5 free Premiere Pro glitch presets (DIY tips and tutorial)

Premiere Pro comes jam-packed with everything you need to make fun custom effects. With a little creativity, you can simulate a glitch in your footage, transitions, and titles in just a few minutes. In this tutorial, you’ll learn quick and easy ways to produce custom glitch effects in Premiere Pro.

If you use them intentionally, they can make your video feel spooky, high-tech, and cool. So, let’s dive in to learn how to achieve this funky look.

Part 1: 5 free glitch presets from Motion Array

Motion Array likes to give our readers lots of free stuff. We make many graphic elements for After Effects, but here’s a set of glitch effects for Premiere Pro to mix things up. They’re perfect for editors after a little something extra in their workflow.

If you’re looking for even more awesome additions for your toolkit, you can also explore Motion Array’s 5 Premiere Pro native plugins, designed as a drag-and-drop transition solution.

Glitch presets in Premiere Pro

Now, on to our favorite free Premiere Pro glitch presets. Simply drop the presets on a photo, video, or text element to add digital noise to your shot. These are perfect for title sequences, transitioning from scene to scene, or breaking things up a little.

Download Free Glitch Presets Premiere Pro Now

Then, take them for a spin yourself. They’re completely free to download and, as always, you can use them for personal or commercial projects. Although they’re simple to use, Motion Array has also created a video tutorial on installing Premiere Pro presets to help.

Part 2: How to glitch your footage 

Do you want something more personal? You can manually create various fantastic glitches in your footage using Premiere Pro’s built-in tools. The strobing glitch effect you’ll create below uses flickering, distorted images. It works well in small bursts throughout your clip or before a transition. You can even loop glitch effects in Premiere Pro.

Because the glitch jumps without a pattern, it can create a sense of unease in the viewer. This makes it ideal for horror themes. It also shows upset, pain, and worry exceptionally well. While Oppenheimer created its glitches without CGI, the glitch effect is used brilliantly to show the main character’s rising distress and instability.

It’s also an effect associated with sci-fi and ‘techy’ content, making things look futuristic. Don’t let that prevent you from trying creative glitch transitions for Premiere Pro in your branding or presentations, though. Due to that association, they can be a clean, modern, and eye-catching effect for marketing videos, promos, and presentations.

Step 1: Add your footage to the timeline

If you’ve already begun editing your project, skip this step. Otherwise, follow the instructions below to get started.

1. Set up your project and sequence.
2. In the Project panel, import the footage you want to include.
3. Drag your footage into the timeline.

You’re now ready to create your first glitch effect in Premiere Pro.

Step 2: Cut out frames from your footage

The essence of glitch effects is their short bursts of randomness. So, choose a small section of your footage and cut out individual frames to be glitched. Overall, try to keep your glitch less than 1 second long. Any dramatic effect is best used lightly to keep the impact strong.

1. Choose which part of your footage to glitch, and zoom in on the Timeline.
2. Using the Razor tool, cut out several frames in succession.
3. Now switch to the Selection tool and delete some of the frames.

Step 3: Add effects to remaining frames

If you preview your project, you should see a strobe effect from the removed frames. You can add effects to the remaining frames to make this more glitchy.

1. Hold Alt and drag up the remaining frames using the Selection tool to create a copy. 
2. Select one of the new copied frames and reduce its Opacity to 50% in the Effect Controls panel. 
3. Adjust the Position or Scale of the image.
4. Repeat the previous steps with each of the remaining frames in your Timeline.
5. Experiment with adding different effects to these frames. Try Arithmetic to modify RGB color channels to get started.

Now move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline and press Space Bar to check out your new glitch effect! If you’d like to make adjustments, keep changing the effects settings until you’re happy with the results.

Part 3: Make your text glitchy

Sometimes, static text is crucial for your project. It can look boring, though. Adding occasional glitch effects in Premiere Pro is a great way to make things interesting! Completing the steps below should only take a few minutes and can improve the production value of an otherwise bland title. You can use it for spooky Halloween titles, visual impact, or anything else you like.

Step 1: Format your text

Before you glitch your titles, you’ll want to finalize the content and formatting, as these will be very difficult to change later.

1. Using the Text tool, add your text.
2. You can adjust formatting in the Effect Controls panel, such as size, font, and alignment. 
3. Finally, ensure your text is positioned correctly and the anchor point is directly centered.

Step 2: Copy your text and add effects

You can be creative and experiment with different effects if you like. Below, we’ll walk you through how to create glitches with the Wave Warp effect. There are plenty of other exciting looks you can play with, too. The same basic steps will apply, so don’t hold back.

1. Duplicate your text layer by holding Alt and dragging it up to the next track.
2. A copy of your text should appear above your original. This will be the layer you modify for the glitch effect.
3. Search for Wave Warp in the Effects tab and drag that effect to your new text track.
4. In the Effect Controls panel under Wave Warp, change the Wave Type to Square.

Step 3: Adjust effects for each portion of glitchy text

Sudden, jarring transitions in your text create a realistic glitch effect. Now that you’ve made a second text layer and added the Wave Warp effect, it’s time to slice it into pieces. You will then adjust the effects on each piece.

