coloring the background of a clip

[Matthew Max]

I am shrinking several video clips to fit them in a single view.
How do I change the background from black to white?

[Steve Grisetti]

You put the video clips on an upper video track and you add a white clip to the Video 1 track below them.

[Matthew Max]

¡Muchas gracias, compadre!

[Bob]

In the general case, you would use a color matte on the lower layer. Right click on the media bin area of the Project panel and select new item>color matte... Select any color you want.

[Matthew Max]

Bob, I want to try what you're saying, but I'm just not following the steps...the lingo.

[Peru]

Scroll down to "Create a color matte" to do what Bob described:
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/usi ... etics.html

[Bob]

color-matte.jpg

There are several ways to add a color matte. I suggested right clicking on the media bin to get a context menu as shown in the screen capture above. Another way is to click on the "new" icon on the lower right corner of the project panel. A third way is to use the Premiere Pro main menu: Select the File menu tab, select "new", then select "color matte..".

when you create a color matte, you will first get a dialog box where you can confirm or change the video settings. Click "OK" and you will get a color picker which will allow you to select a color for the matte. Click "OK" and you will get a dialog to name the color matte. Finally, click "OK" and the matte will be created.

[Peru]

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

[Chuck Engels]

Ain't that the truth

[Matthew Max]

You guys are awesome. You bailed me out again.

[Matthew Max]

Now I remember that this raises another issue. When I added that matte, which I was able to do really easily with you guys' help, I remembered that each clip needs a border around it. So when I'm using a matte, how do I create borders?

[Bob]

One way to do it would be to create a second color matte just slightly larger than the clip and place it below the clip and above the background.

I usually do it another way. Add a Grid effect to the clip. In the effect controls, change the grid properties as follows: set blending mode to "normal", then set the grid anchor point to 0.0 0.0, set "size from" to "corner point", set "corner" to the width and height of the clip, set "border" to the desired width of the line. You can change the color of the line if you wish. Doing it this way will add a border to the clip that will scale with the clip and move with it if you change the position.

border.jpg

[Matthew Max]

This is fantastic, Bob. You know, I know so many "tricks" with Pro now, and yet I keep finding more things I don't know. They seem to be endless -- quite intimidating to me.

[Peru]

Another way would be to create a border in the titler.

[momoffduty]

The grid effect for a border is a new for me. Thanks Bob.