Premiere Pro CS6: how to change color of a clip as time progresses?

Question

I am trying out a few things for PPro, since I'm new to it (coming from Camtasia Studio 8) and I'm wondering, since a lot can be done, is it possible to not have the clip with a black and white effect, but have it 'walk along' the whole color spectrum?

In Windows Movie Maker for XP there used to be an effect like that, so you can see what I mean here:

As you can see, the color of the clip is never the same.

Can this be done somehow? A ton of Google and Youtube searches have not provided me an answer to this question; most hits are about Color Correction and I couldnt really see anything that came close to this.

Thanks in advance!

• DiaborMagics

Answer 1

There are several ways to do this. The basic idea is always the same: You overlay a color and then animate it's hue. To get rid of all other color, you can either convert the footage to black-and-white (which can again be achieved using different techniques) or put the color on an adjustment layer with the blending mode set to color. This is the preferred way to do it, since this way, you can apply the effect to your entire scene at once. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this effect using the Lumetri Color workspace (which is not available on CS6 and earlier versions).

1. Create a new adjustment layer (File → New → Adjustment Layer) and put it over your video clips in the timeline of your sequence.
2. Select the adjustment layer in the sequence and change to the Color workspace (Window → Workspaces → Color). The Lumetri Color panel should now be on the right side of the program window.
3. In the Lumetri Color panel, under Basic Correction, reduce the Saturation to 0. Your video should now be black-and-white.
4. Under Creative, set a color for the Shadow Tint and move the Tint Balance slider all the way to the right (100). Your video should now be monochrome.
5. Open the Effect Settings panel (make sure the adjustment layer is still selected) and find the Shadow Tint setting under the Lumetri Color effect (this one is automatically applied once you change a setting in the Lumetri Color panel). Hit the stopwatch icon to activate the animation for that effect property and set the first keyframe (make sure the playhead is positioned at the first frame of the adjustment layer first). Now it's time to get creative, set keyframes at appropriate intervals and change the Shadow Tint to different settings every time. Premiere Pro will interpolate between the values, giving you the color transition effect you wanted.
6. Optional: Under Opacity, set the blending mode of the adjustment layer to Color. This way, the original luminosity values are preserved, making the effect more subtle. You can also try Hue for an even more subtle effect or change the opacity of the adjustment layer. This will reduce the color overlay effect, allowing some of the original clip colors to come through.

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Workaround for CS6

Since the Lumetri Color panel doesn't exist in CS6, you will need to use another color correction effect instead. The basic idea will stay the same though. You can for example use the Tint effect in the same way as described above (you will have to set keyframes for both Map Black To and Map White To, since there is no balance slider in this effect). With the introduction of the Lumetri Color panel, a lot of the old CS6 color correction effects got deprecated in the new CC version. If you are still on CS6, you could for example also use the Three-Way- or Fast Color Corrector to get similar results.

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Or just do it in After Effects using Layer Styles → Color overlay, set the Blend Mode of the effect to Color and animate the Color.

Answer 2

Okay, since I think I just found a good solution for noobs like myself, I will add this as a separate answer and indeed one to my own question.

In CS6 PPro, I found the 'Fast Color Corrector' effect. This one is very powerful and a lot faster indeed. I accomplished a much better result than before in mere minutes.

1. Create an adjustment layer and put it over the clip/sequence/entire film, whatever you want, like in the previous answer
2. Go to the Effects tab and search 'fast'. Then find the Fast Color Corrector and put it on the Adjustment Layer on the timeline
3. Make sure your playhead is at the start of the Adjustment layer (for me that was 00:00 so that was easy)
4. Set Balance Angle to 140, so that you get too much green
5. Adjust Balance Magnitude until you're satisfied with how much green you see
6. Check your color range by scratching Balance Angle from 0 - 360
7. Set the Balance Angle to your starting point, which may be 0, or whatever else you want
8. Click the Balance Angle stopwatch to set a keyframe
9. Drag the playhead to the end of the Adjustment Layer; if you're at the end and want to refine where the playhead is, you can use the left and right arrow keys
10. Add 360 to your initial starting point to move across the spectrum
11. If you wish to move across the spectrum twice, or more, just add more Adjustment Layers next to each other to mark the beginning and end of each cycle and repeat the steps to animate the effect
12. EDIT (this item wasnt on the list before) Its a good idea to select the effect when done, or select all applied effects and right-click -> add preset, so that you can apply is more easily next time

11B - Something I just noticed is that you can move across the spectrum twice or more, simply by adding more cycles to Balanc Angle. So if you start at 0 and wish to move across once, stop at 360. Otherwise, simply use 720 or more, to move across twice or more.