PE: Blu-ray Computer Playback and More

2016 Update of this 2013 blog post now exists HERE.

INTRODUCTION

Over and over again the questions pop up, "Can I play back my Premiere Elements generated Blu-ray disc format on Blu-ray disc with free computer players such as VLC Media Player and Media Player Classic HC?" The tack on questions include "With menus?" and "Will these same players allow me to play back store purchased Blu-ray movies as well?"

SOLUTION

The Blu-ray support of VLC Media Player and the Media Player Classic HC was challenged, using the following on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit:

• VLC Media Player (latest non beta version 2.0.8, 32 bit)

• Media Player Classic HC x64 (latest version 1.68.7417, 64 bit)

• Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray movies with disc menus (on Verbatim BD-R 25 GB 6X or BD-RE 25 GB 2X disc)

• For disc format comparative purposes, a Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO movie with disc menus (on Verbatim DVD-R or DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min), store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie, a store purchased Blu-ray movie, and Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD movie with disc menus (on Verbatim DVD-R or DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min) were included in the testing protocol.

• All tests were repeated using as computer player the CyberLink Power DVD 9 (OEM), the software that came with the Blu-ray DVD burner.

RESULTS

VLC Media Player

Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray Movie with Disc Menus.
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/BluRay with Disc Device field set for Blu-Ray drive.
Result: Playback of movie without automatic display of menus before movie begins. For navigation of movie, viewer can use the player's Playback Menu/Chapter or Playback Menu/Title/Chapter. Works with or without VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Premiere Elements Blu-ray disc format can be on the BD-R or BD-RE disc to gain this playback.

Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie with Disc Menus
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/BluRay with Disc Device field set for Blu-Ray drive.
Result: If the downloaded and installed VLC Media Player is used without modification, then Blu-Ray error citing need of a "...a library for AACS decoding". See Figure 1.

Figure 1. VLC Media Player Error Message When Trying To Play Back Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie Using The Downloaded And Installed VLC Media Player Without Modification.

If VLC is modified by addition of two files,  KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll, playback of movie without automatic display of menus before movie begins. For navigation of movie, viewer can use the player's Playback Menu/Chapter or Playback Menu/Title/Chapter. Blu-ray on BD-R and BD-RE work in this case.

KEYDB.cfg file*

• A folder named aacs** (empty) was created and placed in the Roaming Folder according to the path Local Disk C\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\

• KEYBD.cfg was obtained from http://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/ , by clicking on "get the file UPDATED 20-04-2012!"

• The KEYBD.cfg file was then placed in the aacc Folder.

libaacs.dll file

• libaacs.dll file was obtained from http://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/, by clicking on "VLC 32bits on Windows: put that file in your VLC directory".

• The libaacs.dll file was placed in the VLC Folder according to the path Local Disk C\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC.

Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: If DVD-VIDEO on DVD-R 4.7 GB/120 min or DVD-VIDEO on DVD-RW 4.7 GB/120 min, then playback of movie/menus displayed automatically before viewing the movie, with or without the VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Movie navigation opportunities are also available via player's Playback Menu/Title, Chapter, or Navigation.

Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: Playback of movie/menus displayed automatically before viewing the movie, with or without VLC add on files of KEYDB.cfg and libaacs.dll. Movie navigation opportunities are also available via player's Playback Menu/Title, Chapter, or Navigation. Although the VLC player did play back movie/menus automatically before viewing the movie, it did not playback the first play FBI message and promo before the start of the disc menus. In contrast, MPC HC x64 playbed back first play FBI message and promo, followed by disc menus, followed by movie.

Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW.
Media Menu/Open Disc/Open Media Dialog and its Disc Tab/DVD with Disc Device field set for DVD drive.
Result: Error. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. VLC Error When Trying To Play Back AVCHD DVD With Disc Menus On DVD-R Or DVD-RW. With Or Without VLC Add Ons.

Media Player Classic HC x64

Premiere Elements 11 Blu-ray Movie.
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for DVD/BD" dialog.
Result: Playback of movie without menus displayed before the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways

• Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1) 

• Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.

Blu-ray disc format on BD-R or BD-RE is supported and plays back the same.

Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with Blu-ray burner drive selected or the BDMV Folder selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for DVD/BD"
Result: No playback***. Just error "Cannot render file." See Figure 3.

Figure 3. Media Player Classic HC x64. Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie. Cannot Render The File.

Premiere Elements 11 DVD-VIDEO Movie with Disc Menus, DVD-R and DVD-RW
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD" dialog.
Result: Playback of the movie/menus automatically displayed before the start of the movie. DVD-VIDEO can be on DVD-R or DVD-RW to gain playback as described. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways

• Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1) 

• Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.

Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected, click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD" dialog.
Result:  Playback of the movie/menus automatically displayed before the start of the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways

• Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1) 

• Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters.

Of note, MPC HC x64 played back first play FBI message and promo, followed by disc menus, followed by movie; whereas, the VLC  did not display the first play FBI message and promo, but did present the disc menus before the start of the movie.

Premiere Elements 11 AVCHD DVD Movie with Disc Menus DVD-R and DVD-RW.
Right click Media Player Classic HC x64 screen, select File/Open DVD/BD, and, with drive selected
click Select Folder at the bottom of the "Select the path for the DVD/BD"dialog.

Result: Playback of movie without menus displayed before the movie. Movie navigation appears to be by either of two ways

• Clicking on a chapter marker displayed in play bar at bottom of screen (program adds a marker at start even if user does not, so the marker count may be off by 1) 

• Right clicking the screen, selecting Navigation/Jump to/Chapters. 

AVCHD on DVD-R or DVD-RW played back the same and as described.

CyberLink PowerDVD
Movie playback , menus before movie was possible with CyberLink PowerDVD 9 (software that came with Blu-ray DVD burner) for the PE11 Blu-ray Movie, Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie, PE11 DVD-VIDEO Movie, Store Purchased DVD-VIDEO Movie, and PE11 AVCHD DVD Movie.

SUMMARY

The computer playback results for the free VLC (2.0.8, 32 bit) and MPC-HC x64 (1.68.7417, 64 bit) players are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Premiere Elements 11. Blu-ray, DVD-VIDEO, AND AVCHD DVD Movie Playback Results Using Free Computer Players Such As VLC And MPC-HC.

This blog post is still a work in progress. Details are being double checked, and a legal answer is being sought to the question of  MPC-HC's handling of Store Purchased Blu-ray Movie. But, from the point of view of Premiere Elements (our focus always), Premiere Elements and these free players are doing OK. Note VLC and MPC-HD results. And, the MPC-HD seems to offer the Premiere Elements user the bonus of offering a free computer player for Premiere Elements' AVCHD DVD playback. But what needs getting used to with these free players is the fact that they do not support disc menus displayed before the start of the Blu-ray movie or AVCHD DVD movie. But, when it comes to DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, no issue there since VLC, MPC-HC, as well as CyberLink PowerDVD play back the Premiere Elements and store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie, with menus displayed before the start of the movie.

