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In Premiere change the default bin 1 name to something like “Text files”. Import the PSD file you created; the one with all the layers. When Premiere imports a multi layer file it prompts you as to which layer to import. Select “Text” from the menu. Go into the bin and change the name of that layer from the default file name to its layer name; in this case “Text”. Next do the same for the other two original layers. You should wind up with the “Text”, “Drop Shadow” and “Text Matte” layers as separate files in Premiere. See figure 2.1


Figure 2.1

Set up another bin, and call it something like “extras”. Feel free to stick any other files you may need, such as the background. For this project I'm using a video file from the ArtBeats collection I received as a tryout from a book; probably one of Trish and Chris Meyer's books..

You don't need to import the gradients in this step. That comes next, through a different process altogether.

Figure 2.2

This step uses gradient wipes to reveal the “Track Matte” layer we've already imported. Making sure you've set Premiere to an AB editing workspace, place your “Track Matte” layer on track 1b. Stretch it out to about 10 seconds, or as long as you want the text to remain on screen. Leave track 1a blank.

Next go into your transitions palette. Premiere should automatically bring it up when you select the A/B workspace. In the “wipes” folder you'll find the “Gradient Wipe” transition. What this does is create a transition from one source to another using a greyscale image to select which parts of the source will show through.

Place it on the transition track, and stretch it to be as long as you think the first part should be; in this case, as we're only starting with a small part of the letter C, maybe 10 to 15 frames. See figure 2.2

Figure 2.3

Open up the transition by double clicking on it. The first thing to do is click on the “Custom” box in the bottom left of the transition dialog box. This opens another box to select the softness of the edge and to select a gradient file. Set the softness down, maybe staying at 2 just to take the harshness off the edge. Click on “Select Image” and locate where you saved your gradient files. Let's start at the beginning, so open the first part of your letter, in my instance “C matte 1”. Back in the transition dialog box leave “start” at 0%. Move the “end” slider back to about 93%. If you leave it at 100% it will transition all the way through revealing all the text, not just the section we want revealed. See figure 2.3

Copy that transition and paste it straight after the original. Stretch it out to fill the rest of the clip length. Open its settings and drag the “start” slider to wherever you set the “end” slider to. See figure 2.4. This will maintain the section of text you've revealed over the length of the clip. That's the first one done.


Figure 2.4

Drag the “Text Matte” clip down to the timeline and do it all over again, this time with the next piece of gradient. Repeat for each gradient piece until you have a series of clips each doing their own gradient wipe thang!

Of course, by all accounts all this will be moot when the new version of Premiere is released, finally giving us nested timelines, but it's handy to get the concept in your head.

To make things easier on yourself, you can give the virtual clips individual names. With the clip selected, either go menu/clip/set clip name alias…, or use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl+h”. This allows you to type in a short description of that particular subclip. It can also be used to name pieces of standard files, etc. Handy if you want to differentiate between two different parts of the same source clip.

So now we have a bunch of individually named virtual clips, each one pointing to their designated section of the timeline. That doesn't do us any good at the moment. What we need to do is stack the virtual clips on top of each other so the text reveals one segment after another.


Figure 2.5

First, to paraphrase Neo from “The Matrix”, “We'll need tracks. Lots of tracks!” Add enough extra video tracks to accommodate all of your virtual clips, one on top of the other. In my case, I have seven virtual clips. Premiere defaults with two tracks; a transition track and a superimpose track. So I'll need another five video tracks.

Placing the first clip on track one, stack your virtual clips one on top of the other. Use the range select tool to select all the virtual clips on superimpose tracks (track 2 or higher). To change the transparency of all those tracks at once go “menu/clip/video options/transparency.” Because we're working with either end of the luminance scale we can use the “Screen” transparency for these clips. Similar to the Photoshop and After Effects transfer mode of the same name, it creates transparency, and affects underlying clips, based on luminance values. Wherever the clip is pure black it leaves the underlying clip unaffected. Wherever there is luminance it performs a mathematical calculation to have it interact with what’s underneath. In this case, dealing with black and white, the black stays black, and the white shows through from each layer. See figure 2.5

The next task is getting the clips to work consecutively. Turn off the eyeballs for all tracks except for tracks 1 and 2. Drag track 2’s virtual clip out of the way slightly just for the moment. Using Alt-click to render the timeline as you drag across it, find the point where the first gradient has finished revealing. Leave the timeline at that point and drag the virtual clip on track 2 to it. If you Alt-Drag that area the text matte should reveal smoothly from one piece to the next.

Do the same for each track, starting the next one as the previous one finishes. When you have finished you should have the white text on black being revealed smoothly. Of course, things don't always go according to plan and you may find that you need to go back to the original sources for the virtual clips and change the timing of the reveal, making sure to compensate the later clips in the virtual clip stack.

To do the next step you could use this stack as yet another virtual clip, but that's an awful lot of pressure to put on the poor thing, so output that section of the timeline as a separate file, calling it “Text Matte Anim.” Once you've done that import it back into Premiere.

Take the “Text” clip, the “Track Matte Anim” clip and the background clip and place them on the timeline. Background clip on the bottom, “Text” clip on track 2 and “Text Matte Anim” on track 3. For the “Text” clip, choose the “track matte” transparency. This means that the text layer will be revealed onto the background layer as the animated clip on the track above it runs its course. Because the text and the matte match perfectly it should reveal cleanly. There's your text being handwritten over your background.


Figure 2.6

It is possible that having one too many layers screened over each other may play with the levels, meaning some of your text may suddenly pop on semi transparent, then reveal. If you find that to be the case, add effect/adjust/levels to the “Text matte Anim” clip and bump the black input up a few points. This pushes everything below that luminance value back to RGB 000, or black. See figure 2.6

You could output this clip to file and re-import to Premiere, just like the “Text matte Anim” clip we created earlier. In this case, because I can't be bothered waiting for it to render, I've just used it to create a virtual clip. I've called it “background and glow.”


Figure 2.7

This clip should be the same length as the track matte composite you created earlier, based on the length of the “Track matte Anim” clip, so, making sure they're synced, replace the background clip in the text composite with the “background and glow” clip. The text should reveal over the glow simultaneously. See figure 2.7


I hope you enjoyed running through this little exercise. Please remember, I am by no means a fount of all knowledge when it comes to Photoshop and Premiere. There may have been techniques discussed where you thought “Why didn't he do this instead?” If so, please let me know and I'll incorporate it into this tutorial.

The main advantage of living in a virtual society is our ability to bounce ideas off each other and share techniques with like-minded enthusiasts, so let's use it.
Contact me at kingleonard@hotmail.com with your suggestions.

Please discuss this in the Adobe Premiere forum at Creativecow.net.