How I Animate Archival Images in Premiere Pro
For the past five months, I’ve been editing the first hour of a four-part series on veterans in America, and the project has changed how I zoom in on images.
Previously, I would set a keyframe at the beginning and end of an image, increasing the size of the latter by 10 percent. This would make the photograph zoom in over the course of its duration.
The problem here is that although the image increases in size, its center remains the focal point, and in most instances, the dead center of a photo is not where the most important content lies. For example, if there’s a person in the image, you’ll probably want to zoom in on their eyes.
To do this in Premiere Pro, do the following:
- Open the Effects Control panel.
- Place a Scale keyframe at the beginning and end of the image. Increase the scale attribute of the latter keyframe.
You’ll notice as you zoom in, the image will rise on the vertical axis. So you’ll need to:
3. Place a Position keyframe at the start and end of your photo.
4. As the image size increases, bring the image down by increasing the Y coordinate. (That’s the right-side number of the position coordinates in Premiere Pro.)
An easy way to make sure that the subject’s eyes stay on the same plane is to place a sticky note across them at the beginning of the photo, then move the playhead to the out-point. Next, lower the vertical coordinate to make sure the eyes stay on the edge of the note. That way, they’ll seem to stay in place as the image zooms inward.
The resulting animation is simple and elegant.