Both VLC and MPC HC x64 both play back the disc menus before the store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie. So it was unexpected to find that the VLC does not play back the store purchased DVD-VIDEO movie first play (FBI message and promo) before the disc menus; whereas the MPC HC x64 does.

Also the DVD-VIDEO and AVCHD DVD results for the VLC and MPC HC x64 found to be the same whether the computer operating system was Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit. The Windows 8 64 bit computer does not yet have a Blu-ray drive for testng these players for Blu-ray playback in the computer operating system.



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*The KEYDB.cfg file is downloaded and placed in the empty newly created aacs Folder in Roaming Folder. After first operation in VLC player, the aacs Folder then contains a vuk folder, drl file, and hrl file besides the KEYDB.cfg file.
**Create a new folder the usual way and name that folder aacs. Misspelling of folder name can cause failure to playback store purchased Blu-ray movie.
***How to get Media Player Classic HC x64 to playback legally store purchased Blu-ray movies is still being explored.

UPDATE. August 20, 2015. 
This is a 2 year old blog post which needs to be updated and will be soon in a new blog post.
VLC Media Player version then was latest non beta version 2.0.8, 32 bit and is now (in 2015) version 2.2.1 Windows 32 bit.
Media Player Classic HC x64 Player version then was latest version 1.68.7417, 64 bit and is now (in 2015) version 1.7.9 64 bit Windows.

UPDATE. April 14, 2016
A significant update to this 2 year old blog has finally been published today. See HERE.

ATR

PE11: Freeze Frames, Single or More Than One at a Time

INTRODUCTION

Frame from video (Freeze Frame) is possible in Premiere Elements 4 through 11 at the Timeline level on a one at a time basis. For versions earlier than 11, the feature can be found clicking on the Freeze Frame (camera looking icon) located at the bottom right of the Edit Mode monitor. In Premiere Elements 11 there is no such Freeze Frame icon, and the feature at the Timeline level needs to be accessed via Tools Menu or Tools Tab Expert or Quick workspaces. The Freeze Frames grabbed in this route are all of the .bmp format.

With the advent of version 8.0/8.0.1, the sharing section of the program offers an Image export which can produce frames from video either one at a time or more than one at a time if the "Export As Sequence" option is selected in the export settings for the Image preset. The Image presets for version 8.0/8.0.1 includes Animated GIF, JPEG, Targa, and TIFF. However since version 9.0/9.0.1 and through to the current version 11, JPEG is the only format type offered for the Image export.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS 11 FOCUS*

Publish+Share/Computer/Image

The presets offers under Image are

• JPEG - HD 1440 x 1080

• JPEG - HD 1920 x 1080

• JPEG - NTSC SD

• JPEG - PAL SD

Each preset has an Advanced Button for access to customizing export settings which include frame sizes, aspect, and selecting "Export As Sequence". Each preset also includes the "Share WorkArea Bar Only" option in the Image setup before use of the Advanced Button. Refer to Figure 1.

Figure 1. Premiere Elements 11. Publish+Share/Computer/Image. Image Dialog And Advanced Button/ Export Setting Dialog. Shown For NTSC DV Standard Project With Image Dialog's Presets = JPEG - NTSC SD.

For export of one frame at a time, the Timeline Indicator needs to be positioned at the frame to be exported before going to the Publish+Share section where "Export As Sequence" in the Export Settings dialog is left unchecked. And, in this instance, it really does not matter if "Share WorkArea Bar Only" is left checked or unchecked in the Image dialog. For export of all the frames of a video at one time from the Timeline, it does not matter where the Timeline Indicator is left sitting. In Publish+Share/Computer/Image, the user places a check mark next to "Export As Sequence" in the Export Settings dialog and leaves "Share WorkArea Bar Only" unchecked in the Image dialog. For export of just a segment of a video from the Timeline as frames all at one time, the user sets the gray tabs of the WorkArea Bar** (in Edit Mode) to span the segment wanted and, under the Advanced Button of the Image preset, puts a check mark next to both "Export As Sequence" and "Share WorkArea Bar Only".

Tip: If "Export As Sequence" to generate Freeze Frames from all or most of a Timeline video, best to create a hard drive folder for the save rather than having all those jpg files scattered among other non Freeze Frame files.

Caution: 

• If project preset (new project dialog) is set at (for example) NTSC DV Standard which has a frame size of 720 x 480 

          and

• the image exported (for example) uses the JPEG -HD 1440 x 1080 Image preset

         then 

• the result will be a jpg file 1440 x 1080 pixels with black borders around the frame grab

Freeze Frame Dialog

It is possible to capture a frame (one at a time) without using the Publish+Share/Computer/Image. In Premiere Elements earlier than version 11, the user can place the Timeline Indicator at the Timeline location of the frame wanted and use the Freeze frame (camera looking) icon at the bottom right of the Edit Mode monitor to bring up the Freeze Frame dialog. The Premiere Elements 11 principles for this are the same, except that the Freeze Frame dialog is accessed via the Tools Menu or Tools Tab. There is no Freeze Frame (camera looking) icon. Refer to Figure 2.

Figure 2. Premiere Elements 11. Freeze Frame Grab Freeze Frame Dialog.. NTSC DV Standard Project

Using this dialog, a .bmp frame grab from the Timeline video can be obtain. The Freeze Frame dialog options are

• Freeze Frame Duration (in seconds)

• Edit in Photoshop Elements after inserting***

• Export

• Insert in Movie

Referring to Figure 2, in this particular instance, just the Freeze Frame's Export option was selected to save a .bmp Freeze Frame to the computer hard drive.

Tip: In the absence of a Freeze Frame (camera looking) icon in Premiere Elements 11 to bring up the Freeze Frame dialog, the user can create a shortcut to the Freeze Frame dialog via Edit Menu/Keyboard Customization/Application/Help/Freeze Frame. I borrowed the letter G from another unused feature for this purpose.

________________________________________________________________________________
* Premiere Elements 11 on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit was used for this work. Principles involved apply to versions of Premiere Elements earlier than 11 as well as version 11.
**Set gray tabs of WorkArea Bar to span the Timeline content wanted
a. Move the Timeline Indicator to the start of the segment wanted. Hold down the Alt key of the computer main keyboard, and hit the left bracket key [ of the computer main keyboard.
and then
b. Move the Timeline Indicator to the end of the segment wanted. Hold down the Alt key of the computer main keyboard and hit the right bracket key ] of the computer main keyboard.
***Deinterlacing Freeze Frames
Typically deinterlacing has been recommended for freeze frames generated by Premiere Elements' Freeze Frame feature. For those with an integrated version of Photoshop Elements, one way to do that was using the Photoshop Elements' Filter Menu/Video/Deinterlace for the deinterlacing.

