In this video I want to talk to you about using proxy files in Premiere Pro CC.
This is a great way in order to speed up workflow
if you're working with, in particular, 4K files
and you feel like your system just can't really handle it
and it starts lagging
using proxy fiels is definitely a great way to get around that
and to speed up that workflow.
If you've already imported footage and you want to covert the footage into proxy files
I'll show you how to do that.
But if you're importing footage and you want to convert the files into proxy files upon import
then you can also do that and that's what I'll start with.
So, if you are in your media browser
you will see that you've got this Ingest selection
and also a Settings icon.
So if you click on the settings
then you'll be presented with a dialog box.
You will have a General, Scratch Disc, and Ingest Settings tab.
Just select Ingest and you'll have four options.
What you want is Create Proxies.
Once you've selected that, Presets will become available
and you can select what quality of footage you want to convert to.
So I tend to go with 1280x720 H.264
and basically what it's doing iscreating lower resolution versions of
the footage that you import or that you've already imported
so that you can work easier with it
and your system isn't going to create any lag when you're trying to play back the footage in Premiere.
So, I'm just going to select this one
and I keep the proxy destionation the same as the project
so wherever your Premiere Pro file is
that's where your proxy files will be
and it will be appended with _Proxy.
One of the things that I did read in an article - I'll find it and put it in the description -
is that, if you put the proxy files in the same directory as the original footage files
there can be some confusion between the two
so it's best to keep them completely separate.
So, I'm going to select OK
and you'll see now that Ingest has been selected.
So if I go ahead and pull in any of these clips
I'll go for this one
I'm just going to drag it into my footage folder.
As soon as I import that
Media Encoder will open and start converting the footage.
And you can see it's working its way to converting that footage now.
If you're in Premiere and you want to keep working
you can still keep working with the file and
and this will just carry on in the background
so it doesn't stop you from continuing to do any edits.
Once it's finished that means that the proxy file is available.
So, I'll just head back over to Premiere
and there's nothing that you'll be able to see in Premiere itself
it hasn't imported the file
but it has made a link with the footage so that it's linking to the proxy file.
So, if you go to your projects panel and right click
select Meta Display
and in here, I'm just going to type 'Proxy'
because there's a setting that will allow you to know whether
a piece of footage is linked to a proxy file.
So, I'm just going to select this, hit OK
and then I should have - there.
So if there's no proxy attached -
I'm just going to switch off Ingest and pull in a nother piece of footage
just so that you can see the difference.
So here, there's nothing attached, no proxy attached.
But this file, the one I imported earlier
that has a proxy attached to it
and that's how you can tell if there's a proxy attached or not.
So, I'm going to pull the footage that has the proxy attached,
onto my timeline so that I can create a sequence.
It's created a sequence here for me I'm just going to put it in this folder.
So now this is still the original footage
and I'll show you how you can now start to use the proxy file.
If you go to the Source Monitor and click Button Editor
you'll see you've got all these icons.
The proxy one is this one and this is what toggles proxies on and off.
All you have to do is drag it down and put it alonside all the other icons that you have.
Click OK and it's there.
Click on it, it will turn blue, and that will show that you are now using the proxy.
If I just switch it off again
and try and scrub through this - this is a 4K piece of footage by the way
this was shot on the DJI Phantom 3 Professional.
I'm going to scrub through this
and you can see it's very jerky
it's not playing back smoothly at all.
Another way that I can tell that this is not going to smooth playback
is by this little circle.
It's yellow at the moment and if it's green
that means that we have smooth playback
and that's essentially want we want.
So I'm going to switch proxies on
and I'm going to try and scrub through again.
I still may have problems but hopefully it's a lot smoother.
But it's still skipping some frames.
Another way that you could get around that
is by changing the playback quality.
So I have this at full quality
again we're still using the proxy so it's playing back at 720p
but I can take it down to half quality playback
and I can scrub through.
Again, it's still a little bit jerky
but if I actually play it through
then it's completely smooth.
I have none of the chugging that I had before.
If you want to work with a file that you've already imported
and it has no proxy attached
all you have to do is right click
select Proxy, and Create Proxies.
The dialog box will open
you'll choose your format and you'll choose your preset.
Again, I'm going to go with 1280x720.
Make sure that your destination is set to your project
so wherever your Premiere Pro file resides.
Select OK.
Head over to Media Encoder and it's started rendering out that proxy file for you.
So. there it's finished, we'll head back over to Premiere
and you can see now that we have a proxy attached.
So that's pretty much all you need to do in order to use proxies.
Thanks for checking out this video.
If it was useful, hit the Like button
and I'm going to be doing more of these videos.
I'm always using Premiere so anything that some asks in a group
I'll try and create a video for it.
So subscribe if you want to see more of these
and I'll see you on the next video.