Help rendering a finished video with Adobe Premiere Pro 2

[metathran]

Hey guys, I just made a video with this program, and when I started the project I noticed the frame scale was kinda tiny (720 by 480) and knew I should change it but that area of the box was grayed out so I figured it would just resolve itself.

Anyway, time came to export the video and the final product is zoomed all the way in so you can only see sort of the middle part of the original clips (imported from Fraps) Anyway to fix this?

I know I shouldn't be mucking around with a program like this in the first place but I had it on my HD and thought it would be fun to learn video editing, didn't think it would make much of a difference what program I used tbh. This is a recreational video but I'm trying to submit it to a website in the next 2 days that has some pretty specific requirements (It has to be compressed with DivX or something, there's detailed instructions on how to do that so I'm not worried about it, I just want to know my finished product will come out right...), anything that will allow me to save all my work would be VASTLY appreciated.

[poisondeathray]

Your sequence settings are probably set to 720x480 (probably an NTSC DV preset) .

Change them to whatever your source was (assuming that's the format / dimensions / fps you want to export as well)

[metathran]

I don't know how =( it won't let me change them under project settings, is there a place I can change a sequence's settings?

[poisondeathray]

I'm using a different version, but in the clip bin, you right click and open a new sequence , then modify those settings (dimensions, pixel aspect ratio will probably be square for fraps capture, fps etc...)

Then you import your fraps footage onto that sequence (click and drag it onto the timeline)

"sequence settings" in premiere terminology means the same thing as timeline settings. You can have multiple sequences in a project

"project settings" are global for the entire project, but you usually only have 1 project at at time

Since you already finished your edits (and probably don't want to do it again), you should be able to copy & paste your edits from your finished sequence to the new, proper sequence (select the old sequence edit=>copy , then edit=>paste to the new sequence)

Some things might not transfer over correctly , if you edited for that aspect ratio or size. e.g. titles etc.. might be distorted. So in the future, it's better to start with the proper settings, but hey it's a learning experience

[metathran]

It must be a difference with our versions, because when i open a new sequence the only things I can change are the name of the sequence, the number of video tracks, and the type of audio (mono, stereo etc)

[poisondeathray]

Can you post some screenshots of the sequence settings ?

There should be a "custom" tab to the right of the tab that you are on now

[metathran]

how's this?

[poisondeathray]

right click an "empty" area of the clip bin and open a new sequence, you should be able to specify the settings there

or sequence=>new sequence , something like that

I have an older version of PP on one of my dinosaur computers , I'll fire it up if you can't figure this out

[metathran]

like I said I did that, it doesn't allow me to modify anything except what i mentioned above

[metathran]

thanks a lot for all this help btw

[poisondeathray]

ok save your work first

open a new project , the 2nd tab will be "custom settings". (don't select anything from the 1st tab presets)

editing mode: select "desktop"

that should unlock the dimensions, fps etc....

[metathran]

you are my hero, gimme ur paypal so i can send you some money when I get paid for this video

[metathran]

can i ask you for more help? lol

[poisondeathray]

Go ahead...I can try to answer

[metathran]

well basically I need to draw arrows and circles on the screen at particular points along the video, is there a simple way to do this just using premiere pro?

[poisondeathray]

Do you mean static or animated?

You should be able to use the titler , or even import assets from photoshop or illustrator

e.g. create an arrow with alpha channel (transparency) in photoshop or your image editor , import that into PP , put that on a layer on top

[metathran]

but how will I make sure the arrow is pointing at the right thing? I didn't think of doing it via titles tho that might work if it lets you draw...

[poisondeathray]

The titler has access to fonts, so if you had wingdings or some symbol fonts installed, those are easy ways to access "arrows" .

I think most fonts are vector based - so they are infinitely scalable without quality loss (as opposed to importing a raster .png or .jpg, which is why most people who want custom arrows and shapes would use illustrator)

You can rotate a layer by keyframing it. (select the clip , in the effects control panel , twirl down the motion menu, there will be a rotation category)

[metathran]

but what if it's just in the wrong part of the screen? wouldnt that be rly hard to eyeball while looking at mspaint or whatever? you have to understand I'm totally new to all this stuff ><

[metathran]

also I'm finding this pen tool really difficult to use lol

[poisondeathray]

Just like you can adjust rotation, you can adjust position in the effects control panel. All these categories are "keyframeable" , which means you can animate them and adjust them over time.

You can make better arrows in a dedicated image editor. A free one would be irfanview. Quick and dirty ones should be found in things like wingding fonts

[metathran]

ahh there's so many diff functions here this is crazy. thanks a lot man I think I've got what i need for now