• from Freeze Frame dialog, include the option "Edit in Photoshop Elements after inserting"

• if Freeze Frame already on Timeline, right click the Freeze Frame, and select "Edit in Adobe Photoshop Elements"

And, the user can find the same information in Adobe Tech document "Premiere Element/Sharing for PC Playback"

• If Photoshop Elements is installed, you can instead deinterlace the exported image in that application. In the Editor, choose Filter > Video > Deinterlace. 

The only problem with that is that Photoshop Elements 11 no longer has an option for Video/Deinterlace via its Filter Menu/ or anywhere else.

However, that Adobe Tech document other suggestion for deinterlacing Freeze Frame is still a viable one for Premiere Elements 11 as well as earlier versions of the program.

Deinterlace the frame to greatly increase the quality of the exported image: In the Expert view timeline, select the containing clip. Then choose Clip > Video Options > Field Options. Select Deinterlace, and click OK.

ATR

PE: Numbered Stills in Time Lapse and Other Animations

INTRODUCTION

Premiere Elements "Time Lapse Video Basics" are featured in a July 2013 blog post here and represent a flexible and effective way to create Time Lapse video using Premiere Elements. The essentials of the approach described involve taking individual sequentially ordered photos into Premiere Elements where the duration of each is shorten (downward to 1 frame if necessary) to create the Time Lapse effect.

The shortcut version of the above can be found in the concept of Numbered Stills feature which results in the duration of each numerically ordered photo automatically being set to 1 frame and imported in sequential and numerical order into Premiere Elements as 1 video file. The key to getting this to work is the file name for each photo which has to be the same except for the file's number which must have the same number of digits for all the files. The Numbered Stills feature is also seen applied to animations not related to Time Lapse. Still image file formats such as .png, .bmp, .psd, .tif as well as .jpg can go through the mechanics of the Numbered Stills scheme. Numbered Stills basics for use in creating Time Lapse videos and other animations in Premiere Elements will be the focus here.

NUMBERED STILLS BASICS

Time Lapse

STEP 1
Using Premiere Elements 11* Add Media/Files and Folders, browse to the group of  photos to be used. In this Time Lapse video example, they are 10 jpg photos (1920 x 1080 pixels) in sequential numerical order.

In the Add Media dialog that opens, (1) click on just the first photo of the series. In this particular example it is file 001.jpg. Then (2) click on the box next to Numbered Stills option to place a check mark there. Then (3) click Open. Refer to Figure 1.

Figure 1. Premiere Elements 11 Add Media Dialog. Numbered Stills Setup For Time Lapse Video Project.

STEP 2
At this point, Project Assets will display a single video file using the name of the first photo in the series (in this case, file 001.jpg). Refer to Figure 2.

Figure 2. Premiere Elements 11. Properties Of Numbered Stills Video (File 001.JPG) In Project Assets.

Each photo of the 10 photos went into the video with a duration of 1 frame (equivalent to 0.033 seconds NTSC or 0.040 seconds PAL), giving the video that arrived in Project Assets a total duration of 10 frames (0.333 seconds NTSC or 0.400 seconds PAL).

The video file type is described as JPEG and assumes the frame rate of the project settings. Its duration can be altered with Time Stretch or Time Remapping. Although Time Remapping has a Frame Blend option, ghosting resulted when the swiftness of the video was slowed down by Time Stretch or by Time Remapping with Frame Blend applied. The fixed photo duration of 1 frame can often create too fast a Time Lapse effect which needs slowing down.

Numbered Stills option appears to work with a series of either .psd, .tif, .bmp, .png, or .jpg. The .jpg photos used above were each converted into .psd, .tif, .bmp, and .png versions, put through the Add Media/Files and Folders/Add Media dialog Numbered Stills process, and some properties for the resulting video from each looked at. Refer to Table 1.

Table 1. Premiere Elements 11. File Size And Average Data Rate for Numbered Stills Video Properties Related To File Formats For Source Photos

Tip: Expand the Expert workspace Timeline with the zoom out (-) zoom in (=) slider above the Timeline so that the placement of the video on the Timeline can be seen. Expansion of the Timeline also avoids accidental overlaying if a second series is created and dragged to the Timeline next to the first series.

Animations in General


Some Major Points

• The key to getting the Numbered Still feature to work is the file name for each photo which has to be the same except for the file's number which must have the same number of digits for all the files.

• The file names of a series do not have to start with file 000.xxx or file 001.xxx. They just need to be in series, same number of digits in the number part, and all have to have the same file extension.

GIVEN a hard drive folder containing 17 sequentially and numerically sorted photos with the first 10 as .jpg (from file 001.jpg to file 010.jpg) and the last 7 as .png (from file 011.png to file 017.png) as shown in Figure 3. The jpg are personal photos; the png were created in Photoshop Elements using its Content to create the sequential images which were saved in png format.

Figure 3. Premiere Elements 11. Hard Drive Folder With Sequentially Numerically Order Photos, File 001.JPG to File 010_JPG Followed By File 011.PNG to File 017.PNG

THEN Premiere Elements 11 Add Media/Files and Folders/ and then the Add Media dialog and its Numbered Stills option, and 

• Select file 001.jpg

• Check mark next to Numbered Stills option

• Open

The resulting video in Premiere Elements 11 Project Assets represents only the first 10 jpg files. That video can be dragged to the expanded Timeline. If the same was repeated, but this time with file 011.png selected, the resulting video in Premiere Elements 11 Project Assets represents only the next 7 .png files of the 17 files ordered in the hard drive folder. This png video can be dragged to the expanded Timeline and be included next to the video from the .jpg series without any problems.

Note: One should be able to get all 17 of the files (from file 001.jpg through file 017.png), if one imported them in Premiere Elements without the Numbered Stills feature and worked with them as described in "Time Lapse Video Basics" July blog post referenced in the Introduction.

If one knows that a 1 frame photo duration will achieve the wanted animation effect, all well and good in favor of the shortcut. It offers the lowest setting possible for the program. This setting often has a too fast effect for the Numbered Stills video. Time Stretch or Time Remapping can be used to slow it down. In Premiere Elements 11 the Frame Blend option for smoothing slow motion is not available in the Expert nor Quick workspaces. It is in the special Time Remapping workspace. But in the search for smoother slow motion, beware of unwanted ghosting effects (no pun intended since the little animation demo below shows a baseball at at the pitcher's mound and a catcher's mitt at home plate and no signs of a pitcher or catcher). Focus on the "curved ball" pitch.

In the video below compare the "curve ball" for the first pitch versus the "curve ball" of the second pitch.  This first "curve ball" has slow motion effect and no Frame Blending; whereas the second "curve ball" has the same slow motion effect but with Frame Blending applied.

This video above which was uploaded to this blog post is an AVCHD.mp4 (1920 x 1080 @ 30 progressive frames per second) file from a Premiere Elements 11 NTSC/DSLR/1080p/DSLR 1080p30 project. The Timeline content consisted of:

• Numbered Stills video (file 011.png) that was created using the sequentially numerically ordered file 011.png through file file 017.png that are shown at their hard drive save location in Figure 3 and

• Duplicate of Numbered Stills video (file 011.png).

