PE: Color Matte Color Matching Experimenting

INTRODUCTION

A user asked if there was a way in Premiere Elements to match the color of an item in a photo or video with Color Matte being used in the same project. For example, creating a Color Matte with the same color as a red rose in a jpg photo.

HOW TO POSSIBILITY

Use of the Color Replace effect under Premiere Elements 12 Windows fx Effects/Image Control/Color Replace was explored as a means to achieve the Color Matte color which matched that of the rose in the jpg photo.

HOW TO EXPERIMENTAL

1. Given you have a Timeline photo showing a red rose whose red color you want to capture in a Color Matte from Project Assets/View/New Items/Color Matte.

2. Photo on Video Track 1. Side by side a Color Matte (any color, light green for this example).

3. Select the Timeline Color Matte clip and, from fx Effects drag in the effect Image Control/Color Replace into the Color Matte clip.

4. Then, with the Color Matte clip selected go to Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Color Replace Panel expanded. (Keep away from the Setup icon on the Color Replace Panel.)

5. Keep the Color Matte clip highlighted (selected), and move the Timeline Indicator to the left to be on the photo clip which is NOT SELECTED.

IMPORTANT: At this point, the photo is not selected, but the Timeline Indicator is positioned on it so that the photo is displayed in the monitor. The Color Matte is selected so that the Color Replace Panel expanded is visible to the right.

6. With the mouse cursor, left click once on JUST the eyedropper for the Replace Color option in the expanded part of the Color Replace Panel. Move the mouse cursor (which presents as an eyedropper) over to the red rose on the Edit Mode monitor screen and click once on the rose in a representative spot.

7. Now move the Timeline Indicator to the right to be on the Color Matte clip which still has its original color. Go to the Setup Icon in the Color Replace Panel.

• put a check mark next to Solid Color

• move the Similarity slider to the left to achieve the color match (in this example, the setting was 72)

The Color Matte clip was scaled down and moved to a position directly over the photo with the rose for a closer color comparison.

Figure 1. Color Comparison Of Color Matte Red Color From Red Color Of Rose In Photo.

Note that although the Color Matte displays on screen as red. It is still represented in the Timeline with its original green color since what is on the Timeline traces back to the original which is light green.

More on this another time. Need more sampling to determine usefulness of all this.

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ATR

PE: Snow for Christmas

INTRODUCTION

"How do I create a falling snow effect for my Premiere Elements video?" is a frequent question. The answer to that question will be offered as a demo on how the following Premiere Elements 12 one minute movie was created with its falling snow effect embellished with a snow scene still, title template, and soundtrack.

HOW TO

Part 1. Creation of the Snow.psd in Photoshop Elements 12 Full Editor

STEP 1.
File Menu/New/Blank File
Preset: Film & Video
Size: NTSC DV (can be changed depending on project settings for Premiere Elements 12 project.)
Width: 720 pixels
Height: 480 pixels
Resolution: 72 pixels/inch
Color Mode: RGB Color
Background Contents: White (leave it at White for now)

STEP 2.

• Set the Color Picker to the defaults (hit D on computer main keyboard): Black Foreground Color and White Background Color. Then Alt + Backspace key so that the document is filled with Black.

• As the Alt key is held down, double click the Background Layer in the Layers Palette to change that to a regular layer (Layer 0).

STEP 3.
With Layer 0 highlighted (it is the only one in the Layers Palette), go to Filter Menu/Noise/Add Noise and use the settings:
Amount: 75%
Distribution: Gaussian
Check mark next to Monochromatic
Click OK.

STEP 4.
Then Filter Menu/Blur/Gaussian and use the settings:
Radius: 1.5 pixels
Click OK.

STEP 5.
Set the Blend Mode of Layer 0 in the Layers Palette to Screen.

STEP 6.
Then with Layer 0 selected, Enhance Menu/Adjust Lighting/Levels and use settings
From left to right (black - gray - white), in fields provided,
90 - 1.00 - 120 respectively.

