How to Add A Special Effect in Adobe Premier Elements

It is fun and easy to add special effects to your home movie using Adobe Premiere Elements. The best time to do this is after you have edited your movie and before adding the soundtrack or transitions. Special effects or transitions can change the length of the clip and may change your choice of soundtrack or cause you to edit the soundtrack.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 Running on a PC computer.
• An edited video.

1. 
   Scene View

   Open your Adobe Premiere movie and under SCENE VIEW, select the clip you want to manipulate with a special effect.

2. 
   Special effects palette

   From the palette on the left, choose the special effects icon and then select the special effect category.

3. 
   Selecting the special effect

   In this example, we will chose SOLARIZATION from the STYLIZE group. Using your mouse drag the solarization icon and place it on top of the selected clip. You will notice immediately that the image in the video window has changed exhibiting the special effect.

4. 
   The Properties Box

   The image is solarizied but too dark. You will notice that the properties box on the right now has the special effect associated with the clip. In this case, we will change the THRESHOLD from 50 to 100 to lighten the image and enhance the effect.

5. 
   After adjustment to threshold.

   Once you have adjusted the THRESHOLD to 100, you can see the change in the displayed movie. You can now add another effect, delete the effect or save the movie.

Tips & Warnings

• For a solarization effect an image with bright highlights works better
• Don't use too many special effects in one movie, they can become boring
• Take time to explore all the effects available before making a choice
• You can use multiple special effects on one clip
• Choose short clips, if the special effects are on the screen too long they begin to look phony

Resources

• Adobe Premiere