Taking some fantastic effects for a test drive: Lesson 9-4
This lesson combines hands-on, step-by-step tasks with experimentation. The purpose is to introduce you to three high-level effects and encourage you to explore further.
1. | Select Help > Adobe Premiere Pro Help. |
2. | Open Contents > Effects: Reference > Gallery of Effects.There you will see examples of about a third of the video effects that come with Premiere Pro. |
NoteThe other headings under Effects: Reference match the Effects panel's bin names.
A portion of the Premiere Pro Help file's Gallery of Effects.

3. | Open Effects: Reference > Render effects > Lightning.This gives you an explanation of each parameter25 in all!in the Lightning effect. Every Premiere Pro video and audio effect has such a listing in the Help file. |
4. | Close Help, return to the Premiere Pro workspace, and replace the Graphic 9.psd clip in the Timeline with the Video 9 clip. |
5. | Drag Page Curl (GPU Effects) to the clip and open its parameters in the Effect Controls panel (in the figure I put the clip over a gray matte to better display the Page Curl effect).[View full size image]![]() |
6. | Change the Angle of Curl number to see that you can start the curl from any edge or corner of the clip.To animate the curl, you need to apply keyframes to Curl Amount. You can have the page partially curl and then have it uncurl. |
NoteThis works like the Page Curl GPU Transition but offers many more options. In this case, you have total control over the animation, including adjusting the angle of the curl, the angle and distance of two light sources, the bump (the texture) of the surface, and how glossy or noisy the surface appears. It can work like a transition in that you can apply it to a clip above another clip on the Timeline to reveal the clip below it.
7. | Delete Page Curl and drag Lighting Effects (Adjust folder) to the clip or Effect Controls panel. |
8. | Drag Texture 9.psd to the Video 2 track directly above the Video 9 clip in the Video 1 track. |
9. | Right-click on the clip in Video 2 and click Enable to de-select that.Turning off Enable turns off the display of that graphic clip so it won't cover the clip below it in the sequence. You will use this graphic to add texture to a spotlight.![]() |
10. | Select the Video 9 clip to display its parameters in the Effect Controls panel. |
11. | Change the Bump Layer to Video 2.As with Page Curl, bump means texture. For this effect, you provide the texture by putting a graphic, image or video clip on a video track above the clip you apply Lighting Effects to.[View full size image]![]() |
12. | Change Bump Channel to G (Green) or B (Blue).The spotlight now will have a texture. |
13. | Experiment with the spotlight placement, angle, intensity, color and the like. |
NoteLighting Effects has a Transform button, which, in this case, lets you drag each of the five lights to different positions on the screen in the Program Monitor.
14. | Delete Lighting Effects and drag Lightning (Render folder) to the Effect Controls panel. |
15. | Click the Transform button (or the word "Lightning") to switch on the two crosshair targets in the Program Monitor.They designate where the lightning will start and end.[View full size image]![]() |
16. | Drag the start and end points for the lightning to place them at opposite corners of the picture frame in the video. |
17. | Adjust some of the two-dozen other parameters including the outer and inner colors. |
18. | Drag another instance of Lightning to the Effect Controls panel (in some cases you can apply the same effect more than once to a clip) and give it the same start point but a different end point. |
Third party plug-in providers
Now that you've got your feet wet, I think you have begun to see what Premiere Pro is capable of. What might surprise you is that the dozens of effects that come with Premiere Pro only begin to tap its potential. There are hundreds of effects and transitions available onlinesome for free, most for retail purchasefrom a broad spectrum of third-party providers.To get a taste of all that is out there, visit www.adobe.com, go to the Premiere Pro page and click Third-party Plug-ins. There you will see a list of effect packages, several of which contain dozens of effects. Most of those effects are deeply detailed and offer exciting possibilities. Check around a bit. Some third-party plug-in providers offer free trial packages or have demos of the effects online.