Adjustment layer vs effect added to clips?

[ChancyRat]

Moving a bit of the thread on losing rendering after re-opening a project, to further discussion on effects and adjustment layers. Can you say what you mean by, "Don't use an adjustment layer. Create a new sequence and add the original sequence to it. The nested sequence will be treated as if it were a single video clip and you can apply the warp stabilizer to that."

I don't know what it means to add the orig. sequence to a new sequence. Do you just mean start over? lol.
Then don't know what "nested sequence" means. Do you mean group all the clips? Sorry all this escapes me.

On adjustment layers, it seems from an efficiency standpoint that using an adjustment layer is easier. Are you saying never to use them? Or - when would I switch to them instead of effects on clips?

Thanks.

Starting with a fresh project, not a preview file already known to have problems?
- I didn't have time to study this but would adding an adjustment layer be the best way to add warp stabilizer, rather than dropping it on each clip separately

Yes, definitely test with a fresh project. It may still not work, but at least you will have eliminated the project file from the equation. A bit of errant XML data in the project file can cause strange behavior and hang around for the life of the project.

Don't use an adjustment layer. Create a new sequence and add the original sequence to it. The nested sequence will be treated as if it were a single video clip and you can apply the warp stabilizer to that.

[Peru]

I don't know what it means to add the orig. sequence to a new sequence. Do you just mean start over? lol.
Then don't know what "nested sequence" means.

Nesting is simply taking a sequence from the media panel and putting it into a newly created or existing sequence. Kind of like putting a bag of candy into either an empty bag or into a bag that already has a bag of pretzels in it.

[ChancyRat]

Nesting is simply taking a sequence from the media panel and putting it into a newly created or existing sequence. Kind of like putting a bag of candy into either an empty bag or into a bag that already has a bag of pretzels in it.

Sorry I'm still not understanding. All I have ever done in PE7 was add clips to the timeline and edit accordingly. Clips line up next to each other, or on tracks above, in parallel and simultaneously. So what is "nesting". Maybe I should ask, how exactly do you do it?

[Bob]

A sequence is a time line. Premiere Elements can only have one sequence and that's what you are used to working with. Premiere Pro can have many sequences. To create a new sequence, right click on the project panel, select New Item then Sequence. You will get the sequence type dialog just like the one you got when you first set up your project. Select the type of sequence you want.

new-sequence.jpg

Creating a new sequence this way adds a new tab to the time line window. By default, the newly created sequence tab will be selected and you will see a blank time line. Go back to the project panel and locate the original sequence. It will probably be named Sequence 01 if you haven't changed it. Drag it down to the timeline and drop it in as if it were a normal video clip. You have now nested the original sequence into the new sequence. You can now use it like any other video clip and apply effects to it. If you need to go back into the original sequence to edit it more, simply select the other tab in the timeline window. When it comes time to export the finished video, select the sequence you want to export and then export as usual.

[Bob]

On adjustment layers, it seems from an efficiency standpoint that using an adjustment layer is easier. Are you saying never to use them? Or - when would I switch to them instead of effects on clips?

No, I'm not saying don't use them, they can be very useful. Adjustment layers are new to version CS6. They only affect layers beneath them in the stacking order, so you can do things with them that would be much more complicated to do with nested sequences. They won't replace nested sequences for all uses, but there are a lot of situations that in previous versions would have used a nested sequence that will now be handled easily with an adjustment layer.

In theory, you should be able to apply the warp stabilizer to an adjustment layer, but I have experienced problems doing that -- I've even had crashes. I've personally had no problems when I applied the warp stabilizer to a nested sequence. That could be a local issue with my system, your experience may differ. But, it wouldn't hurt to do a test to see how it behaves on your system. If there is no difference between the adjustment layer and nested sequence methods and no problems encountered, go ahead and use the adjustment layer.

Normally, the warp stabilizer would be applied to directly to the original footage in the timeline.

[ChancyRat]

Go back to the project panel and locate the original sequence. It will probably be named Sequence 01 if you haven't changed it. Drag it down to the timeline and drop it in as if it were a normal video clip. You have now nested the original sequence into the new sequence. You can now use it like any other video clip and apply effects to it. If you need to go back into the original sequence to edit it more, simply select the other tab in the timeline window. When it comes time to export the finished video, select the sequence you want to export and then export as usual.

Thank you for the explanation. Is this like having multiple versions open at the same time? You can edit in one, and if you make mistakes or have problems, you can switch to the other sequence and forget the ones you don't like? Or like partitioning a video, you work on one segment on one sequence, another segment on another sequence, and then when you've got all your "parts" complete, you can drag them each into another blank sequence, lined up sequentially? Or do they have to overlap because they all have to start at zero on the timeline? I take it you only export one sequence in the end, so the rest are just project work spaces? In my limited use of PE7, I found one timeline to be sufficient but I would like to know what I'm missing with this capability.

[Bob]

Sequences are independent of each other. In pe7, you only have one sequence per project -- so it's like having multiple pe7 projects. In pe7, if you wanted to use all or part of one project in another project, you would need to export that project and import the exported clip into the other project. In Premiere Pro, both sequences are in the same project so you don't need to render or export in order to use one in the other -- simply drag and drop.

You can use multiple sequences in many ways. For example, you can create "sub-clips" that you assemble into a master clip. Or, you can make alternate versions with different edits. Here's another example. Say you have a wide screen 16:9 format video that you want to make into both a 16:9 widescreen version and a 4:3 full frame version. You could export the 4:3 version as letterboxed, but it might be better if you nested the 16:9 sequence into the 4:3 sequence and then keyframe it to show the portions of the image that are most important. This technique was often used in commercial dvds. Ever notice how new commercials start out long and over the life of the ad campaign the commercials become shorter with portions removed or re-edited? This can be planned from the beginning. The full commercial can be one sequence. You can create a new sequence for each alternate version. To save time, the full original sequence can be nested into one of the new sequences where you can cut, trim, rearrange, etc. so you don't need to start from scratch.

You can export any of the sequences you want. You aren't limited to just one.

[momoffduty]

To add what Bob posted, if you have sequence 1 nested in sequence 2 and re-edit sequence 1 then those re-edits will be updated in sequence 2.

I've used the nested for many reasons. One example is in sequence 1 I have a photo smaller than than the video size on track 2 and on track 1 I have a solid color to serve as the photo frame. I nest sequence 1 inside sequence 2 and keyframe animation with scale, position and rotation. Later on I don't like the color of the solid for the the frame, so I go back to sequence 1 to change the solid color. That change is updated in sequence 2.

[ChancyRat]

Thanks guys!