Each was taken into the Time Remapping workspace, and the "Extremely Slow (1/8x)" setting used for the slow motion effect for each, the Frame Blend option was used for only the Duplicate.

PERSONAL OPINION COMMENTARY

Although some prefer the Numbered Stills approach for setting up for Time Lapse video in Premiere Elements, it is not my preferred approach since I do not believe it offers the flexibility and effectiveness of the "other" way which I have described in  Premiere Elements "Time Lapse Video Basics" July 2013 blog post.

____________________________________________________________________________
*The principles described are applicable to versions 4, 7, 8.0/8.0.1, 9.0/9.0.1, 10 as well as 11.
Projects were run on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit computer.

PE: Missing Features, Explained and Unexplained

INTRODUCTION

There are those features that change from version to version and are easily identified in the Read Me and New Features Intro given by Adobe for a new version. Additionally, forum discussions may help get at the whys when a feature is supposed to be in a version and is not or is there but not working.

This blog post will log in some such instances and give a status for each case found.

MISSING FEATURES

Sync Linked Clips

“Sync Linked Clips” feature has never worked in either Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1, 10, or 11 Windows. It works great with Premiere Elements 4, 7, and 8.0/8.0.1 installed along with these other versions on the same Windows 7 64 bit computer, using the same video/audio file in each case. In contrast, the Premiere Elements Help PDF for all these versions describes this feature as a viable one.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSB56835DB-2BE2-4ff 9-85A3-83179E2326F8.html

For all these Premiere Elements versions, the linked video and audio can be unlinked by holding down the computer main keyboard Alt key as the audio file is clicked/dragged away from the video portion on the Timeline, with the Offset numbers clearly visible on the video and audio halves. But there are no "Move Into Sync" and "Slip Into Sync" options seen when using the Offset numbers as described in the Adobe documentation or otherwise.

There has never been an online confirmation that anyone has gotten this feature to work in versions later than Premiere Elements 8.0/8.0.1.

Frame Blend

Typically the Frame Blend option is a consideration for smoothing out motion effects related to Speed of clip (slow motion) and changing frame rate. How it works in this regard in Premiere Elements is for another time. But the basics of Frame Blend "On" seem to be averaging the frames versus Frame Blend "Off" the duplication of frames to achieve, if possible, the smoother look. Here just finding the Frame Blend feature will be the focus not how it works.
.
In Premiere Elements 4, 7, 8.0/8.0.1, 9.0.1, 10, the Frame Blend option can be found

• Timeline workspace: Clip Menu/Video Options/Frame Blend or right clicking the Timeline video and selecting Frame Blend.

• Sceneline workspace: Clip Menu/Video Options/Frame Blend

When selected, the Frame Blend text has a check mark automatically placed to its left.

The Premiere Elements 11 Expert and Quick workspaces are the next generation of the Timeline and Sceneline workspaces, respectively, that exist in versions earlier than 11

In Premiere Elements 11's Expert and Quick workspaces, Frame Blend has the same locations as in earlier program versions, but the Frame Blend option is grayed out. In version 11, the only way to apply Frame Blend to a video clip is to select the video, go to Tools/Time Remapping, and click Frame Blend option in the special Time Remapping workspace that opens. The final step would be to exit the Time Remapping workspace with the clip left at normal motion (if just the Frame Blend is wanted without a slow motion effect).

When back in the Premiere Elements Expert workspace from the Time Remapping workspace, Clip Menu and pop up still show the Frame Blend text grayed out for that particular video, but now there is a grayed out check next to the grayed out Frame Blend text.

But that Time Remapping Frame Blend setting does not select Frame Blend thereafter in Clip Menu and pop up for other than the video that went through the Time Remapping workspace route.

If there is more than this one video on the Timeline, it does not work to use Copy/Paste Effects and Adjustments to apply the Frame Blend of the first to the others. Even though that the Frame Blend options locations have been pointed out, questions remain as to what constitutes it working and not working even with a check mark (not grayed out versus there but grayed out).

Deinterlacing Freeze Frames

Typically deinterlacing has been recommended for freeze frames generated by Premiere Elements' Freeze Frame feature. For those with an integrated version of Photoshop Elements, one way to do that was using the Photoshop Elements' Filter Menu/Video/Deinterlace for the deinterlacing.

• from Freeze Frame dialog, include the option "Edit in Photoshop Elements after inserting"

• if Freeze Frame already on Timeline, right click the Freeze Frame, and select Edit in Adobe Photoshop Elements

And, the user can find the same information in Adobe Tech document "Premiere Element/Sharing for PC Playback"

 If Photoshop Elements is installed, you can instead deinterlace the exported image in that application. In the Editor, choose Filter > Video > Deinterlace.

The only problem with that is that Photoshop Elements 11 no longer has an option for deinterlace via its Filter Menu/ or anywhere else.

However, that Adobe Tech document other suggestion for deinterlacing Freeze Frame is still a viable one for Premiere Elements 11 as well as earlier versions of the program.

Deinterlace the frame to greatly increase the quality of the exported image: In the Expert view timeline, select the containing clip. Then choose Clip > Video Options > Field Options. Select Deinterlace, and click OK.

 Freeze Frame (Camera Icon) Bottom Of Edit Mode Monitor

This icon no longer exists in Premiere Elements 11. A workaround to get the Freeze Frame dialog to appear, rather than going through the Premiere Elements 11's Tools Menu or Tools Tab is
creating a keyboard shortcut cut to the Freeze Frame dialog via Edit Menu/Keyboard Customization/Application/Help/Freeze Frame.
Tip: I borrowed the letter G from another unused feature listed in Keyboard Customization/Application/ for this purpose.



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This thread is a work in progress and will be updated periodically.
Updated August 26, 2013.

PE11: Titler Shapes For Highlighting

INTRODUCTION

Titler's Text, Styles, Animation, and Shapes have already been featured in the July 2013 blog posts, PE: Titler - Part 1 Text Animations and PE: Titler - Part 2 Styles.

What follows is a spin off of the Styles blog post's section titled "Creating and saving user created Style and Setting it as Default Style". Focus now on the part in that section which stated

In this instance, the Fill and Stroke where not available in Color Properties. Please refer to the Adobe document "Premiere Elements/Adding Color and Shadows to Titles" for a full discussion of Set the Fill and Set the Stroke in Color Properties.

Circles for highlighting moving objects as well as round or other shapes for picture framing an object were created in the Titler taking advantages of all the principles detailed or alluded to in the three references given above.

