Video editing requires a lot of patience and knowledge, as well as access to high-level editing software. It’s possible to master this skill relatively quickly with adequate training and a lot of practice, but the beginnings can be rough, especially if you try working in an advanced editing suite like Premiere Pro right away.
How to Add Shapes in Premiere Pro
This software was made for professionals, so new users are often overwhelmed by the number of functions at their disposal. The best way to overcome this confusion is to start with small tasks and gradually advance toward more sophisticated edits. Adding a shape on top of a live picture is one of the tasks that require only minimal skill, so it’s a great exercise that can help the user understand how Premiere Pro really works. This article will explain the process in detail and teach you to add shapes to your videos whenever you want.
What is Adobe Premiere Pro?
This software tool is one of the most highly regarded parts of Adobe’s portfolio and has been used as a professional-grade video editing solution for several decades. Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video editor packed with advanced features necessary for high-level projects, designed in a similar fashion to other Adobe visual tools like PhotoShop or Illustrator. Since it’s a non-linear tool, it allows a lot of freedom which can be essential for editors working at the highest level.
Adobe Premiere Pro
You can manipulate your video content in any way you want in Premiere Pro, including combining multiple scenes, adding sound to any part of the video, inserting captions and graphics, executing great-looking transitions, etc. The interface is visually logical, and most functions can be performed simply by dragging and dropping various elements into the proper place. Still, there are so many parameters to keep track of and so many menus to explore that it may be necessary to undergo some training before trying to use this tool for a serious editing job.
Premiere Pro is frequently used to edit all kinds of multimedia up to feature films and television programs, and it performs very well even when working with high-resolution video and audio. It supports a wide variety of input formats, while the files created with it can be readily exported. This software works on Windows as well as MacOS, requiring a moderate amount of computational resources to run properly.
Further Reading: How to Remove Watermark from Video Premiere Pro >
Why Adding Shapes Can Enhance Your Video Editing?
Inserting different shapes into the video is a technique that can be used in videos of many different types to great effect. It’s a simple way to accomplish a number of goals with your video, and it takes only a few moments to execute this command in a way specific to your purpose. Adding shapes to the video can be the right decision in one of the following cases:
- There is a need to emphasize some visual elements in the scene by enclosing them in a shape
- You need some protected space into which to add captions or infographics
- A certain element in the video must be blacked out (i.e. corporate logo, sensitive data…)
- You want to insert section titles or to create separation between different scenes
- The shape in question fits the narrative in the original video and helps express the main ideas
- Your video is fast-paced and you want to draw attention to a few key details that appear briefly
- You are exploring creative ways to tell a story and want to use all the tools at your disposal
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Add Shapes in Premiere Pro
In a technical sense, adding basic geometric shapes to a video in Premiere Pro is very straightforward and can be accomplished by choosing the right native feature and adjusting the parameters to fit your intended purpose. Thanks to the intuitive interface of Premiere Pro and its fine-grained commands, you can precisely control the look and position of the inserted element without the need to use coding or advanced design skills. Just follow these steps and you can add any shape to a video you are editing with Premiere Pro.
Step 1 – Open your video in Premiere Pro and find the scene where a shape needs to be inserted
Step 2 – Go to the Graphics menu, then select the Pen tool from the left-side toolbar
Select the Pen Tool
Step 3 – Choose the shape you want from the available options and click anywhere on the video to add the chosen shape to your preferred position
Step 4 – Choose the color of the shape and whether it should be filled with color or not, and limit the duration of its appearance on the screen
Step 5 – The appearance of the shape will change automatically as you adjust the settings, so when you are happy with the result just deselect Graphics and continue editing the video
Frequently Asked Questions about Adding Shapes in Premiere Pro
Which basic shapes are available to add to videos in Premiere Pro?
Three starting shapes are available to choose from – Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon. However, you can manually change these default shapes and create pretty much anything you would like to see on the screen. Another option is to simply draw lines and join them into a single object, thus constructing a freeform shape that fits your creative idea.
Can I insert multiple shapes into the same part of a video in Premiere Pro?
You are free to add as many shapes to your videos and nothing prevents them from appearing on the screen at the same time or even overlapping in space. However, this possibility should be used carefully, since too many shapes added over the image can obscure important parts of the video and make it hard to watch and comprehend.
How hard is it to remove the shapes that someone else already added to a video?
If the changes have been already saved and the file was converted to an output format, the shapes are permanently fused to the video. Removing them is possible in Premiere Pro, but it may be far more time-consuming and skill-intensive than adding them if you don’t have access to the original video.
Final Words
Premiere Pro is actually a user-friendly tool once you learn how to use its basic functionalities and become comfortable in this environment. Adding shapes to videos is an easy task that allows you to practice your editing skills and slowly develop a feel for this software. You can start with simple shapes like a circle or a triangle, then gradually advance towards more complex undertakings. Soon, this will become a routine action that you can complete without thinking twice, and you can start utilizing this editing technique to your advantage. You will discover that even simple geometric shapes can open up lots of creative choices and allow you to communicate your key messages more clearly and more forcefully.
