Step-by-Step Guide to Creating an Animation Preset

Making an animation preset in Premiere Pro allows you to save combinations of effects and their keyframes to quickly reuse them on different clips.

Animation presets in Premiere Pro are a powerful tool for saving time and ensuring consistency across your video projects. Instead of manually applying and keyframing effects like position, scale, rotation, or opacity every time, you can create a preset and apply it with a single click.

Here's how to create one:

1. Apply Effects and Create Animation: Start by applying the effects and setting the keyframes on a clip in your sequence to achieve the animation you want to save. This could involve parameters from the basic Motion controls (Position, Scale, Rotation, Anchor Point, Opacity) or any other video effects.
2. Open Effect Controls: Select the clip with the applied effects and keyframes. Go to the Effect Controls panel (Window > Effect Controls).
3. Select Effects: In the Effect Controls panel, locate the effects you wish to include in your preset. Select the Motion effect (and any other effects you used to create the animation). You can select multiple effects by holding down the Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (macOS) key while clicking.
4. Save Preset: Right-click on the selected effect(s) and choose Save Preset.
5. Name and Configure Preset: A Save Preset dialog box will appear.
   • Give your preset a descriptive name.
   • In the Save Preset dialog box, choose a type to set the way keyframe timing will be configured for new clips. This is crucial for how the preset behaves when applied to clips of different lengths or starting points.
   • Add an optional description.
6. Confirm: Click OK or Save.

Your new preset will now appear in the Presets bin within the Effects panel, ready to be applied to any clip by dragging and dropping it onto the clip.

Understanding Preset Types

The "type" you choose in the Save Preset dialog box determines how the keyframes you saved will relate to the clip you apply the preset to. This handles timing differences between your original clip and the new one.

Here are the main types:

Preset Type	Description	Best Used For
Scale	Preserves the relative timing between keyframes by scaling them proportionally to the length of the clip the preset is applied to.	Animations that should happen over the entire duration of any clip.
Anchor to In Point	Anchors the first keyframe to the start (In Point) of the clip and maintains the absolute time difference between keyframes.	Intro animations that should start immediately on a clip.
Anchor to Out Point	Anchors the last keyframe to the end (Out Point) of the clip and maintains the absolute time difference between keyframes.	Outro animations that should finish at the end of a clip.

Choosing the correct type ensures your animation scales or aligns correctly regardless of the target clip's duration.

Tips for Effective Preset Creation

• Keep it Focused: Create presets for specific actions (e.g., "Scale Up Intro," "Fade Out Lower Third").
• Organize: Use bins within the Effects panel's Presets folder to categorize your custom presets.
• Test: Always test your new preset on different clips to ensure the chosen preset type (Scale, Anchor to In Point, Anchor to Out Point) works as expected.
• Include All Relevant Effects: Make sure to select all the effects and properties involved in your animation when saving the preset.

By following these steps, you can efficiently create and manage custom animation presets in Premiere Pro, significantly speeding up your editing workflow.