Video editors can click and drag to change the point of view the editing window is looking from, giving them the ability to check their footage from a variety of perspectives. Exported files will be recognized as VR-compatible when uploaded to sites like YouTube or Facebook. A video showing off the VR editing features, above, gives customers an idea of what this will look all like.
There’s also support for previewing stereoscopic VR footage, which uses the left and right eyes to create a 3D effect. Desktop users can’t see that effect at their desk, but support for old-school blue and red glasses offers an approximation while editing.
Virtual reality video is a relatively young but growing segment of the online video market. Viewers are free to turn their heads in such videos, looking wherever they please, which is immersive but poses a challenge for video editors. Adobe adding support for editing and exporting such footage gives would-be creators more options.
Sites like YouTube and Facebook already offer virtual reality videos, viewable on devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. There are also more affordable options. In November The New York Times distributed Google Cardboard headsets, which use a smartphone as a screen, to all subscribers free of charge so they could watch a collection of immersive documentary videos.
The virtual reality editor isn’t the only new feature coming to Premier Pro. Here’s a quick rundown.
- Easy proxy creation: Instead of editing 4K video directly, which can take up a lot of processing power, editors can quickly create a downscaled “proxy” file to work in. Switching between the proxy files and the full-resolution footage takes only a few clicks.
- New keyboard shortcuts: Editors should be happy about new keyboard shortcuts for adding, adjusting, and navigating keyframes, as well as zooming in and out on frames.
- More choices for captioning: Control the font, color, size, and position of text. There’s also now support for Arabic and Hebrew subtitles.
- Enhanced Lumetric color tools: HSL secondaries let editors precisely isolate and adjust specific colors. There’s also single-click white balance.
- Export to Twitter: Premier already supported exporting to Youtube, Facebook, and Vimeo; now Twitter is also supported.
The updates are all outlined in a press release, which you can check out if you want to learn more. We couldn’t find a release date for the new features, but this being Creative Cloud all updates will be pushed out automatically to subscribers.