STEP 7.
With the Magic Wand Tool
(Tool Options settings are: Tolerance 32 with check marks next to Anti-alias and Contiguous)
Click on a spot in the "Black" area to select everything but the snow, and then hit Delete.

STEP 8.
Deselect via Ctrl+D. Place photo underneath the snow layer in the Layers Palette, check out the snow, and then remove the photo that was used to check out the snow.

STEP 9.
Next, File Menu/Save As
a. Name: Snow.psd
b. Format: Photoshop (*.PSD, *PDD)
c. Save In: personal choice for hard drive save location.

Part 2. Creating Falling Snow in Premiere Elements 12 (Expert Workspace), Using Snow.Psd Created in Photoshop Elements 12 Full Editor

STEP 1.

Import the Snow.psd file into Premiere Elements 12, using Add Media/Files and Folders/Project Assets. In Project Assets, right click the file's thumbnail, and select Duplicate.

At this point, two files are in Project Assets

snow-1.psd

snow-1.psd Copy

Drag the snow-1.psd file to the start of the Timeline Video Track 2, and with the mouse cursor drag out the file so that its duration is 1 min (00;01;00;02).

STEP 2.

Next, scale the snow-1.psd file on Video Track 2 to 300%. To do this, go to Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Motion Panel expanded/Scale property (with check mark next to Constrain Proportions.)

STEP 3. 
Then comes the keyframing of the Position property of the snow to create the falling snow. Here go to Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Motion Panel expanded/Position property. The specific sequence to follow is:
a. Highlight the snow-1.psd on Video Track 2.
b. Timeline Indicator at the start of Video Track 2, at 00;00;00;00.
c. With the mouse cursor, click and drag the image in the Edit Mode monitor upward until the bottom (white line in Figure 1) of the file's bounding box is sitting on the bottom of the Edit Mode monitor (black box) space. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Snow-1.Psd Monitor Image After Dragged Upward As Far As Possible Without Moving The Image Off Screen (Out Of The "Black Box" Area.

d. With snow-1.psd selected on Video Track 2, go to Applied Effects Tab/Applied Effects Palette/Motion Panel expanded and click on the Toggle Animation (stop watching looking) icon to initiate the keyframing. Then move the Timeline Indicator to the end of the Timeline content  00;00;01;00;29. Next, click and drag the image in the Edit Mode monitor downward until the top of the file's bounding box is sitting on the top of the Edit Mode Monitor (black box) space. The snow-1.psd image was dragged downward as far as possible without moving the image off the screen (out of the "black box" area). Render the Timeline content by pressing the Enter key of the computer main keyboard to get the best possible preview.

STEP 4
One layer of snow has been created so far. You can stop here. But, to make it more snowy, another layer of snow was added, using the snow-1.psd Copy on Video Track 3.To do this,

• Drag snow-1.psd Copy from Project Assets to Video Track 3.

• Drag out the file so that its duration is 1 minute.

• But, for this file, scale to 200% instead of 300%.

• Then create the falling snow as you did for the first layer of snow.

If there is any confusion in selection of the file being worked on, then do the snow-1.psd Copy work in a blank area of the Timeline. When finished, position it over snow-1.psd on Video Track 2. Render the Timeline content to view the finished falling snow effect.

Part 3. Embellishments on the Basic Principles

1. The Timeline content that is represented in the export shown at the top of the blog post included

• Video Track 4 Premiere Elements Titles & Text/Holidays andEvents/blinking_tree_lights_frame

• Video Track 3. snow-1.psd Copy (Scaled 200%)

• Video Track 2 snow-1.psd (Scaled 300%)

• Video Track 1 personal jpg photo (3264 x 2448 pixels)

• Soundtrack: Premiere Elements 12 Music Score Atmospheric/Is It Love

2. Premiere Elements 12 on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit was used with project preset of NTSC/DV Standard. The export for the Timeline content was Publish+Share/Computer/AVCHD/MP4 - NTSC DV Standard.

