Miniaturize the action in your footage by adding a tilt-shift effect in Adobe Premiere Pro.
What you'll need
This sample file is an Adobe Stock asset you can use to practice what you learn in this tutorial. If you want to use the sample file beyond this tutorial, you can purchase a license on Adobe Stock. Check out the ReadMe file in the folder for the terms that apply to your use of this sample file. Any reference to “The Nicest Neighbors” is for demonstration purposes only and is not intended to refer to any actual organization, products, services, or creative work.
By mimicking the tilt-shift effect produced by cameras with perspective-control lenses, you can make normally photographed objects appear tiny, as if they’re a scaled-down model.
Starting in the Editing workspace, import your footage into a new project and create a new sequence from it. Choose File > New > Color Matte to create a new color matte. Click OK in the New Color Matte dialog box. Pick any color (other than black) and click OK. Accept the default name and click OK. Drag the color matte from the Project panel to the track above the footage in the sequence. Trim its length to match the footage.
With the color matte selected in the sequence, open the Effect Controls panel (Shift+5) and click the rectangle icon under Opacity to add an opacity mask. Expand the mask so it spans the width of the viewable area. Lasso-select either end of the default mask so you can drag its corner points in unison. Hold Shift down while dragging to constrain the motion horizontally. Increase the Mask Feather and Mask Expansion values substantially and then click the Inverted option.
Right-click the color matte clip and choose Nest. Accept the default Nested Sequence Name and click OK. Drag your footage to the track above the now-green nested sequence clip. Open the Effects panel (Shift+7) and apply the Compound Blur effect to the footage. In the Effect Controls panel, set Blur Layer to target the nested clip below it (probably V2). Reduce the default Maximum Blur value by half, depending on what makes sense for your scene. In the Motion section, increase the Scale value very slightly (102%) so the opacity mask’s color doesn’t show through at the edges.
Now it appears as though you’re looking at a model set rather than flying over a real-life scene. For best effect, speed up your footage by 200% (right-click it and choose Speed/Duration). Trim the nested sequence to match your new footage length.
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