Import Photoshop, Illustrator, and still-image files
You don't need moving images to make compelling videos in Adobe® Premiere® Pro. You can also use image files created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator.® You can import single layers or multi-image projects, too. Once they’re in Adobe Premiere Pro, you can add time sequencing so they play back as often as you like.
When you want to use a file in your project, you import the file as a clip. You can import one clip at a time, several clips at a time, or an entire folder of clips. You can even import another project into the current project.
Clips can be as big as 4,000 pixels tall by 4,000 pixels wide, and Premiere Pro can support a variety of video and audio formats. Over time, Adobe and other manufacturers undoubtedly will offer plug-in software modules to provide additional file-format support.
To import files as a clips in the project:
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In the Project window, specify where you want to import the clip by doing either of the following:
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Navigate to the bin into which you want to import, or to the topmost level of the Project window.
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In list view, select the bin into which you want to import.
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Choose File > Import. The Import dialog box appears.
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Do any of the following:
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To import a single file, double-click the file.
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To import multiple files, select the files and click Open.
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To import a folder of files, select the folder and click Import Folder.
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The dialog box closes, and the clips appear in the Project window. If you imported an entire folder, then the folder appears as a bin of clips in the Project window (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The clips appear in the Project window. A folder of clips appears as items in a bin (shown here).
Tip: There are many ways to import files, and chances are that you’ll be doing a lot of importing. Now’s a good time to learn (or create) shortcuts for the import command. Use a contextual menu or keyboard short-cut. Instead of choosing File > Import, you can simply double-click an empty part of the clip area of the Project window.
Importing Projects
In addition to importing media files, you can import an entire project, including all its clips and sequences. An imported project appears as a bin in the current project, which in turn contains all its bins, clips, and sequences.
Why would you import a project rather than just re-open it? Maybe you want to join sequences that were created in different projects, or use a “boilerplate” project in sev-eral other projects. Many of a project’s attributes—such as its timebase and audio sample rate—can’t be changed later. However, you can easily work around this restriction by importing the entire project into another project that uses the correct settings. Finally, you can open projects cre-ated in Premiere 6.x. However, not all of your edit decisions will translate seamlessly into Premiere Pro; see the User Guide or Online Help feature for details.
To import another project into the current project:
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In the Project window, specify where you want to import the clip by doing any of the following:
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Navigate to the bin into which you want to import, or to the topmost level of the Project window.
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In list view, select the bin into which you want to import.
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Choose File > Import. The Import Project dialog box appears.
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In the Import Project dialog box, choose the type of project you want to open in the Files of type drop-down menu (Figure 2):
Adobe Premiere 6 Projects (*.ppj)
Adobe Premiere Pro Projects (*.prproj)
Figure 2: Narrow the list of files by choosing an option in the Files of type pulldown menu.
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In the Import Project dialog box, select a project, and click Open. The imported project appears as a bin in the Project window that uses the name of the project file. The bin contains any clips and sequences used in the project (Figure 3).
Figure 3: The imported project appears as a bin containing sequences and source clips.
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Open the imported bin and double-click the sequences you want to view.
Importing Stills
Although individual images are only single frames, you can set them to play back in the program for any duration.
To set the default duration for still images before you import them:
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Choose Edit > Preferences > Still Images. The Still Images panel of the Preferences dialog box opens.
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For Default Duration, type the initial duration of still images, in frames. Hereafter, all still images imported into the project use the default duration. Still images that are already in the project or program remain unaffected. You can change the duration of a still-image clip at any time.
Tips:
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Photoshop displays images using square pixels, or a pixel aspect ratio of 1. DV and D-1 video use a .9 pixel aspect ratio. Therefore, you can create artwork for D-1 (720 x 486) projects at 720 x 540; create artwork for DV (720 x 480) projects at 720 x 534. Premiere Pro automatically adjusts for the differences in pixel aspect ratios, and displays the image without cropping or distortion. Creating a still with matching dimensions, 720 x 480 will result in a distorted image in Premiere Pro.
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If you can’t remember the proper image sizes for Photoshop files, don’t worry; when you create a new file in Photoshop, they’re listed in the Preset Sizes drop-down menu.
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Importing Illustrator Files
Premiere Pro can rasterize Illustrator files—a process that converts the path-based (vector) art to Premiere Pro’s pixel-based (bitmapped) format. The program anti-aliases the art, so that edges appear smooth; it also interprets blank areas as an alpha channel premultiplied with white.
Set crop marks in the Illustrator file to define the dimensions of the art that will be rasterized by Premiere Pro (Figures 4 and 5).
Figure 4: An image viewed in Illustrator as artwork only...
Figure 5: ...appears rasterized and antialiased in Premiere Pro.