SOLUTION

The basic ingredients for creating these circles and frames with transparent centers in the Titler included (See Figure 1 which represents the creation of one of these circles for highlighting a moving object)

• draw Shape 

• apply Style that came with built-in Fill and Stroke (not all do)

• set Gradient to "Eliminate" in Color dialog of Shape section to change Color Fill to transparency leaving Stroke

• adjust color of Stroke if necessary, and 

• usually disable Drop Shadow option if it is present in the built-in Style.

Figure 1. Creating A Circle For Highlighting Moving Object. Shape: Circle From Shapes' Ellipse Tool. Kozuka Mincho Lime 27 Style From Style's Built-In Collection..

The same principles for creating the circle would apply to creating the frame for a picture, except the shape selected is the rectangle instead of the ellipse. 

HOW TO

Shapes For Picture Framing

Following the basics described in SOLUTION, the following frames were created with the Titler Shapes section rectangle and with Styles Kozuka Mincho Lime 28, Lithos Pro Wide White 51, Hobo Medium Gold 58, Tekton Pro Yellow 93, and Myriad Pro Caps Lt Blue. Examples are given in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2. Shapes For Picture Framing. Styles Kozuka Mincho Lime 28 And Lithos Pro Wide White 51.

Figure 3. More Shapes For Picture Framing. Styles Hobo Medium Gold 58, Tekton Pro Yellow 93, And Myriad Pro Caps Lt Blue (Stroke Colored Corrected In Color Dialog)

Each image that went into a "picture frame" was cropped to fit the "picture frame" with Premiere Elements 11's fx Effects/Transform/Crop, except for the rose image. There a 4-Point Garbage Matte was used for the fit. Either crop or the garbage matte technique could do the task. The frame (Stroke) color was left at the default except for the "framed" Hostas plant flower. There the color was adjusted to one that blended in better with the color of the flower than did the blue default. To change the Stroke color, click on the Stroke button in the Color dialog of Shapes and then adjust the color. Images were from Premiere Elements 11 Clip Art except for that of Hostas plant flower which is my own photo.

Circles For Highlighting A Moving Object

Phase 1

In this phase of the project, embellishment of the circles took on a life of its own and took over as you can judge in the first animated video example which is titled "Scrambling Robots".

In the creation of the "Scrambling Robots" animated video (AVCHD.mp4), many techniques were involved beyond creating the circle for highlighting one of the robots in the video. They included:

• Keyframing the Motion/Position property for each of the three robots

• Keyframing the Motion/Position property of the circle to follow only the blue headed robot

• Track selection to set each robot's front/behind position and motions with respect to one another

• Cutting one robot file at strategic points in order to create change in direction of that robot's path using fx Effects/Transform/Horizontal Flip. 

Phase 2

At one point, there was this green circle with its center transparent. What next? So, what next turned out to be working out an animation where a green crayon appeared to be drawing the green circle that we created in Titler's Shapes as described above. This resulted in the next animated video (AVCHD.mp4).

This phase took on still more techniques besides creating the circle for highlighting objects.

• Eight-Point Garbage Matte applied to the circle file.

• Keyframing Motion/Position property of the Eight-Point Garbage Matte so that it hide and then revealed the circle in a sequential fashion around the circle

• Importing a green crayon graphic from Premiere Elements 11 Graphics and keyframing its Motion/Position property so that it moved around the circle to give the illusion that it was drawing the circle.

Phase 3

The question became "Just what to do with an animation with a crayon appearing to draw a circle that started out in the Titler's Shapes. This is when the "Scrambling Robots" were called back into the scene. 

The Phase 2 AVCHD.mp4 representing just the green crayon drawing a green circle was placed above the images of the motionless robots in this Phase 3 video, and the robot with the blue headed targeted. The result is seen above in this Phase 3 video (also an AVCHD.mp4 type).

Some advanced activities were planned for the "Scrambling Robots" after the blue headed robot was targeted by using a green crayon to draw a green circle around its head, but it was decided to put that off for another time, in a future blog post more specific to the topic of animation as presented in the blog post PE: Perspective Effects.


_____________________________________________________________________________

Premiere Elements 11 Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit was used for this work.


ATR

 

PE11: Quick Workspace

INTRODUCTION

The Quick and Expert are the new alternative workspaces of Premiere Elements 11 and are next generation Sceneline and Timeline respectively found in versions earlier than 11. Major changes can be seen in comparing the current with the previous. Premiere Elements 11 Quick is our focus this blog post. While it has taken on several new features as compared the predecessor Sceneline and has  lost some Sceneline features, there appears to be a more pronounced difference in "features that it does not have" as compared to its workspace alternative, Expert.

Note the comparative display of the same 3 second 4:3 movie brought into a NTSC DV Standard project in Premiere Elements 11 Quick (default) versus Premiere Elements 10 Sceneline (Default)

Figure 1. Sceneline Premiere Elements 10 NTSC DV Standard Project. One 3 Second 4:3 Video Imported.

Figure 2. Quick Premiere Elements 11 NTSC DV Standard Project. One 3 Second 4:3 Video Imported.

If the "Fit To Visible Timeline" icon (NEW) was selected, the expanded view of the Video bar seen in Figure 2 would be as represented in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Quick Premiere Elements 11 NTSC DV Standard Project. One 3 Second 4:3 Video Imported. View When "Fit to Visible Timeline" Selected.

SOME "QUICK" CONSIDERATIONS

FILMSTRIP

The basics for the filmstrip are Text bar for titles created in the Titler (NEW), Strip with spaces (scenes)  for still or the video only portion of a video/audio file, Narration bar, and an Audio bar for adding audio files. Like the Sceneline, audio linked to video is not represented in strip, bar, or track in Quick.

The new features of Quick include

• Text bar for titles created in the Titler

• Zoom Out (-)/Zoom In (+) slider over its Filmstrip

• "Fit to Visible Timeline" icon (keyboard shortcut / ) over its Filmstrip

• Render Button over its Filmstrip

• A scene space capable of displaying whole video instead of just the first frame of the video; individual scene spaces appear to be sized according to duration of the video or still file as compared to Sceneline with fixed size scene spaces. But a Quick or Sceneline scene space assumed the aspect ratio of the file placed in it, 4:3 or 16:9.

In Expert workspace of Premiere Elements 11, Add Menu/Files and Folder/ takes the import into Project Assets from where it is dragged to the Timeline video track. In Quick, Add Menu/Files and Folder/ takes the import immediately into the first scene of the filmstrip. There is no Project Assets media storage in Quick.

As mentioned above, a Quick scene space is capable of displaying whole video instead of just the first frame of the video. In fact, if the Filmstrip is expanded to max with the -+ slider, all the frames of that video can be viewed in Quick. This is not possible in Sceneline.

TEXT

There is now a Text bar included in Quick.