3. If a video of just the falling snow was needed for use in another project, only Video Track 2 and 3 were used, and the following export choice was made in order to preserve the transparency of the Timeline content. To do that

Publish+Share
Computer
QuickTime
with Presets = NTSC DV
But, under the Advanced Button/Video Tab of the preset, the key settings were Video codec = Animation and Depth - 32 bit. Also, to avoid an audio track with the export, uncheck Export Audio in the Export settings there.

COMMENTARY

There are all sorts of variations on this work; and, the principles are applicable to versions of Premiere Elements other than just 12.

Our 2011 work on a snow file creation and its application to video had its roots in the following flickr article.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/pse/discuss/72157602694539770/
This blog post updates our 2011 work and expands upon it.

We may update this blog post further at a later date.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have taken the time to read my Premiere Elements writings. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year 2014.

ATR

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After publishing this blog post and watching the video again, I noticed that I forgot to mention that
I experimented with Dip to White video transitions at the end. More on that another time. Needs work.

PE: Burner Location: No Burners Found

INTRODUCTION

Recently I was gifted with an Apple TV unit. In preparation for its setup and use, I was checking out iTunes 64 bit (latest version 11.1.3.8) installed on my Windows Professional 7 SP1 64 bit computer and got hit with the following message.

Figure 1. iTunes 64 Bit Windows Missing Drivers Message.

I had not installed other CD or DVD burning software.

When I reinstalled iTunes as suggested by the warning/error message, the above message no longer appeared. However, when I went to open a Premiere Elements 11 project on this computer, there were no burners listed in the Burner Location field of the burn dialog. A System Restore resolved this immediate Windows and Premiere Elements issue. But I was left with the original iTunes issue. This kind of problem appears to be involved with the Gear drivers used in iTunes.

All this seems to be a known* iTunes issue. A sampling of Apple documents that offers fixes for this can be found

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2308

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3299

I do not use iTunes to create audio CDs or burn DVDs, and the existing situation was somehow allowing me to import CDs, so, until forced to, I was thinking that I could put troubleshooting this matter aside for another day rather than get involved with Windows/Premiere Elements recognition. of burners.

I thought it important to bring this information to the attention of the Premiere Elements users who suddenly found that there was nothing listed in burner location in the burn dialog and wondered why? The above may not be the answer for all or any. But, if the Premiere Elements user has this burner location empty, one of the possibilities to check would be the status of iTunes if iTunes was part of the computer community.

I was ready to leave the matter unresolved from the point of view of iTunes and be content knowing that Premiere Elements burner location was recognizing the computer's burners, when the solution was found in a iTunes user's comment about step 12 in the Apple document "iTunes for Windows: "Registry settings" warning when opening iTunes".

SOLUTION

The results of the solution to be described include

• Using iTunes 64 bit (version 11.1.3.8) without problems related to "drivers for importing and burning CDs and DVDs are missing" and consequently no more error message (See Figure 1) when opening iTunes

• Using Premiere Elements in which its burner dialog/burner location listed system burners

Uninstalled iTunes.....iTunes problem resolved, but Premiere Elements burn dialog/burner location burner listings gone.

System Restore.....iTunes problem back, but Premiere Elements burn dialog/burner location burner listings restored.

Manually deleted the GEAR entries in the Registry as per Solution 3 here, And installed updated GEAR driver (4.020.5) from here according to Solution 3.....that did not resolve the problem.

Subsequent iTunes uninstalls/reinstalls...no solution except that the driver part of the error message was gone so that the message now read only that iTunes was not properly installed.

Then went thru the Gear driver removal from Registry and type in again from here, but this time, at step 12, followed the comment of an iTunes user (b noir) with this type of issue..

At step 12 after typing GEARAspiWDM, press Enter/Return key once prior to clicking OK.

It worked! No more iTunes CD/DVD "importing and burning" issues/no more error message to that effect when opening program and Premiere Elements burn dialog/burner location displaying all burner choices.

