Premiere Create movie from image-sequence

Introduction

This tutorial covers creating movies from image sequences using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Prerequisites

The image sequence must be properly named. Each frame (image) must be numbered sequentially; there should be no 'skipped' numbers and all numbers should have leading zeros. So for example:

image_001.jpg image_002.jpg

Getting started

Open Adobe Premiere and start a new project:

The required settings depend on the usage of the movie:

Stand-alone movie

If the movie is going to be used for stand-alone usage (DVD, VCD, VHS, etc), the PAL preset is the best option:

Movie for Web

If the movie is intended to be included in a webpage, a custom size (width and height in pixels) may be required, e.g.: 320x240 pixels. Use the custom settings:

Importing the image-sequence

Go to File > Import

Check the Numbered Stills checkbox and select the first image of your sequence. Note: If your files aren't named (numbered) properly, the import may fail.

The image-sequence will be placed in your Project:

Note on Alpha channel

If the filetype of your images is TIFF or TGA, Premiere will automatically use the Alpha Channel*. The default background is black. If you want another background, create a Color Matte:

And drag this onto your timeline (onto the lowest Video layer, e.g.: Video 1).

*: Premiere Pro 1.5 has a bug with the 'ignore Alpha' setting in the interpret footage dialog (right click your iamge sequence), making it difficult to ignore the alpha channel. This problem should be fixed in Premiere Pro 2.0.

Movie timeline

Next step is to drag your image sequence from your Project inventory onto your timeline. If you have a Color Matte for your background in Video 1, drag your Image sequence onto Video 2.

The scope of this tutorial doesn't cover further editing options.

Exporting to AVI movie

Select File > Export > Movie. Click Settings:

Choose 'Microsoft AVI:

Video compression

You can apply several compression methods when exporting a movie. For best quality and flexibility, it's best to export RAW (uncompressed) video data from Premiere and use specialized software to encode it to a desired format. This method should be used when creating stand-alone movies (DVD, MPEG, XViD, etc)

If you want to export a movie for Web use, it's recommended to encode your movie using Adobe Flash to Flash Video. Adobe Flash can read almost any movie format, so you can choose several settings in Premiere. An overview:

Uncompressed

High quality, but also large files (approx. 7Mbyte/s for a 320x240 movie). As the quality will probably will be reduced when encoding to Flash Video, uncompressed AVI may not be necessary. Only recommended for short movies or movies with (very) high quality requirements.

Intel IYUV

Good quality, medium sized files (approx 3.5MByte/s for a 320x240 movie). Recommended for most movies.

Cinepak or Intel Indeo 5.1

medium quality, small files (approx. 0.7 MByte/s for a 320x240 movie)/ Recommended for long movies with low quality requirements.

When you export your movie, Premiere will start the rendering process. This may take quite some time, depending on the resolution, selected compression and length of the movie.