User Guide Cancel

Morph Cut in Premiere Pro

  1. Adobe Premiere Pro User Guide
  2. Beta releases
    1. Beta Program Overview
    2. Premiere Pro Beta Home
    3. Beta features
      1. New Spectrum UI
      2. Color management system
  3. Getting started
    1. Get started with Adobe Premiere Pro
    2. What's new in Premiere Pro
    3. Best practices for updating Premiere Pro
    4. Keyboard shortcuts in Premiere Pro
    5. Accessibility in Premiere Pro
    6. Frequently asked questions
    7. Release notes
  4. Hardware and operating system requirements
    1. Hardware recommendations
    2. System requirements
    3. GPU and GPU Driver requirements
    4. GPU Accelerated Rendering & Hardware Encoding/Decoding
  5. Creating projects
    1. Start a new project
    2. Open projects
    3. Move and delete projects
    4. Work with multiple open projects
    5. Work with Project Shortcuts
    6. Backward compatibility of Premiere Pro projects
    7. Open and edit Premiere Rush projects in Premiere Pro
    8. Best Practices: Create your own project templates
  6. Workspaces and workflows
    1. Workspaces
    2. Import and export FAQs
    3. Working with Panels
    4. Windows touch and gesture controls
    5. Use Premiere Pro in a dual-monitor setup
  7. Frame.io
    1. Install and activate Frame.io
    2. Use Frame.io with Premiere Pro and After Effects
    3. Integrate Adobe Workfront and Frame.io
    4. Share for review with Frame.io
    5. Invite collaborators to co-edit a project
    6. Frequently asked questions
  8. Import media
    1. Importing
      1. Transfer files
      2. Importing still images
      3. Importing digital audio
    2. Importing from Avid or Final Cut
      1. Importing AAF project files from Avid Media Composer
      2. Importing XML project files from Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro X
    3. File formats
      1. Supported file formats
      2. Support for Blackmagic RAW
    4. Working with timecode
  9. Editing
    1. Edit video
    2. Sequences
      1. Create and change sequences
      2. Set In and Out points in the Source Monitor
      3. Add clips to sequences
      4. Rearrange and move clips
      5. Find, select, and group clips in a sequence
      6. Remove clips from a sequence
      7. Change sequence settings
      8. Edit from sequences loaded into the Source Monitor
      9. Simplify sequences
      10. Rendering and previewing sequences
      11. Working with markers
      12. Add markers to clips
      13. Create markers in Effect Controls panel
      14. Set default marker colors
      15. Find, move, and delete markers
      16. Show or hide markers by color
      17. View marker comments
      18. Copy and paste sequence markers
      19. Sharing markers with After Effects
      20. Source patching and track targeting
      21. Scene edit detection
    3. Cut and trim clips
      1. Split or cut clips
      2. Trim clips
      3. Edit in Trim mode
      4. Perform J cuts and L cuts
      5. Create and play clips
      6. Adjust Trimming and Playback preferences
    4. Video
      1. Synchronizing audio and video with Merge Clips
      2. Render and replace media
      3. Undo, history, and events
      4. Freeze and hold frames
      5. Working with aspect ratios
    5. Audio
      1. Overview of audio in Premiere Pro
      2. Edit audio clips in the Source Monitor
      3. Audio Track Mixer
      4. Adjusting volume levels
      5. Edit, repair, and improve audio using Essential Sound panel
      6. Enhance Speech
      7. Enhance Speech FAQs
      8. Audio Category Tagging
      9. Automatically duck audio
      10. Remix audio
      11. Monitor clip volume and pan using Audio Clip Mixer
      12. Audio balancing and panning
      13. Advanced Audio - Submixes, downmixing, and routing
      14. Audio effects and transitions
      15. Working with audio transitions
      16. Apply effects to audio
      17. Measure audio using the Loudness Radar effect
      18. Recording audio mixes
      19. Editing audio in the timeline
      20. Audio channel mapping in Premiere Pro
      21. Use Adobe Stock audio in Premiere Pro
    6. Text-Based Editing
      1. Text-Based Editing
      2. Text-Based Editing FAQs
    7. Advanced editing
      1. Multi-camera editing workflow
      2. Editing VR
    8. Best Practices
      1. Best Practices: Mix audio faster
      2. Best Practices: Editing efficiently
      3. Editing workflows for feature films
  10. Video Effects and Transitions
    1. Overview of video effects and transitions
    2. Effects
      1. Types of effects in Premiere Pro
      2. Apply and remove effects
      3. Use FX badges
      4. Effect presets
      5. Metadata effect in Premiere Pro
      6. Automatically reframe video for different social media channels
      7. Color correction effects
      8. Effects Manager
      9. Change duration and speed of clips
      10. Adjustment Layers
      11. Stabilize footage
    3. Transitions
      1. Applying transitions in Premiere Pro
      2. Modifying and customizing transitions
      3. Morph Cut
  11. Titles, Graphics, and Captions    
