PhotoTools 2 and Video - How To
April 28, 2009 by Mike Wong • Comments Off
I recently had a question come in through the blog about how to use PhotoTools 2 to add an effect to video. While I wouldn't recommend using Photoshop as your primary video editing tool, it is a pretty easy, if not time-consuming, way to enhance video footage if you have Photoshop CS3 Extended or Photoshop CS4 Extended. Here's how you do it.
First - you need to have at least three things.
- Photoshop CS3 Extended or Photoshop CS4 Extended
- PhotoTools 2 Standard or PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition
- A video file that you wish to edit that can be opened in Photoshop CS3/4 Extended
The following video formats are supported in Photoshop CS3/4 Extended (sources: here and here):
- MPEG-1
- MPEG-4
- MOV
- AVI
- FLV from QuickTime is supported if you have Adobe Flash 8 installed.
- MPEG‑2 is supported if an MPEG‑2 encoder is installed on your computer.
Next, in Photoshop, open your video file and then open (if it isn't already) the Animation window from the Window menu.
The next thing to do is to define your Work Area. This is the area of the video that you want to apply the effects to. Move the play head to the first frame that you want to start applying an effect to. Then from the palette menu (that little triangle facing down next to the four lines), choose Set Start of Work Area.
Move the playhead to the last frame and then from the menu choose Set End of Work Area.
Next, move your playhead anywhere inside the work area and then launch PhotoTools 2 (Standard Edition or Professional Edition).
Choose the effect or effects and click the Apply button. When you do, you'll see the following dialog box from PhotoTools 2.
Click the button Apply to all Frames. Depending on the effect and the length of your work area, this can take some time. I did this on a 30 second clip (1920 x 1080 HD) that used several different effects in the PhotoTools 2 stack once and it took about 40 minutes. Yes, that is a bit of time, but the alternative is to spend a bunch of money on effects filters made for your preferred video editing application. This may or may not be an option and your willingness to be patient while Photoshop renders the effect and your video will probably influence your decision to do this kind of thing.
Once the effect has been applied to your video, you'll see a new layer in the Animation palette.
You're almost there. You now just need to render the video back out. To do this go to the File menu and choose Export > Render Video.
There you go. That's how you can apply a PhotoTools 2 effect to video in Photoshop CS3 or CS4 Extended.