Picture in a Picture

We work with several layers in Premiere Elements when we want to display multiple clips at the same time in our video, or when we want to display a clip with a different background.
The first time I spoke about this to you was in Lesson 8, when I talked about the effect mask.

A second example is to display different clips at the same time.
We use the “picture in picture” effect.

The first thing you need to do is to place the different clips each in a separate video track.
In this example I have 3 layers with three different clips.
The clip in the lower layer “Video 1” is used as a wallpaper, so here nothing is changed.
In the two upper layers I add the “Picture in Picture” effect.
For this I select the upper layer in the Timeline (1). This is the first layer, or clip which I apply the effect to.
I click the “Edit” (2) pane, and select “Effects” (3).
Then I select the “Presets” option (4), under this option because I find all the different “picture in picture effects.”
In this example I select the effect “BIB 40% RB in turning”. This will be turning in this clip from the background clip to 40% of its size. It does not matter what effect you choose, as long as it ends in a smaller version than your background clip.

Then I select the second video track and apply the same effect.
Of course I change the position of this effect, I could not do this if this clip ends at the same place as the previous clip, because the latter would no longer be seen.
You can do this though, by using the options to modify this effect (1), or dragging the position of the point of this effect in the monitor (2).

The result after rendering and video playback is shown.

Transparent Background

When we have a clip with a solid background color placed in the timeline above another clip (1), Premiere will ask us whether he should apply a merge video on this clip.
If you answered “Yes” (2), Premiere will make the solid background color of the parent clip, transparent (3).
If you want some other editing of this Video Merge effect you can change it in the editor pane (4), but I still have a green border (A) around my picture so I find it better.

Instead of the selecting “Yes” in the “Video Merge” dialog box, I select “No”.
This places the video clip of our lady above the clouds.
I open the “Effects” tab under “Edit”, and then click and drag the effect “Key green screen” on the clip in the monitor (1).
This effect is specially designed for the application of transparent skins with a predominant green background color.
If you have a clip where blue is most common in the background, select “Key bluescreen”, which is quite logical.
If you have a clip where you want to remove a certain color, use the “Chroma Key” effect.

 

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