Premiere Pro 14.0 Update: Auto Reframe Among the Top New Features

Premiere Pro 18/11/2019 5 min read

Premiere Pro 2020 is finally here, and over the last couple of weeks, video editors everywhere have been trying out the new Premiere Pro update. Now we’ve had a bit of time to play with it, does the latest version live up to expectations? Let’s find out what there is to get excited about.

Part 1: What’s New in Premiere Pro 2020?

The new Adobe Premiere Pro update has plenty of things to talk about, but there’s one new feature that will dramatically affect your workflow: auto reframe. There are plenty of behind the scenes upgrades to improve your video editing experience, but they may be less noticeable. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

1. Auto Reframe

Premiere Pro Update Auto Reframe

Auto reframe is the biggest change in this update. You’ll find this feature in the Media Browser if you right-click on a sequence and find the option: Auto Reframe Sequence

Auto reframe has the potential to speed up the editing process for every project you work on. How often is an edit locked, only for you to then have to create endless versions in different formats? The auto reframe function automatically converts a sequence into a square (1:1), vertical (9:16 or 4:5), or a custom aspect ratio. It’s powered by Adobe Sensei AI to read what it perceives to be the most important feature of the frame and reframe the sequence based on that composition.

Although it’s a nice way of quickly converting sequences to different formats for use on social media, the AI still might not completely understand why an editor has cut something in a certain way. But it does create a long series of keyframes to keep the frame moving in the right way, and these can be manually moved around. 

Even though the AI isn’t always 100% accurate to what you had in mind, it speeds things up hugely and gives you the opportunity to perfect it. It’s a really exciting sense of where the technology might lead us in the future, and it’s a great time saver if you’re publishing a lot of social content.

2. Graphics and Text Enhancements

Premiere Pro update graphics and text

Adobe has boosted the ability of the Essential Graphics panel. While there’s nothing groundbreaking here, there are some pleasant improvements to the existing capabilities. 

You’re now able to rename shape and clip layers directly inside the Essential Graphics panel and underline text. Designers who build templates in After Effects will be happy to see the option for multi-line text fields and drop-down menus. Overall there are some additional keyboard shortcuts to play with, including reordering layers, selecting layers, and adding text.

In general, none of these features have reinvented the wheel, so those of you looking for a radical overhaul of the system will be disappointed. But the features do each contribute a little bit to speeding up and simplifying the post-production workflow.

3. Audio Enhancements

Premiere Pro update audio

The audio enhancements in Premiere Pro 14.0 should be welcomed with open arms. The range of audio faders was increased to +15db, which should help your sound mixes massively. Across the board, the audio effects have been re-engineered to streamline workflows for multi-channel projects. 

The accuracy of the Loudness Radar has been improved to make it easier for you to meet broadcast standards, which is good news for TV editors wanting to stay in Premiere Pro for longer to do their project mastering.

So again, the minor improvements may be disappointing for those hoping for fundamental changes, but they won’t go unnoticed.

4. Time Remapping to 20,000%

Premiere Pro update time remapping

This is a very useful one. The maximum speed for time remapping has been increased to 20,000%, so editors are no longer limited by the length of source clips to create time-lapses.

This is a substantially larger increase from 1,000%, which was the previous restriction. The only downside is the time it takes to drag the cursor all the way to 20,000—but that’s a small price to pay!

5. Behind the Scenes

Premiere Pro update HDR10

We’ve covered the main ones worth mentioning (that will visibly affect your workflow), but there are plenty of tweaks to the back-end of the program. More drivers audited in the System Compatibility Report, and you can export HDR content with HDR10 metadata.

The HDR10 inclusion is an exciting one to bring your videos up to date with HDR10-enabled screens. This is going to make videos look the best they can be as HDR content becomes the norm over the next few years.

Part 2: Getting Started with Auto Reframe

Auto reframe aspect ratio

Auto Reframe is the feature that will likely have the biggest noticeable impact on your editing. You can automatically convert sequences to different formats, and Adobe’s AI will align the composition based on what it perceives to be the important part of the frame. Here’s how to get started with Adobe’s Auto Reframe.

Before you can auto reframe anything, you need to have a sequence prepared. Auto reframe is best for when your 16:9 sequence is locked, and all you need to do is change the aspect ratio.

  1. In the Media Browser, right-click on your sequence and select Auto Reframe Sequence.
  2. Name your new sequence. It’s probably easiest to name it something related to the new ratio (square, vertical, etc.) or its intended platform to be shared on (Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
  3. Under Aspect Ratio, hit the drop-down menu and choose the aspect ratio you’d like. Square (1:1). Vertical (4:5 or 9:16), Horizontal (16:9), or a custom ratio of your choosing.
  4. Hit Analyze.
  5. It should automatically recognize the subject in the frame and apply a series of keyframes to keep the subject central. But you can manually adjust the keyframes if the AI has identified the wrong part of the frame to focus on.
  6. You can apply Auto Reframe to individual clips as well as entire sequences.

And that’s it! The latest Premiere Pro update isn’t going to change the world of editing or need you to re-learn all of the software, but it does include enough features to noticeably speed up your post-production workflow and make your life just a little bit easier! What do you think of the Premiere Pro 14.0 version? Let us know in the comments below!