any of the interface elements that apply to this aspect ratio and make best use of the available space. That usually mean moving text layers and a bunch of video/image layers to an optimum position. The various assets I use come in differing apsect ratios with differing focal points from the source, so it's something that needs to be done by hand per item. That's all well and good, I will do that and its usually not a huge amount of work.

However the problem is that a whole bunch of elements move out of alignement with each other when I try to move to a new aspect ratio. This creates what feels like exponentially more work for me when preparing the new apsect ratio export.

I have tried to copy paste the elements from the 9:16 sequence into the 4:5 sequence, to drag the 9:16 sequence from the project window into the 4:5 sequence (without nesting), and to change the resolution of the 9:16 sequence to the new desired aspect ratio of 4:5, but no matter what I do, the elements such as text and foreground/background elements get all out of whack and need to be painstakingly repositioned by hand before I can even begin to work on the edits that I wanted to do to ensure that all important elements are in the viewport etc.

Here is a screen recording to illustrate the exact issue I am experiencing: https://videoshare.nextlevelbros.com/conversations/d125633a-5292-5b6d-aeac-e15b76f553db (also find it attached if you don't like visting unknown urls)

I also tried to find a solution on Reddit, to no avail:
https://www.reddit.com/r/premiere/comments/1j4f3u4/elements_moving_around_when_changing_aspect_ratio...

Things I have tried that did not resolve the misalignment issue:

Checking or unchecking the option "Scale Motion Effects proportionally when changing frame sizes" in the Sequence Settings.
For text layers, I have tried the responsive design pinning options, tried to pin it in every way possible, it makes no difference.
Copy pasting from original sequence to new sequence.
Dragging original sequence into new sequence (not nesting)(Added hassle here - layers seem to change stacking order when I do this)
Changing the resolution of the original sequence to the new desired resolution and aspect ratio.
Copy and pasting individual elements into the new sequence.
Nesting original sequence and then unesting using Grave Robber plugin.

I have tried all these this in both Premiere 2024 and 2025, the issue is the same and none of these things solve the mis-alignment issue.

Regarding Nesting:

When you drag a nested sequence that is in the original aspect ratio into a sequence in the new aspect ratio, the elements do not get mis-aligned, but a single nested sequence cannot be edited. I would like to edit my varying elements with total freedom without the constraints of an entirely or partially nested sequence, as there is a variety of image and video layers, mattes, rotoscopes, adjustment layers and text layers that are stacked according to the effect I need to achieve at that particular moment in time. This is not a minimal documentary I am working on, more of a flashy social media edit.

The nested sequence can be edited if you open into it, so in theory I could duplicate my 9:16 sequence, drag the duplicate to nest it in the 4:5 sequence, and then do my editing in the duplicated 9:16 sequence (so as to avoid making changes to my finished original 9:16 sequence). However this is not changing the aspect ratio + resolution, this is working in the original aspect ratio + resolution and using guides or an overlay to guide the positioning of the elements to properly sit in the viewport. That might be a workaround, however what I am trying to learn here is if there is any other workflow that can be used to edit the varying Social Media content without resorting to what IMO seems like inconvenient workaround.

I would like ideally like to be able to copy paste - or drag - from one aspect ratio sequence to another and 'simply' keep the relative positions of the elements to each other.

Your advice and insights would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!
Alexander

Report · Apr 04, 2025

See this video by Javier Mercedes, @NextLevelBros, then come back with any questions you hve.

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

Report · Apr 05, 2025

Hi Kevin, thanks a lot for reading my question and posting the link to the video. You have helped many people including me with your answers here. Unfortunately Javiers video does not really address my issue and use-case. Can we un-mark your response as the correct answer to my post (not sure how that is done)? I don't want to give false hope to anyone googling this, to continue to attract potential solution-posters and overall just keep this alive as an ongoing discussion that is looking for its ultimate solution.

For the sake of completeness, conversation, and for anyone reading this in the future, I will explain why it is not a solution to my question and all the ways that the scenario he is showing how to deal with is unlike my scenario.