    1. Overview of the Essential Graphics panel
    2. Graphics and Titles
      1. Create a title
      2. Linked and Track Styles
      3. Working with style browser
    3. Graphics
      1. Create a shape
      2. Draw with the Pen tool
      3. Align and distribute objects
      4. Change the appearance of text and shapes
      5. Apply gradients
      6. Add Responsive Design features to your graphics
      7. Install and use Motion Graphics templates
      8. Replace images or videos in Motion Graphics templates
      9. Use data-driven Motion Graphics templates
    4. Captions
      1. Speech to Text
      2. Download language packs for transcription
      3. Working with captions
      4. Check spelling and Find and Replace
      5. Export text
      6. Speech to Text FAQs
    5. Best Practices: Faster graphics workflows
    6. Retiring the Legacy Titler FAQs
    7. Upgrade Legacy titles to Source Graphics
  12. Fonts and emojis
    1. Color fonts
    2. Emojis
  13. Animation and Keyframing
    1. Adding, navigating, and setting keyframes
    2. Animating effects
    3. Use Motion effect to edit and animate clips
    4. Optimize keyframe automation
    5. Moving and copying keyframes
    6. Viewing and adjusting effects and keyframes
  14. Compositing
    1. Compositing, alpha channels, and adjusting clip opacity
    2. Masking and tracking
    3. Blending modes
  15. Color Correction and Grading
    1. Overview: Color workflows in Premiere Pro
    2. Color Settings
    3. Auto Color
    4. Get creative with color using Lumetri looks
    5. Adjust color using RGB and Hue Saturation Curves
    6. Correct and match colors between shots
    7. Using HSL Secondary controls in the Lumetri Color panel
    8. Create vignettes
    9. Looks and LUTs
    10. Lumetri scopes
    11. Display Color Management
    12. Timeline tone mapping
    13. HDR for broadcasters
    14. Enable DirectX HDR support
  16. Exporting media
    1. Export video
    2. Export Preset Manager
    3. Workflow and overview for exporting
    4. Quick export
    5. Exporting for the Web and mobile devices
    6. Export a still image
    7. Exporting projects for other applications
    8. Exporting OMF files for Pro Tools
    9. Export to Panasonic P2 format
    10. Export settings
      1. Export settings reference
      2. Basic Video Settings
      3. Encoding Settings
    11. Best Practices: Export faster
  17. Collaborative editing
    1. Collaboration in Premiere Pro
    2. Get started with collaborative video editing
    3. Create Team Projects
    4. Add and manage media in Team Projects
    5. Invite and manage collaborators
    6. Share and manage changes with collaborators
    7. View auto saves and versions of Team Projects
    8. Manage Team Projects
    9. Linked Team Projects
    10. Frequently asked questions
  18. Long form and Episodic workflows
    1. Long Form and Episodic Workflow Guide
    2. Using Productions
    3. How clips work across projects in a Production
    4. Best Practices: Working with Productions
  19. Working with other Adobe applications
    1. After Effects and Photoshop
    2. Dynamic Link
    3. Audition
    4. Prelude
  20. Organizing and Managing Assets
    1. Working in the Project panel
    2. Organize assets in the Project panel
    3. Playing assets
    4. Search assets
    5. Creative Cloud Libraries
    6. Sync Settings in Premiere Pro
    7. Consolidate, transcode, and archive projects
    8. Managing metadata
    9. Best Practices
      1. Best Practices: Learning from broadcast production
      2. Best Practices: Working with native formats
  21. Improving Performance and Troubleshooting
    1. Set preferences
    2. Reset and restore preferences
    3. Recovery Mode
    4. Working with Proxies
      1. Proxy overview
      2. Ingest and Proxy Workflow
    5. Check if your system is compatible with Premiere Pro
    6. Premiere Pro for Apple silicon
    7. Eliminate flicker
    8. Interlacing and field order
    9. Smart rendering
    10. Control surface support
    11. Best Practices: Working with native formats
    12. Knowledge Base
      1. Known issues
      2. Fixed issues
      3. Fix Premiere Pro crash issues
      4. Unable to migrate settings after updating Premiere Pro
      5. Green and pink video in Premiere Pro or Premiere Rush
      6. How do I manage the Media Cache in Premiere Pro?
      7. Fix errors when rendering or exporting
      8. Troubleshoot issues related to playback and performance in Premiere Pro
  22. Extensions and plugins
    1. Installing plugins and extensions in Premiere Pro
    2. Latest plugins from third-party developers
  23. Video and audio streaming
    1. Secure Reliable Transport (SRT)
  24. Monitoring Assets and Offline Media
    1. Monitoring assets
      1. Using the Source Monitor and Program Monitor
      2. Using the Reference Monitor
    2. Offline media
      1. Working with offline clips
      2. Creating clips for offline editing
      3. Relinking offline media

Morph Cut is a video transition in Premiere Pro that helps you create more polished interviews by smoothing out jump cuts between sound bites.

