Adobe Premiere Elements 7 Classroom in a Book

144 LESSON 6 Working with Effects

12 If necessary, you can reposition the clip using the Position controls. Or simply

click and drag the clip to the desired position in the Monitor panel.

13 Click the Home button on your keyboard to go to the start of your project, and

then press the Play button (

) to review your work.

14 Save your project as Lesson06_pip.prel.

Compositing two clips using Videomerge

Compositing is the process of merging two clips together, one atop the other, while

removing the background color of the top clip to reveal the second.  is allows you

to place your subject in a variety of environments, both real and simulated.

Adobe Premiere Elements’ Videomerge eff ect makes compositing as easy as drag

and drop. Videomerge automatically determines the background of the top clip and

makes it transparent. Video or image clips on the tracks below it become visible

through the transparent areas. You’ll get the best results with Videomerge if you

shoot the clip to be composited using the following rules:

• Create a strong (preferably dark or saturated), solid, uniform color background

to shoot against.

• Make sure that the background is brightly and uniformly lit to avoid shadows.

• When choosing a background color, avoid skin tones and colors that are similar

to the subject’s clothing or hair color. (Otherwise, the skin, clothes, or hair will

become transparent, too). Bright green and blue are the best choices.

ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 7 CLASSROOM IN A BOOK 145

With this as background, reload the Greenscreen.prel project fi le (you should have

already saved the fi rst project as Lesson06_pip.prel), and follow this procedure.

1 In the Timeline, click Rockshow.avi, the only clip.  e selected clip appears in

your Monitor panel.

2 In the Edit tab of the Tasks panel, click the Project button.

3 In Project view, locate the Gina_guitar.avi clip. Click once to select the clip, then

hold down the Shift key and drag the clip onto the Rockshow.avi clip in the

Monitor panel.

4 Release the pointer and choose Place on Top and Apply Videomerge. Adobe

Premiere Elements inserts Gina_guitar.avi in the Video 2 track over Rockshow.

avi, automatically detects the blue background, and makes it transparent.

쎲

Note: If the superimposed clip is longer than the background clip, it appears over successive

clips in the Sceneline for its entire duration, and appears superimposed over those clips during

playback.

5 In the Timeline, click Gina_guitar.avi to select it, and then click the Properties

(

) button on the upper left of the My Project panel.

6 In Properties view, click the twirl-down triangle to the left of the Videomerge

eff ect to open the parameter settings.

Most of the time, Videomerge will automatically produce optimal results without

adjustment. Should you need to customize your Videomerge settings, check the

Videomerge section in the Adobe Premiere Elements Help fi le.