How to Add Motion to Text on Premiere Pro CS5

You can move text or other assets using keyframes in Adobe Premiere.

Adobe Premiere Pro is primarily a video editor, though it includes titling. With the Premiere Title utility, you can create text titles that roll, or move vertically on-screen, or crawl, or move horizontally on-screen. If you want to add motion to text without the Title utility, you can create a graphic with the text you want to animate on-screen, import the picture into Premiere and move the location of the clip as an overlay over existing footage or against a black background.

Instructions

1. Create a new image in Microsoft Paint or another graphics editor. Enter the text you want to move in Premiere with the size and font you want. Set the background to transparent and save it as a PNG file.

2. Open Adobe Premiere. Create a new project and load the text graphic you have created into the Project panel, along with other video, graphic and audio files.

3. Assemble your project in the timeline. Drag video and graphics assets from the Project panel to the Video timelines and audio assets to the Audio timelines. Drag your text graphic to a different video timeline than the footage or blank screen you want to overlay.

4. Click the text graphic in the timeline to select it. Click “Effect Controls.”

5. Click the “Down” arrow next to “Motion” to expand it. Drag the text graphic to the initial location in the Program Monitor. You can resize the graphic with the sizing handles in the Program Monitor. Click the “Add/Remove Keyframe” icon next to the position of the graphic in the Effects Controls panel.

6. Drag the current time indicator above the timelines to a new location. Drag the text graphic to a new location. A keyframe will automatically be created and the path the graphic will travel is created in the Program Monitor window.

7. Right-click the text graphic in the timeline and click “Clip Speed/Duration” to adjust the length of time the graphic will be visible on screen. Click the “Play” button in the Program Monitor window to preview your project.

8. Click “File” and click “Export.” Click “Media,” adjust your export settings and click “OK” to export your video.

Tips & Warnings

• Click “Title” and then “New Crawl” or “New Roll” to create moving text titles.

References

• Adobe: Premiere Pro - Motion - Position, Scale and Rotate a Clip
• Adobe - Premiere Pro - Scrolling and Crawling Titles

Resources

• Adobe: Premiere Pro