A common challenge that comes with editing footage with a "talking head" is that the subject can stutter, make frequent use of "umms", "uhs", or unwanted pauses. All of which keep you from having a clean, continuous sequence without the use of jump cuts or cross dissolves.

Now, you can effectively clean interview dialog by removing unwanted portions of a clip and then apply the Morph Cut video transition to smooth out distracting jump cuts. You can also use Morph Cut to effectively rearrange clips in your interview footage to ensure a smooth flow without any jumps in visual continuity.

Morph Cut uses an advanced combination of face tracking and optical flow interpolation to create a seamless transition between clips. When used effectively, a Morph Cut transition can be so seamless that it looks as natural as shooting the video without unwanted pauses or words that can break the narrative flow.

Apply Morph Cut

  Important: For best results, apply Morph Cut to fixed shots that have a single talking head and a static background.

  1. Set In and Out points on the Timeline to select the part of the clip that you want to remove.

    You can remove clips from your sequence in different ways, like lift and extract, delete, and ripple-delete. To see how you can do it in different ways, see this video tutorial.

    Repeat this step for all portions of the clip that you want to remove.

  2. In the Effects panel, choose Video Transitions > Dissolve > Morph Cut and drag the effect to the edit point between clips in the Timeline.

    Note:

    To avoid lip sync problems, apply Morph Cut between places where the last or first words of the speech peak. You can also use audio waveforms to help identify areas with a natural pause and make your cuts there.

  3. After you apply the Morph Cut effect, analysis of the clip begins immediately in the background. As analysis begins, an "Analyzing in background" banner displays within the Program Monitor indicating that analysis is occurring.

    You are free to work with the footage or elsewhere in the project while the analysis occurs.  

    Clip analysis after you apply Morph Cut

    After analysis is complete, a symmetrical transition is created, centered at the edit point. The transition duration matches the default of 30 frames specified for Video Transition Default Duration. You can change the default duration using the Preferences dialog.

    Note:

    A typical transition duration that works well is about 10-20 frames.

    If the lip movements and voice are not exactly in sync or the results are not satisfactory, change the In and Out points or adjust the duration of the transition.

    Note:

    Every time you make changes to a selected Morph Cut, or even undo a change, Premiere Pro retriggers a new analysis. However, you don't need to delete any previously analyzed data.   

Fine-tune transition

When you apply Morph Cut, a transition is created using default settings. You can fine-tune the transition using the Effect Controls panel or Timeline.

Modify transition using Effect Controls panel

The following controls in the Effect Controls panel help you adjust the duration of the transition and align it accurately.

Duration

The default duration of a video transition is 30 frames.

To change the default transition before applying a transition, use the Preferences dialog. In the General section, enter a new default for Video Transition Default Duration.

To change the duration of a transition after applying a transition, enter a new duration in the Duration field in the Effect Controls panel.

Alignment

Aligns the transition to be automatically centered on the edit point between the two clips with the Center At Cut option selected.

For finer control, you can drag the transition slightly left or right in the Effect Controls Timeline. Premiere Pro then creates an asymmetrical transition that is not centered on the edit point.

For more information on modifying transitions using the Effect Controls panel, see Modifying and customizing transitions.

Modify transition using the Timeline

Note:

Zoom into the Timeline so that you can clearly see the transition.

Duration

To change the duration of the transition, double-click the transition in a Timeline panel and enter the new duration in the Set Transition Duration dialog.

You can also lengthen or shorten the transition by dragging the edges of the transition as desired.

FAQ

No. When you apply Morph Cut to a clip that does not contain a talking head, you see a failure message that says "Analysis Failure: Couldn't find face in input video".

Morph Cut can be applied only on fixed shots that contain a well-framed talking head against a static background.

Applying Morph Cut to more than one talking head results in a blotchy frame.

Morph Cut uses a face tracker to analyze video footage and find the most prominent face in the video. If there are multiple faces, it can confuse the face tracker and result in Morph Cut blending one face with the other in the transition. This can cause a blotchy frame, which is best avoided.

Morph Cut works best on a static background. If there is more than one background to analyze, the result is a blotchy frame. However, you can have minimum background movement, like a tree blowing in the wind.

Morph Cut is designed to seamlessly transition between two similar shots. Given this focus, Morph Cut may not look right when applied to a clip that has different effects applied on both sides of the edit point.  

Here are some tips that can help you get good results:

  • Morph Cut works best with shorter transitions and similar head placement on either end of the cut.
  • Morph Cut performs best if there are few hand or face movements to interpolate.
  • After the initial application of Morph Cut, adjust the duration and symmetry of the transition as needed.

For a complete list of best practices, see this article.

More like this

 Adobe

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Adobe MAX 2024

Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Adobe MAX

The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Adobe MAX 2024

Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

Adobe MAX

The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online