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*A Google Search revealed numerous Apple and iTunes user articles on this matter.


ATR

PE12: Adobe ID/Password Requirement for Sign In.

INTRODUCTION

Recently a Premiere Elements 12 Windows user wanted to know whether it was necessary to Sign In to the program with an Adobe ID and Password in order to use the program. My recollection was generally No, but there are certain features (Adobe Revel for example) where the Adobe ID and Password are required to use the feature. However, my recollection and what is written in the Adobe document (part about Registration not being mandatory) were found to be flawed.

SOLUTION

To refresh the memory on those details, Premiere Elements 12 was deactivated on one Windows  computer and installed on another. A close look at the step by step process of the installation on the second computer revealed the following.

There was no request for an Adobe ID and Password from the initiation of the installation process to the Finish, followed by the request to Restart the computer. However, after the computer Restart, a Sign In Request dialog appeared when trying to create a Premiere Elements 12 project via Video Editor/New Project in the Welcome Screen.
At this point, I had to Sign In with my Adobe ID and Password in order to use the program. The specific message reads

Sign In Required
Signing in with an Adobe ID and registering Adobe Premiere Elements 12 is required within 7 days otherwise it will stop working. 
Enter Adobe ID to register your product.

I did not see any OR possibilities for "Signing in" Adobe ID/Password versus Registration.

If and when the user wants to deactivate the program for any reason, Help Menu/Sign Out is used for that purpose in place of the Help Menu/Deactivate seen in versions of Premiere Elements earlier than 12. Once the program is deactivated on its computer, the program cannot be used again without the Adobe ID and Password as part of the Signing In protocol. A connection to Internet is required whether Signing In or Signing Out.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS 12 STEP BY STEP INSTALLATION
IN SEARCH OF ADOBE ID/PASSWORD REQUESTS IN THE PROCESS 

1. Insert Disc, Run AutoPlay.exe, User Account Control dialog. Yes.

2. "Install Adobe Premiere Elements 12" Panel and selection of that Panel.

3. Adobe Premiere Elements 12 - InstallShield Wizard, English (United States). OK.

4. Preparing to install, Setup. Next.

5. License Agreement. Accept.

6. Setup - Customer Information
User Name (not Adobe ID)
Country
Choice of "Install the trial version" or "I have a serial number. Install the licensed version".
Inserted the purchased serial number and clicked Next.

7. Setup NTSC TV Format or PAL TV Format. Selected NTSC TV Format and clicked Next.

8. Setup. Next.

9. Setup. Ready to Install the Program. Install.

10. Setup. Installing Adobe Premiere Elements 12.

11. Setup. InstallShield Wizard Completed. Finish.

12. Adobe Premiere Elements 12 - Setup. Restart Computer. Yes or No. Selected Yes.

13. After restart of computer, double clicked Desktop Premiere Elements 12 icon.

14. Welcome Screen appeared with Organizer and Video Editor choices. Selected Video Editor, followed by New Project.

15. Sign In Required Dialog appeared and the message was....
"Signing in with an Adobe ID and registering Adobe Premiere Elements 12 is required within 7 days otherwise it will stop work. Enter Adobe ID to register your product." Sign In Now.

16. Next, the Sign In dialog appeared, requesting
Adobe ID (Email Address)
Password
and posting "Your credentials will be stored on this device."
Sign In

17. At this point, the program should open to the Premiere Elements 12 workspace. It did in my case but not without some problems. Please refer to "The Rest of the Story" section below.

THE REST OF THE STORY

Sign In Failures

In this study, Premiere Elements 12 installed on laptop Windows 8.1 64 bit was deactivated in order to go through the step by step looking for Adobe ID and Password requests in the installation process of the program on another computer, a laptop Window 7 64 bit. 

As it turned out, Premiere Elements 12 did not get beyond on the Sign In step on the second computer. Entering my Adobe ID and Password resulted in an endlessly spinning icon in the Sign In  dialog which developed a gray cast. Resetting the Password was tried. No success. Premiere Elements 12 was uninstalled from the second computer in the Control Panel area.