When a title is created in Quick Titler, the title is displayed as a purple bar in the Text bar, and the scene thumbnail has an upper right corner icon which is named by the program "PIP or Overlay is applied to your clip". Double clicking the title's purple bar representation in the Text bar will open the Titler for further edits of the title. For those who are chronic switchers between Expert and Quick, please take note:

• Quick title will display on Video 3, not 2, of Expert. And, when in Expert that title is moved from Video 3 to Video 2 and the workspace changed from Expert to Quick, the purple bar will disappear from Quick Text bar but the "PIP or Overlay is applied to your clip" icon will still appear on the scene thumbnail. Of note, if one places a PIP on Video 2 in Expert and switches to the Quick, the scene thumbnail will have the "PIP or Overlay is applied to your clip" icon but there will not be the purple bar representation in the Text bar. Furthermore, if one remains in Quick and creates the PIP the scene thumbnail will have the "PIP or Overlay is applied to your clip" icon but there will not be a purple bar representation in the Text bar.

• But, if one moves the PIP in Expert from Video 2 to 3 and then switches to Quick, there will be a light blue bar in the Text bar as well as the "PIP or Overlay is applied to your clip" icon for the scene thumbnail.

• And, just one more, for now, scenario on all this. If one creates a project in Expert, using Video 2, not Video 1, for the video clips or stills and creates a title which goes to Video 3, when the switch from Expert to Quick, the title will make its presence known by the purple bar in the Text bar in Quick, but, in the Quick video strip scene space, there will be no Video 2 content that was placed in Video 2 in Expert.

TITLE TEMPLATES

A Title Template theme typically comes in 4 types, credits, frame, lower3rd, and title and presents in Quick workspace as follows.

_credits
goes to a scene space in the Video bar and Titler is automatically opened; no presence of credits Title Template in the Text bar. If the Video bar content is expanded with the "Fit to Visible Timeline", an icon named "You have trimmed your clip" can be seen at the of the end of this scene one file (top right). After the Titler is closed, the credits Title Template can be reopened in the Titler for further edits by double clicking in the credits Title Template's scene space.

_frame
same as  _credits, except no "You have trimmed your clip" icon on frame Title Template in scene space.

_lower3rd
same as _credits, except no "You have trimmed your clip" icon on lower3rd Title Template in scene space.

_title
same as _credits, except no "You have trimmed your clip" icon on title Title Template in scene space.

Lots more details. Bottom line suggestion. Stay in one workspace or the other, and pay close attention to what is happening in switching back and forth between workspaces.


SOME "EXPERT" FEATURES MISSING IN "QUICK"

• No Project Assets and Media Storage

• No full set of fx Effects

• No full set of Transitions

•  No full set of Graphics

• Window Menu/No Dual Monitor Workspace

• Tools Menu/No Time Stretch. Duration of text titles in the Text bar can be adjusted with mouse cursor, dragging on edges of the text title in the Text bar.

• Clip Menu/Only Remove Effects option is left in Quick Clip Menu options...so Expert Clip Menu options such as Link/Unlink Audio and Video, Group/Ungroup, and Effects Mask are among the missing.

• No Audio bar for audio linked to video

• No "New Item" with its choices of Title, Bars and Tone, Black Video, Color Matte, and Universal Counting Leader.

• No sub-clips from Preview Windows Trimming (do not see way to do this). For Trimming in Quick and Expert workspace, please check out Adobe document http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSA27F29AF-97BB-4bdc-AF98-65113182EDF6.html#WSD58726BC-ED8A-41a9-B957-C7F0021FAB6C

• No  keyframing opportunities found in Quick using Applied Effects/Applied Effects/Motion, Opacity or other, at video bar level, with Presets, or anything else in comparison of Quick to Expert. Further, note that keyframing opportunities were available in the predecessor Sceneline via Properties Palette/Motion Panel/Opacity Panel and some others as well as Presets.

SOME "EXPERT" FEATURES SAME AS IN "QUICK"

• Instant Movies (Slideshow, Event, Memories, Pets, and Style categories) choices

• Default Text (Still, Rolling, Crawl) and Title Templates choices

• Movie Menus choices

• Time Remapping

• Music choices 

• Split Clip (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K) as tab on Timeline Indicator stem as well as choice in Timeline menu. 

• Publish+Share options

Overview for have and have not for Premiere Elements 11 Windows Quick is paused for now. This blog post will be updated if any missed. The above probably applies to or is very similar to Premiere Elements 11 Mac. However, Premiere Elements 11 Mac was not available for cross testing on this matter.

Remember, consider staying with Expert or Quick (my choice Expert) and no toggling between the two to avoid confusion and problems of all sorts.

_______________________________________________________________________________

ATR

PE11: Mac Information Round Up

INTRODUCTION

Although Premiere Elements 11* Windows and Mac have many of the same features, there are differences in some areas. I wanted to get a better handle on just what those differences are. Below are some of the highlights of an online search on the topic.

As it turned out, the Premiere Elements 11 Windows Mac differences search got complicated since there appears to be at least 3 species of Premiere Elements 11 Mac, that is, Premiere Elements 11 Mac (Adobe), Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Editor (Mac Only, Mac App Store), and Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Quick Editor (Mac Only, Mac App Store). So the reader is cautioned to view the following carefully with regard to the program that each of the following documents is applying to.

SEARCH RESULTS

Overall

1. Mac App Store Comparison of Premiere Elements 11 (Windows Only), Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Editor (Mac Only), and Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Quick Editor (Mac Only).
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere-elements/buying-guide.displayTab4.html

2. Photoshop Elements Help/Elements Organizer 11 differences between Mac OS and Windows
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/organizer-differences-mac-os-windows.html 

(Do not overlook because of Photoshop Elements in title. Both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements have the Elements Organizer.)
  
Installation

1. Photoshop Elements Help/Install Premiere Elements, Photoshop Elements
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/install-premiere-elements-photoshop-elements.html 

2. Premiere Elements Quick Editor/Installing/uninstalling Adobe Premiere
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/quickeditor/WSeffff8bffc802084-7b5de6931308d7ff99c-7fffeditor.html 

Getting Started

1. Adobe Premiere Elements Help/Getting Started tutorials
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/topics/getting-started-tutorials.html 

2. Premiere Elements Editor/Getting Started
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/editor/WSa8d319461f013b78-78fb9fff13c284dc45f-8000.html#WS27dec87a7cd59989-307bc0cf137a8ef0176-8000 

3. Premiere Elements Quick Editor/Getting Started
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/quickeditor/WSa8d319461f013b7863c80f5113c3fb2fc8a-7fff.html 

4. Adobe Premiere Elements Editor Help/Help and Tutorials
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements-editor/topics.html#dynamicpod_reference_8

5. Adobe Premiere Elements Quick Editor Help/Help and Tutorials
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements-quick-editor/topics.html 

Basically same operations for these species, but limitations depending on which species used. Those limitations could be generalized for the Windows Only aspect and/or could be limitations due to feature set for one of the Mac App Store versions of the product.