In the video, he goes from 16:9 to 9:16. Thus the 'sides' move in, the vertical space remains the same. Why this is relevant is that I am experiencing elements shifting in the vertical direction, shifting up and down in differing amounts causing misalignemnt of previously perfectly positioned elements when going from a vertical 9:16 to portrait 4:5 (or to 1:1 for that matter). The top and bottom edges move in, the sides stay where they are, so to speak, in my scenario. Going from 16:9 to 9:16 is a need for people who for example make Youtube content and want to repurpose that to post some shorts. I am making Social Media content to begin with, Youtube does not figure for me, I need to easily prepare and export content for the various placements and their aspect ratios. Having your videos in the right aspect ratios is a big deal for conversion rates, and editing quickly makes an appreciable difference to production costs and thus the bottom line. I think it is a big enough deal to try and find a solution for. But I digress, on to the next point.
In the video he seems to have assets in a single resolution and zoom amount, equal to the resolution of the sequence, overall it is just a way simpler sequence than what I have, thus far less chance that things will shift in differing amounts resulting in a chaotic mess when changing resolutions. When he changes resolution, nothing shifts unexpectedly, just the cropping changes, which I expect to deal with anyways and is not 'the problem' in my case, the changed crop is totally expected and predictable, so he is not really dealing with my issue of elements shifting unpredicably and in differing amounts, and is not showing a solution to what I am experiencing.
In the same vain, he has a single layer of video with jump cuts that he is dealing with, even if it did shift around, it is quick and easy to reposition. I am dealing with multiple layers, stacked in interacting ways, with transparencies/roto, mattes, text, adjustment layers, transitions over multiple frames etc. You could say it is VFX-like, but nothing to the extent that I should be in After Effects, and dynamic link handles any flourishes that I may wish to add by using After Effects, although I will point out that my issue is not related to specifically to any dynamic link elements and my example video project does not contain any of those. My assets, while I do conform them to the same appropriate resolution when preparing them, end up scaled at differing amounts and in constant motion via keyframes or other effects depending on the content portrayed and point of interest, which varies. I deal with a lot of imported images too, those have a varying degrees of subtle panning and zooming applied (Ken Burns effect), and that's before the transitions, rotoscoping, etc. that add dynamism to what would be mostly static otherwise. All this adds an additional layer of complexity that is hard to untangle when things shift around after the resolution change - which is why I am here trying to find a way to prevent that shifting from happening.
Auto reframe - just to mention that too - does not give a staisfactory result in my scenario, it needs a lot more tidying up and redo-ing than I am already experiencing with the resolution change. I dont think it is intended for my use case anyways.

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The only thing he discusses that is related to my issue is what I also mentioned in my post:

" I could duplicate my 9:16 sequence, drag the duplicate to nest it in the 4:5 sequence, and then do my editing in the duplicated 9:16 sequence (so as to avoid making changes to my finished original 9:16 sequence). However this is not changing the aspect ratio + resolution, this is working in the original aspect ratio + resolution and using guides or an overlay to guide the positioning of the elements to properly sit in the viewport. "

He does something similar with the guides/overlay to guide positioning for a the different aspect ratio, but he does eventually change the sequence resolution as well - I would have to avoid actually changing the resolution to prevent the shifting and just export the edited nest from the 4:5 sequence. This is 'a way' to reach an end result but I was really searching for 'the way' to prevent the shifting of elements when changing the aspect ratio so as to avoid what I feel is an inconvenient way of working in order to mitigate what to me feels like a bug/unintended/unadressed issue with how Premieres coordinate system works when changing resolution in this way with anything but the simplest of sequences. As mentioned by Shebbe, After Effects does not have this issue when changing resolutions and aspect ratio, at least I have not encountered it.

I have a follow up call with Adobe Support about this on Monday, but they suggested that I actually have a workflow question (which they dont deal with) instead of a technical issue (which is what they do deal with), and to post here about it. I don't think it is a workflow issue at heart but would be more than happy to be proved wrong and find the elusive buttons and settings to click to prevent my shifting-elements problem. After all it is a lot easier to change something you are doing wrong than to wait for a Premiere update to fix some issue you are experiencing that is slowing you down.

I will post here if I get any additional relevant information during my support call.

Report · Apr 05, 2025

I think this is really an issue that Adobe should address.

Due to other silly reasons we are forced to edit 9x16 videos in a 16x9 equivalent because otherwise we don't have a proper clean feed to external monitor for creative/client sessions. When we prep for final online and export we swap back to the real 1080x1920 resolution to make sure things are absolute, which for the most part works okay but slight shifts are still observed here and there.

There is something not properly structured in the way Premiere's coördinate system works. If you change a composition's resolution in After Effects you do not suffer from these shifts at all.

Additionally Premiere could really use much needed advanced control over object behavior like persistent dynamic aligning of a clip to x% or x-px top-left or bottom or other smart alignments of the canvas. As a result when changing the sequence resolution these elements would stick to their relative defined positions. This would greatly reduce manual labor and the need for pre-made designs in multiple ratios.

Report · Apr 05, 2025

Thanks for the comment Shebbe, I see you also have a use case that results in the same issue I am experiencing, and I am glad you added your voice here to add to the momentum of maybe finding a solution or getting a fix.

I agree with what you say that "There is something not properly structured in the way Premiere's coördinate system works." and "Additionally Premiere could really use much needed advanced control over object behavior".

Let's see how this develops, no solution just yet.