When I went back to Premiere Elements 12 on laptop Windows 8.1 64 bit, I could not sign in. Same syndrome, that is, after I entered my valid Adobe ID and Password, endlessly spinning icon in the dialog which developed a gray case.

Fix

I am not sure of the whys for what follows and if the following will ever help anyone else in a similar situation, but here is how I identified the problem and resolved it.

1. Window 8.1 64 bit Computer/Manage/Event Viewer and the following Error entry....
"The program PDApp.exe version 7.0.0.426 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center.

Log Name: Application
Source: Application hang
Event ID: 1002
Level: Error
User: N/A
OpCode:
Logged: 12/9/2013 9:24:25 PM
Task Category: (101)
Keywords: Classic
Computer: xxxxxx (x's for privacy)

Now the part to success...
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\OOBE\PDApp\Core\PDApp.exe

2. When I navigated to the location of the PDApp.exe and double clicked it, the Adobe Application Manager opened. It wanted to install a Camera Raw Update which I let it do.

3. When I tried the Premiere Elements 12 Sign In again, it worked without issue.

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ATR
 

PE12: Content Downloads From Adobe Considerations

INTRODUCTION

A May 2013 blog post focused on "PE11: No Content Disc - Content Downloads from Adobe". The process can be very slow depending on Internet speed and the status of the Adobe server. To avoid going through that labored process a second time if the program had to be uninstalled/reinstalled, suggestion was made for saving a copy of the Premiere Elements 11 Online Folder (complete) to a USB 2.0 or 3.0 Flash Drive (8 GB capacity) and using it as a replacement for the Online Folder (incomplete) that got installed with the program reinstall.

The same principles involved in Premiere Elements 11 Content Downloads from Adobe are applicable to Premiere Elements 12 Content Downloads from Adobe. The Online Folders of 11 and 12 differ in that 12 has two new folders included with the carryovers from 11.

Online Folder 11*

• Clips Arts Folder

• DVD Templates Folder

• Movie Themes Folder

• Titles Templates Folder

Online Folder 12*

• Clip Arts Folder

• DVD Templates Folder

• Movie Themes Folder

• Music Scores Folder (NEW)

• Sound Effects Folder (NEW)

• Title Templates Folder

 Except for the addition of these two new folders in the Online 12 Folder, the Online Folder of 11 and 12 are the same.

ISSUE

If the user is going from Premiere Elements 11 to 12 and has the Premiere Elements 11 Online Folder (complete) saved to a USB Flash Drive, how can that be used in 12 to avoid the labored Content downloading in version 12?

SOLUTION

When we first thought about the ISSUE, we forgot about the 2 new folders in the Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder. And, our initial thought was to use the saved  Premiere Elements 11 Online Folder (complete) as a replacement for the Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder (incomplete) that got installed with the Premiere Elements 12 installation.

When we remembered the 2 new folders in the Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder, it was realized that the initial thought was flawed.

Consequently, the current recommendation for the 11 to 12 user in this regard is

• Keep the original Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder

• Replace the Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder's Clips Arts Folder (incomplete), DVD Templates Folder (incomplete), Movie Themes Folder (incomplete), and Title Templates Folder (incomplete) with the counterpart Premiere Elements 11 folders (complete) which were saved to the USB Flash Drive.

• Accept the task of downloading the Music Scores Folder and Sound Effects Folder Content 

• When all is done, copy to the Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder (complete) to a USB 2.0 or 3.0 Flash Drive (8 GB capacity) for use after any Premiere Elements 12 uninstall/reinstall.

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 *Path to Online Folders in Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit or Windows 8 or 8.1 64 bit.

Premiere Elements 11 Online Folder
Local Disk C\Program Data\Adobe\Premiere Elements\11.0\Online

Premiere Elements 12 Online Folder
Local Disk C\Program Data\Adobe\Premiere Elements\12.0\Online