Specific Features 

1. Supported Import/Export Format (Adobe)
Premiere Elements/Supported devices and file formats
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSeffff8bffc802084-1665492e133c9c19956-8000.html

Premiere Elements/Supported file types for saving and exporting (Adobe)
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WSBD5B7B44-D473-43ad-BC9D-77F546DC27F0.html


Notable in the above is the Windows Only tag for Import: Windows Media (.wmv, .asf) and Windows Media (.wma) and for Export: Windows Media (.wmv), Animated GIF, and Microsoft AVI (.avi).


2. DV/HDV Data Capture Firewire
From all read, DV and HDV data from capture firewire is wrapped
Windows, DV data, .avi wrapper; HDV data, mpg wrapper
whereas
Mac, DV data, .mov wrapper, HDV data, mpg wrapper

3. Burn Options
Premiere Elements Editor/Sharing DVD or Blu-ray Dischttp://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/editor/WS59402903-7957-4335-BFEB-BC8980510ABA.html

According to the above document Adobe Premiere Elements Editor (Mac App Store) appears to offer creation of the disc image (iso) besides burn to disc (DVD, AVCHD, Blu-ray) and burn to folder (DVD, AVCHD) options; whereas, the disc image choice does not seem to be offered in Premiere Elements 11 Mac (Adobe). See what appears to be the Premiere Elements 11 Windows/Mac (Adobe) document on this matter
Premiere Elements/Sharing to DVD or Blu-ray Disc
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WS59402903-7957-4335-BFEB-BC8980510ABA.html
From what I have read, it looks like Mac has a Disk Utility that the Adobe Premiere Elements 11 Editor user might use for getting the iso disk image to disc. More information needed on this point.

4. Effects  (Adobe)

Premiere Elements/Effects reference
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premiereelements/using/WS4B8135DA-083C-42eb-B09E-65070ECBC889.html

According to this Premiere Elements 11 (Adobe) document and others

a. Video Effects (Windows Only)

Blur and Sharpen
Antialias
Ghosting
Sharpen  (based on an actual Premiere Elements Mac user input, Sharpen seems to have been labelled Windows Only by mistake in this Adobe document)

Distort 

Bend
Lens Distortion
Ripple

This Distort category has a note saying "All the  Distort Options are available in Windows Only; but yet only the following in that category have the Windows Only tag

Image Control
Color Pass
Color Replace

Keying 

Blue Screen Key
Green Screen Key
Chroma Key
RGB Difference

Premiere Elements 11 Mac does have the Difference Matte. See blog post "Difference Matte As Substitute for Green or Blue Screen Key"
http://www.atr935.blogspot.com/2013/05/pe11-difference-matte-as-substitute-for.html

Pixelate
Facet

Transform
Camera View
Clip
Horizontal Hold
Vertical Hold

b. Audio Effects (Windows Only)

DeNoiser
Dynamics
Pitch Shifter
Reverb

5. Transitions   (Adobe)


Numerous Windows Only

More information needed on this.

Premiere Elements 11 Mac (Adobe) General Problems

1. Adobe Premiere Elements Help/Expert view Timeline zooms in when dragging clips I MacBook Pro, retina display
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/expert-view-timeline-zoom-in.html

2. Photoshop Elements Help/Troubleshoot errors, freezes I Install I Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements I Mac OS
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/troubleshoot-errors-freezes-install-photoshop.html

Since Elements Windows only user here, information posted in this blog post will be updated to correct any misconceptions based on present online search and/or to add more related content.

Premiere Elements Mac Movie Menu files, Where Are They Found?
(added section on April 11, 2015)

In Premiere Elements 11, 12/12.1, and 13/13.1 on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit, the path to the Movie Menu theme SlideShow/Pan and Zoom that comes with the program installation is Local Disk C\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 11, 12, or 13\DVD Templates\Common.

Premiere Elements Mac user Martin P tracked down the Premiere Elements Mac counterpart and wrote:

OK, mac users - this is what you need to do.

Go to Macintosh HD --> Applications --> Adobe Premiere Elements 13 --> Support Files

RIGHT CLICK on Adobe Premiere Elements.app (NOT Adobe Premiere Elements 13. app), Select "Show Package Contents". Here you'll find DVD Templates --> Common --> Slideshows

See Posts 16 to 28
https://forums.adobe.com/message/7063610 

In Premiere Elements 11, 12/12.1, and 13/13.1 on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit, the path to the Movie Menu themes that require "content download" is Local Disk C\Program Data\Adobe\Premiere Elements\version #\Online\DVD Templates\All_Lang\category folders....

The Premiere Elements Mac counterpart is reported to be Mac HD/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Premiere Elements/13.0/Online/DVD Templates/All_Lang/
See bha51 Post 12  https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1804894


_______________________________________________________________________
*Other interesting Premiere Elements Mac (non version 11, non Mac App Store) related documents include

 Premiere Elements 10 Mac Installer Fix
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5323

Adobe Premiere Elements Help/Updated installation instructions I Premiere Elements 10 I Mac OS
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/kb/updated-installation-instructions-premiere-elements.html

Downloads  Premiere Elements for Macintosh
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=101&platform=Macintosh



ATR

PE: Perspective Effects

INTRODUCTION

I have created two Premiere Elements perspective effect animations that have gained high praise from Premiere Elements users. They are being offered here for your consideration. No challenge, no critiquing, no contests, just maybe some fun in trying to work through the following and then, if found interesting, to apply the principles to a theme other than the one I used.

First, I chose to try to create an animation which "realistically" showed a bird flying from inside a house and through an open window to join some birds already outside circling around. The second of the two animations involved the idea of creating the illusion of viewing a picture in a picture frame and suddenly have the bird in the picture take life (scale up) and move out of the picture and then retreat back into the stillness and sizing of the picture in the picture frame.

Each can be done with just about any version of Premiere Elements. In the case of the "Bird Flying Inside Outside Window", I had Premiere Elements 8.0/8.0.1 opened at the time, so I used it. In the case of "Bird Flying Out In Picture Frame", I had Premiere Elements 10 opened at the time and used it.

Typical results*
                                               Bird Flying Inside Outside Window

                                                 Bird Flying Out In Picture Frame

PART 1

HOW BIRD FLYING INSIDE OUTSIDE WINDOW WAS CREATED

A bird flying from inside a house and through an open window to join some birds already outside circling around

Source Media Were

• My own photo of a window. I created transparent areas in the window panes where the view outside the window had existed. The photo editing was done in Photoshop Elements, and the edited photo saved as a .png.

• A background jpg for the view outside the window. Here I used the background view as seen in the original photo. I took the original into Photoshop Elements, cloned out the window pane elements, and cloned in what was needed to give a seamless background view. And, then I saved my window-less background as jpg.

• Two Clip Art clips from Premiere Elements. These were used for the birds. Premiere Elements 8.0/8.0.1 Edit Header/Clip Art/Animated Objects/Bird-2 and Bird Circling.
  

Principles Involved

• Whatever is on the upper track will show unless there are transparent areas in it for what is below to show through. Here, in the case of the birds, we are dealing with Clip Art, with object on transparent background.

