VR editing in Premiere Pro

To edit 360° or 180° video, make sure your system meets the system requirements.

Premiere Pro offers support for viewing VR video (both 360° or 180°) in the Monitor panels. It also detects if the clip or sequence has VR properties and automatically configures the VR viewer accordingly. You can publish VR video directly to the web from Premiere Pro to sites such as YouTube or Facebook. 

Premiere Pro can detect if the clip or sequence has VR properties and automatically configures the VR viewer accordingly.

To determine if a clip has VR properties assigned to it:

Interpret VR footage

You would want to interpret the VR footage when:

• VR Properties are not present on a clip that is VR
• The VR Projection, VR Layout, and VR Captured View properties are present but have incorrect values assigned.

To interpret VR footage, follow these steps:

VR assignments

VR properties are assigned to clips when VR properties get written into the clip's metadata when it was created. If no VR properties are assigned, then there are no VR properties in the metadata associated with the clips. However, based on frame dimensions, the importer detects that it's a VR clip and interprets it as follows:

• If the frame size dimensions are 1:1, the clip is interpreted to be Stereoscopic over/under VR. 
• If the dimensions are 2:1, the clip is interpreted as Monoscopic VR.
• If the dimensions are 4:1, the clip is interpreted as Stereoscopic side-by-side VR.
  

Assign VR properties to sequences

To determine if a sequence has VR properties assigned to it, select the Sequence Settings screen from the Sequence menu when it is open in the Timeline panel. The Source and Program Monitor Settings options for VR Video remain disabled when a sequence that does not have VR properties is viewed.

To assign VR properties to a VR sequence, select Sequence Settings > VR Properties, and then do one of the following:

Create a sequence from a clip that already has VR properties

Create a sequence that includes VR properties

To create a sequence that includes the VR properties, select New Sequence Settings > VR Properties, and then specify the VR settings.

Add VR properties to an existing sequence

When sequences have VR properties associated with them, they are viewed in either the Source Monitor or the Program Monitor. The Monitor Settings menu shows the available options for VR Video available (not dimmed out).

Hide VR video view controls

The VR view available in the Source and Program Monitors displays scroll bars and hot-text controls for changing pan and tilt, along with a dial that supports continual pan of the VR view. You can also turn off the display of these controls if you want to maximize the video display area in Source and Program monitors.

Settings

The VR properties on clips and sequences are automatically configured in Export Settings when the export Format is set to H264, HEVC, or QuickTime. You can view these Export Settings in the bottom of the Video options in the VR Video section. You can also change the settings here.

360-degree panning

Use the dial at the bottom for 360-degree continuous panning, which indicates the direction of view. 

To center the view, double click within the video frame. Use either of these methods to change the view interactively during playback and while the video is paused. To return to the normal monitor display, open the Monitor Settings menu and deselect the Enable option for VR Video. 

To toggle between enabling and disabling your VR Video display use the button which can be docked with the monitor’s playback buttons. To open the button editor, click the up arrow available the lower right corner of the monitor. Drag the Toggle VR Video Display button out of the editor and move it into the monitor panel to the desired location. This button helps toggle between the normal monitor display and VR Video display.

Add immersive video effects and transitions

Premiere Pro comes with several immersive video effects and transitions that you can use for your immersive videos. You can find these effects here: Video Effects > Immersive Video and Video Transitions > Immersive Video.

Here is a list of the effects and transitions that are available.

Three-axis video rotation

You can also mix and match different resolutions and stereoscopic/monoscopic layouts in the same sequence. When you mix various equirectangular VR clips into a sequence, some match the resolution and match the stereoscopic layout while some do not. Use the VR Projection effect and choose the appropriate layout and video to properly fill the frame. In addition, you may need to correct the zero angle because of improper camera placement or subject matter focus. You can correct this by choosing to rotate the video using pan, roll, and tilt controls.

You can also play this rotation back in real time, when doing this ensure that GPU acceleration is turned on. 

Assembling Ambisonics Audio

Used by enthusiasts, Ambisonics is a full-sphere surround sound technique that allows users to cover sound sources above and below the listener in addition to the horizontal plane. Unlike other multichannel surround formats, its transmission channels do not carry speaker signals. Instead, they contain a speaker-independent representation of a sound field called B-format, which is then decoded to the listener's speaker setup. This extra step allows the producer to think in terms of source directions rather than loudspeaker positions, and offers the listener a considerable degree of flexibility as to the layout and number of speakers used for playback.

You can assemble Ambisonics audio along with 360 video to create an immersive experience. To check for proper alignment, you would need to monitor the Ambisonics audio as you change its orientation. The audio media could be contained in separate audio files, often in uncompressed WAV using PCM encoding, but they could also be contained in MP4 using AAC encoding. 

Considerations when using Ambisonics Audio

• When you are importing multichannel mono media, import it as adaptive track audio.
• VR sequence presets are available under either the Audio Track Mixer or in the Audio Effects folder located under the Audio Effects panel.
• When you are exporting media, select Export Settings > H.264 > VR Ambisonics (choose any setting under Ambisonics as required) 

Monitoring Ambisonics audio

You can use Premiere Pro to import Ambisonics media and accurately monitor it spatially using a pair of headphones. 

Restage correctly aligned video and audio

You can also reorient both the video and audio spheres to the appropriate spatial location.  

Publish VR videos

To publish your VR Video on websites such as YouTube and Facebook:

Video: VR Video Workflow

Learn how to work with VR media directly, including stereo media, to edit sequences, apply special effects, and output 360-degree projects tagged properly for media players.

(Watch, 5 min)