1. Cut small sections out of your glitch text layer using the Razor tool.
2. Make sure you’re zoomed in close to the timeline. Each of these cuts should only be 1 or 2 frames long!
3. Switch to the Selection tool and select one of the clips you created.
4. You can adjust the Wave Height, Width, and Direction properties in the Effect Controls panel under Wave Warp. We recommend always adjusting the Direction by multiples of 90. 
5. Repeat Step 3 for each small clip in your glitch text layer. You can also try adjusting the Scale of some of the clips. 
6. To prevent duplicate images, return to the original text layer in the timeline, use the Razor tool, and remove any portion under the glitch text. Also, delete any extra text left in the glitch layer.

If you preview your text, your edits should combine to form a glitchy effect. You can repeat this effect in different places, such as when new text appears on-screen or just before cutting away to video footage.

Part 4: Add sound to enhance the glitch effect in Premiere Pro

Half of all video is audio, so don’t forget to add sound effects when you glitch! You can find a static sound file or other glitchy noises in Motion Array’s catalog.

1. Import the sound file into your Project panel. 
2. Drag the sound effect into the timeline.
3. Trim it so it begins and ends with your glitch effect.

You can use this trick to add sound to any text, transition, or glitch effect in Premiere Pro. You can also layer different sounds on top of one another for unique results!

Part 5: Create your own glitch transitions

If you’re using a glitch theme in your video project, then glitch transitions will fit right in. Below, you’ll learn how to make a glitch transition using RGB Shift. This simulates the Chromatic Aberration effect associated with faulty displays.

Step 1: Load your clips into the timeline

If you’re already editing your project, you can move on to Step 2. Otherwise, follow the instructions below to get started. 

1. Import the video clips you’d like to include into the Project panel.
2. Drag them into your timeline in the order you’d like them to appear.
3. Make sure they’re on the same video track. 
4. Adjust the length and position of the clips for your transition.

Step 2: Add an adjustment layer over the transition point

Adding an Adjustment Layer to a new track allows you to include and animate glitch transition effects. These will span across both clips in your transition. Working with Adjustment Layers this way ensures you can roll back things you don’t like and don’t have to do twice the work.

1. Select the Project panel. Go to File > New > Adjustment Layer. 
2. Drag your new adjustment layer into the Timeline. Position it so it’s centered above the 2 clips. 
3. Adjust the beginning and end points of your adjustment layer. They should be about 0.5–1 second long and centered over the meeting point. 
4. Search for Channel Mixer in the Effects tab. Drag that effect to the adjustment layer in your Timeline to add it.

Pro Tip: Ensure you add Channel Mixer from Video Effects, not Audio Effects.

1. Search for Transform and add that effect to your adjustment layer. 

With your adjustment layer selected, change the Opacity Blend Mode to Lighten in the Effect Controls panel.

Step 3: Duplicate your adjustment layer

You’ll use these adjustment layers to isolate the red, green, and blue from your video clips. To make the transition, you’ll shift their positions. Duplicating the adjustment layer allows you to modify each color channel independently. RGB shifts can be used for other things too, like text animation.

1. Hold Alt and drag your adjustment layer up to create a copy.
2. Repeat this step until you have 3 adjustment layers stacked on top of one another.
3. Select one of the adjustment layers then, in the Effect Controls panel under the Channel Mixer effect, adjust Red-Red to 0. Do the same for Green-Green, leaving only Blue-Blue at 100.
4. Repeat the above step for each adjustment layer, but change the color so that you have one red, green, and blue adjustment layer.

Step 4: Add keyframes to your adjustment layers

Having separated the color channels in the previous step, now you’ll shift their positions using keyframes to create the RGB Shift effect.

1. With one of your adjustment layers selected, in the Effect Controls panel under Transform, create a Position keyframe at the beginning, middle, and end of the clip.
2. Adjust the Position attribute for the middle keyframe, but leave the other 2 the same.
3. Repeat the above 2 steps for each adjustment layer, moving the Position attribute in different directions. 
4. You should see your video’s red, green, and blue channels separate from one another in the Program Monitor.

Step 5: Adding bursts of static 

Add short bursts of static with the Noise effect to make this transition even more glitchy. Again, you’ll create a new Adjustment Layer and cut it into single frames.

1. Find Noise in the Effects tab and drag it to your new adjustment layer. 
2. In the Effect Controls panel, adjust the Noise to 100%.
3. Zoom in close with the Timeline and cut out several single frames across the duration of your transition.
4. You can also add Wave Warp to some of the frames.
5. Select and delete all the remaining portions of your adjustment layer so you have a few Noise frames throughout your transition.

Step 6: Scale up to avoid black edges

You may have noticed black edges around your video while adjusting the Transform Position of your adjustment layers in Step 4. You’ll need to zoom in by scaling up everything a few percent to fix this.

1. Create a new adjustment layer and drag it onto your Timeline above your previous adjustment layers.
2. Stretch this adjustment layer so it covers both video clips.
3. Add the Transform effect to the adjustment layer.
4. Increase the Scale until the black edges are no longer visible during the transition.

This RGB shift is just one of many glitch effects in Premiere Pro you can use for your transitions. You can also apply the custom glitch effects from earlier in this tutorial to create new types of glitch transitions. 

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Whether you’d like to download a premade Premiere Pro glitch preset or build your own glitches from scratch, you now have the skills you need. Glitches are a great way to animate text, enhance transitions, or add production value to your footage. If you’re looking for other fun tutorials, Motion Array has plenty for you to explore.