• In the case of the Clip Art (birds), the Clip Art on a track BELOW the photo of window with transparency will appear to be outside the window. The Clip Art on a track ABOVE the photo of window with transparency will appear to be on the inside of the window.

• To achieve the inside to outside look, two identical (Position and Scale keyframed) Bird-2 files are used, one is placed ABOVE the window (for inside look) and one BELOW the window (for outside look), and a garbage matte is applied to the ABOVE one to eliminate it from view at the times when any part of the bird is viewed outside the window.

Workflow 
                     
Overview

The 5 track setup was as represented in Figure 1, with Video 5 content placed last since it was a copy of Video 3 content which needed to be Position and Scale Keyframed before being copied. All track content duration was equalized at 5 seconds.

Figure 1. "Bird Flying Inside Outside Window" Premiere Elements Workspace Track Set Up.

Details

STEP 1
In this example where Bird-2 will be flying inside to outside, I took the original Bird-2 Clip Art file (on Video 3) and keyframed its Position property, moving Bird-2 from not seen at bottom left to its exit at top right. Next, I keyframed Bird-2 Clip Art's Scale property from larger inside and to gradually smaller as the bird flew further away outside. If we stopped here, all we would have is the look of the bird moving across the screen and the look of the Bird-2 outside the window, not going inside to outside.

STEP 2
To achieve the inside to outside look, two identical (Position and Scale keyframed) Bird-2 files were used, one was placed ABOVE the window image (for inside look) and one BELOW the window image (for outside look), and a garbage matte was applied to the ABOVE to eliminate it from view at the times when the bird was to be viewed outside the window.
Tip: 4-Point Garbage Matte. Everything within the points of its bounding box is what is seen while all else is excluded, becoming transparent. So, in carrying out this important step in the workflow, best focus on watching the monitor and, during the garbage matte keyframing, moving the points of the bounding box so that the video 5 Bird-2 is only seen at those times when the Bird-2 is inside the window.

Compare, Bird-2 transition from inside to outside, with and without 4-Point Garbage Matte in use at the moment. Refer to Figure 2 (for with 4-Point Garbage Matte) and Figure 3 (for without 4-Point Garbage Matte).

With...

Figure 2. 4-Point Garbage Matte Applied to Video 5 Bird-2 (Inside). At The Moment Shown, Areas Of "Inside" Beyond The Garbage Matte Bounding Box Are Excluded So The Video 3 Bird-2 (Outside) Dominates In Those Areas.

 Without...

Figure 3. Video 5 Bird-2 (Inside)'s 4-Point Garbage Matte Disabled. Bird-2 Wing Showing "Inside" When It Should Be "Outside" At That Moment.

The basic concept to grasp is having two simultaneous files running (Video 5 inside and Video 3 outside) and using 4-Point Garbage Matte essentially to turn one off and the other on in the Bird-2 flight from inside to outside the window.

STEP 3
As for the Clip Art with the Bird Circling outside, nothing much is to be done there, except
placing the Clip Art in a track below the one with the photo with the window with transparency and some minor positioning and resizing without any keyframing.
Tip: Good idea to keep the sizing of the Bird Circling consistent with the size of Bird-2 once Bird-2 gets outside.

PART 2

HOW BIRD FLYING OUT IN PICTURE FRAME WAS CREATED 

Illusion of viewing a photo in a picture frame and suddenly have the bird in the picture take life (scale up) and move out of the picture and then retreat back into the stillness and sizing of the picture in the picture frame

Source Media Were

• My own photo of a picture frame with its own living room background. I used Photoshop Elements to create the transparent area in space provided for the photo in the picture frame. This file was saved as .png file for use as the "frame source" in Premiere Elements project.

• A background jpg to be used for the view inside the frame. Here I used a jpg photo of a Hostas plant flower for use in Premiere Elements 10 project.

• One Clip Art clip from Premiere Elements. Premiere Elements 10 Edit Header/Clip Art/Animated Objects/Bird-1.

Principles Involved

• Because I could not immediately find the right photo for my original intent here (copyright considerations), I decided to use what I had to demonstrate the idea. The intent of this particular task was to start with a close up photo of a flower and bird in a picture frame on a living room end table. It is the bird who will leave the picture to travel from inside the frame to outside the frame into the living room and then fly back into its original location in the photo in the picture frame.

• Since the photo is a close up, this will necessitate scaling the bird-outside down to "room size" once it is outside of the picture frame. In the prior animation described, we used the Four-Point Garbage Matte to control the what and when for viewing of the animated objects. In this example, keyframing the Opacity was used instead when that necessity arose. 

• Here we will introduce Time Stretch/Reverse Speed and the Horizontal Flip Effect to create the illusion of the bird's return to its original place within the photo in the photo frame.

Workflow

Overview

The 5 track setup was as represented in Figure 4.

Figure 4. "Bird Flying Out In Picture Frame" Premiere Elements Workspace Track Set Up

Details

Track Content Set Up (Refer to Figure 4)

Video 5 from left to right

3 sec gap

Bird-1 Outside (5 sec) = Bird-1 on transparent background (keyframed Opacity = 0 % for 1 sec at beginning; keyframed Motion/Scale and Position for bird flight from inside frame to outside frame).

3 sec gap

Copy of Bird-1 Outside (5 sec) with its Motion/Scale and Position as well as Opacity keyframed. Then Time Stretch/Reverse Speed with check mark

Video 4 from left to right 

3 sec gap

Frame .png (5 sec) (with transparency where picture is displayed)

3 sec gap

Copy of Frame .png (5 sec) (with transparency were picture is displayed)

Video 3 from left to right

3 sec gap

Copy of Bird-1 Outside (5 sec) with its Motion Scale and Position keyframing; no Opacity keyframing.

3 sec gap

Copy of Bird-1 Outside (5 sec) with its Motion Scale and Position keyframing, no Opacity keyframing. Then Time Stretch/Reverse Speed with check mark, applying effect to whole clip; the Split Clip Tool cut at 4 seconds of that 5 second clip, followed by Horizontal Flip Effect applied to just those 4 sec.

Video 2 from left to right

3 sec gap

Background Photo (Hostas Flower) for inside frame .png (5 sec)

3 sec gap

Background Photo (Hostas Flower) for inside frame .png (5 sec)

Video 1 from left to right

3 sec freeze frame (bmp) from first frame of zero time composite of the Video 5, 4, 3, and 2 clips.

5 sec gap

3 sec freeze frame (bmp) from last frame of "inside to outside" block of Video 5, 4, 3, and 2 clips.

5 sec gap

3 sec freeze frame (bmp) from last frame of "outside to inside" block of Video 5, 4, 3, and 2 clips.

_____________________________________________________________________________

*I have proof read the content for typos several times and all appears to be in order, inside and outside and vice versa. A recent run through of the "how created" details confirmed
the above.

ATR