Premiere Pro/Encore Tutorial: Auto Pan/Zoom Slide Show with >99 Images

[voyager529]

How to make a slide show with more than 99 images using the auto scaling and auto pan/zoom features in Encore

Preamble: This tutorial is targeted toward people who have used Premiere and Encore before, and ideally have prior experience using Encore's slide show creation tools. It was created and verified using the CS4 suite on Windows 7. I'm almost certain that it will work in CS3 and CS2 as well (along with OSX), but I don't have those suites handy to verify them (leave comments if you can confirm or deny). It requires Premiere, Encore, and Bridge, though Photoshop is recommended in step 1; all listed steps work in Premiere Elements. While this tutorial is a bit lengthy, I do my best to explain different options and to give an understanding as to what's going on, so you can explore and deviate a bit without feeling lost. I also referenced options on the menus for purposes of consistency and clarification; most steps have keyboard shortcuts and right-click counterparts you can use if you're more comfortable with those. I encourage you to read through the tutorial in its entirety before starting a project so that you get a basic idea as to what you're in for. Each step is listed in bold, and most have notes beneath them to explain what's happening, why, and different things to look out for. Stick with it!

I recommend this method because while the pan and zoom effect works extremely well on images, keyframing individual photos gets very time consuming, very fast. Additionally, scaling photos to size automatically further complicates panning and zooming, and doing so to images that aren't autoscaled yields extremely long render times. Encore automates this task making it extremely easy, but it's 99-photo limit doesn't allow for longer slide shows that are sometimes require. Finally, there are cases where a slide show (even a short one) could be part of a bigger project; this method makes it much easier to incorporate one. By combining the automatic processing of Encore with the timeline layout of Premiere, longer slide shows using the pan and zoom technique can be done in significantly less time.This tutorial isn't going to work with Premiere Elements, or versions of Encore prior to CS3.

The executive summary: Import and edit the photos, make slide shows out of them in Encore, render the previews, rename the previews to regain the order, dump the renamed previews into Premiere, and export.



Step 1: Scan and edit your images, if necessary. Here are a few basic tips that may or may not apply to you, but read them all anyway:
-If you're doing large quantities of scanning, see if your scanner has a batch scan mode. My Canon MP970 has one, and I scanned in 160 photos in less than an hour. Check your scanner's import screen to see if it functions as such, as it is a great timesaver.
-If you're scanning 4x6 photos, and your output is going to be SD or DVD, 150dpi resolution is just fine. after that, the scan times get longer and the files get bigger. 300dpi will work for HD; anything more than that is overkill. You may want to decrease the resolution on larger images (5x7, 8x10, etc.), and likewise increase it on smaller ones.
-If you're using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements for your editing, Ctrl+Shift+L does auto leveling, and Ctrl+L brings up the manual levels dialog. Try Auto Level first to see if you like it. It produces acceptable results about 1/3 of the time, so it can save time from having to level each image. Also, if you scanned in a black-and-white photo, you may want to go to Image->Mode->Grayscale to discard the color information before you do your leveling. Make sure you set it back to RGB mode though, because Encore can't import images in the Grayscale color space!
-If you're looking to put a motion backdrop behind the photos, set the black level on every photo to 8. This is barely noticeable, and will greatly help when we Luma Key later.
-Keep your file formats consistent. I saved everything as PSD files, and they worked very well. JPEG also works, but I'd still encourage using PSD files even if you're starting out with digital JPEGs.
-If the photos must be in a particular order, use the filenames to order them. 001.psd,002.psd, etc. You can either do this while you're editing, or you can rename them later in Bridge. Either way, be sure to sequentially number them BEFORE YOU PROCEED TO STEP 2!


Step 2: Open Adobe Encore and create a new project.
-Ensure that your project settings match up with what your end product is going to be (i.e. NTSC/PAL/SD/HD, etc.)


Step 3: Import all the photos as assets (File->Import As...->Asset).
-You may want to create a new folder in the project window first in order to keep your project tidy. If you're one of those super-organized people, you may want to make subfolders for each group of 99 photos.
-Ensure that all of the photos imported properly. Encore is a bit picky with file formats, and it may fail to import images with layers, alternate color gamuts, bizarre resolutions, corrupt metadata, etc. double check the file listing and note any files missing. If you see a gap, you may want to open and re-save the photo. Try a different format to see if that changes the result (yes, I know I violated the rule from step 1, but if a photo won't import, then the rule can be bent).


Step 4: considering that there is a 99-photo limit to slide shows, create a new slide show and add the first 99 photos to it.


Step 5: Select your desired slide duration, and click "Random Pan & Zoom".
-Encore will take several seconds to apply it, but I've never had it freeze, even if I thought it did.
-DO NOT ACTIVATE the "Fit Slideshow to Audio Duration", "Loop Audio", or "Manual Advance" options. Also, DO NOT ADD A TRANSITION TO ANY SLIDE!
-If you're a perfectionist, you may want to double-check the photos' pan and zoom settings to ensure that you like them. If not, you may want to set the pan/zoom directions manually by clicking a photo in the slide show panel, then clicking the Effects tab in the Properties menu, and choosing your pan and zoom directions.


Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all photos have been added to a slide show and have been randomly panned and zoomed.
-Ensure that the photos are imported in order. 001-099 in the first slide show, 100-199 in the second slide show, etc. Encore almost always does this automatically, but if order is important, just verify a few file names by clicking on the photo, then look at the Properties panel in the upper right.


Step 7: Click File->Render->Slideshows.
-This will render every photo in every slide show, so this may take some time depending on how many photos you have added and the speed of your machine. Also, it will take LOTS AND LOTS of RAM, so you may want to close out anything else that's RAM intensive (including Photoshop and your web browser). Then go out and buy your significant other some flowers (optional, but helpful if you've been at this for a while).


Step 8: Save the project and close Encore, then open Bridge.


Step 9: Within Bridge, navigate to {YOUR "MY DOCUMENTS" FOLDER}\{ENCORE PROJECT NAME}\Cache\Adobe Adobe Encore DVD Preview Files\mlf.cache.PRV.
-In here, you'll find all of the preview files that Encore just rendered. They have seemingly random file names, and that's OK. We're going to fix that in the next step. As such, you may want to change to the List view (View->As List).


Step 10: Select All of the photos (Edit->Select All), then go to Tools->Batch Rename.


Step 11: Rename the files using the following parameters:
-If you're paranoid, you may want to use the "Copy To Another Folder" option and work on that instead, but I found it to be really unnecessary and time consuming, instead opting to "Rename In Same Folder". Besides, you can always re-render if you need to.
-Under the "New Filenames" heading, remove all but one line of naming parameters by clicking the Minus Sign next to all but one of them. Then use the following options: Date Time / Date File Modified / HHMMSS. Since Encore rendered the slides in order, each taking several seconds to render, these file names will retain that order.
-Click Rename.


Step 12: Ensure that all of the files were, in fact, renamed.
-I listed this as a separate step because both times I renamed the files, it turned out that for some strange reason "Select All" turned out to be "Select almost all". Once they were renamed, a few stragglers turned up and retained their original, randomized names. If this happens to you, repeat step 11; note that you can hit "select all" again because they were named based on the time they were rendered. Therefore, the names will only change on the files that escaped the first wave of renaming and the rest will remain consistent. The first time I did this, I needed to refresh/select/rename three times, the second only two. I don't get it, but since Bridge retains the naming conventions, it takes all of five seconds to do it a second, third, or fourth time.


Step 13: Close Bridge, Start Premiere, and Create a new project.
-Like all Premiere projects, ensure that your project settings reflect what you want your output to be (SD/HD/NTSC/PAL).


Step 14: Import the folder containing the renamed video files into Premiere.
-Make sure the files are sorted by name, starting with the lowest, by clicking the Name column header.


Step 15: Select All of the video files, and click Project->Automate to Sequence.
-Use these parameters:
-Ordering: Sort Order
-Placement: Sequentially
-Method: Overlay Edit
-Clip Overlap and applying a transition are recommended, but optional. Note that Premiere will use whatever you have selected as the Default Transition. Steps to change it are documented in the help files.
-I tend to add add a black video clip (File->New->Black Video, use defaults in CS4) to the beginning and end, so that there's a little breathing room on both sides.
-If you plan on adding motion backdrops beneath the clips, make sure that you select Video2 or above as your target track.


Step 16 (optional): Add Motion Backdrops using a Luma Key.
-Encore doesn't export with an alpha channel, but it does use straight black instead. If you remember all the way back in step 1, I recommended upping the black level a bit. The reason for that is that if you did, a sufficiently tight Luma Key will do the trick. Add a luma key to the first clip. Set the Threshold property to 3% (that's what worked for me, anyway). click the clip, hit edit->copy. Then select the remaining clips and click Edit->Paste Attributes. That will apply a 3% luma key to the remainder of your photos, and you can add your Jumpbacks to the Video1 track and manipulate them there. Note that you may want to lock the Video2 track to ensure that you don't have issues with ripple editing or similar.


Step 17 (optional): Add Music.
-I'm assuming you know how to do this, but just a reminder to normalize your audio if you're using multiple songs. I like to get everything to hover the -6db region. I'm a bit nuts on this one and I like to export the audio as a WAV file and look at the waveform in Soundbooth or Sound Forge to make sure that the songs are fairly consistent between each other and you're not stuck hovering the volume when it's being presented. If they're not, play with the audio gains and/or volume rubberbands.


Step 18: Export and Burn.
-Between the fact that this is required for basically any Premiere project and that the steps vary based on destination format, I'll leave you to figure out exactly how to render it out. I will however point out that if you're going to DVD, either make a new Encore project for it, or realize that if the only thing that's going on the DVD is the Premiere Export, that you'll never pass the project check because of the orphaned slide show timelines. Also, if you're using CS4 (and CS3?), you can import the Premiere project into Encore as an asset, but it's pretty much a wash for render times unless you added AE comps or something like that into your timeline.



Alright, you're done! Hope it helps out, and if you need any clarifications, you're always welcome to comment here or PM me so I can help!

Joey

[man]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Did you ever find an easier or more direct way to do this? Maybe another app? thanks

Hopefully OP is still around since this is an old thread.