How to Highlight the Moving of an Object in Premiere Pro

Highlighting an object in Adobe's Premiere Pro requires using both lighting effects and key frames together. The lighting effects feature allows you to place a light in a scene and to control its size and shape. Key frames allow you to control the position of the light over time. Thus, you can adjust the light to the dimensions of the object you wish to highlight and adjust the motion of the light to follow the path the object takes.

Instructions

1. Open Premiere Pro. Click "File" in the left-hand corner of the top tool bar, choose "Import" and select the clip you wish to edit. The clip shows up in the project window located in the upper left-hand corner of the Premiere Pro interface. Click and drag the clip from the project window to the timeline window at the bottom of the screen. Drop the clip into the timeline.

2. Click the "Effects" tab in the lower left-hand window and click the arrow to the left of the "Video Effects" folder. Click the arrow beside the "Adjust" folder. Click and drag "Lighting Effects" to the clip in your timeline and drop it on the clip. This adds the lighting effect to the clip, making a light visible in the preview window in the upper right-hand corner.

3. Click the "Effect Controls" tab in the window directly above the timeline. Click the arrow beside the item "Lighting Effects;" then click the arrow beside "Light 1." To the right of this option is a timeline. Drag the playhead all the way to the beginning of the timeline. The playhead is the red line with the blue tab on top. Click the stopwatch icon beside the "Light Type" option and select "None" from the drop-down menu. This makes the light disappear.

4. Drag the playhead to the place in the clip where you want the light to appear and choose "Spotlight" from the Light Type drop-down menu. Click "Lighting Effects." This places a marker in the center of the light in your preview window. Click this marker and drag the light over the object you want to highlight, and then click and drag the outline around the light to change its size and shape to fit the object.

5. Click the stopwatch beside "Center." This option is beneath Light Type in the Lighting Effects options. Drag the playhead to the right until you notice that your object has moved out of the light. Click and drag the light over the object. This adds a key frame, telling the light to move from the first location to the second, thus following the object. Continue dragging the playhead to the right and repositioning the light over the object as it moves until the object has finished moving. When you arrive to the place in your clip where you want to stop highlighting the object, select "None" from the Light Type drop-down menu.