Learn how to use AI-powered Object Masking in Adobe Premiere (beta) to isolate and track subjects for effects and color corrections.

Masking in Premiere (beta) allows you to isolate specific areas of your footage to apply effects, color corrections, or blur elements selectively. These tools are designed to streamline your editing workflow, enabling you to accomplish complex tasks without leaving your editing environment to use After Effects.

Object Mask

The Object Mask tool uses AI to automatically identify objects and people in your footage. With a single click, you can select and isolate an object, then track it throughout your shot. This is particularly useful for:

• Blurring faces for privacy protection
• Applying color corrections to specific objects
• Creating selective effects that follow moving subjects

Selecting an object or a person

You can start selecting an object by selecting the Object Mask Tool from the toolbar and hovering over the Program Monitor. All the prominent objects that can be selected will be highlighted. You can select any of them by simply clicking on them.

If an object you want isn't automatically highlighted, you can use the Rectangle or Lasso tool to roughly draw around it. The model will then detect the object within the drawn area and select it for you.

There are three ways to select an object or a person for the Object Mask:

• Hover and click
• Draw around with a Rectangle
• Draw around with a Lasso

Mask data storage

Object Mask relies on mask data that can get quite large in size. Storing this directly within the project file could significantly impact its size and performance. To ensure smooth operation and efficient storage, the mask data will be saved externally, in a dedicated folder located next to your project file. The folder will be named <Project Name> Masks for easy identification and management.

The corresponding mask folder must be present for the masks to be accessible within the project. When moving or sharing your project, please ensure you also move the mask folder along with the project file.

If the project’s mask folder cannot be found, the Object Masks will be marked as offline and will not be available for use. This will affect only Object Masks and will not impact other types of masks.

Mask Quality Feedback

You can give feedback on the quality of the object selection they have created by selecting the Provide Feedback icon next to each Object Mask in the Effect Controls panel. This will help us keep improving. You can answer if the quality of the mask was good or bad, and give us some reasons for the same.

Mask Refinement

You can add or subtract objects or portions of objects from the mask using the + and – buttons. The + and – modifiers can be temporarily toggled with the option or alt modifier key. In this way, you can quickly add and subtract from the Object Mask to correct it. The selection process is the same as the initial selection.

• To add or remove full objects that are highlighted, simply click on the object.
• To add or remove sections of the object or person, you can draw a rectangle or lasso around the desired area. The model will detect the section and apply the change accordingly.

Shape masks

These are the traditional hand-drawn masks you are accustomed to. They use Bezier drawing like other Adobe apps, such as After Effects and Illustrator. 

Ellipse Mask Tool

The Ellipse Mask Tool creates ovals and circles. Hold Shift while dragging to create a perfect circle. By default, the Ellipse Mask Tool has a bounding box that allows you to scale, stretch, squash, and rotate. Since ellipses are overwhelmingly used in color grading faces, this is the right choice for the ellipse. Double-click on the Ellipse Mask Tool to exit bounding box mode and get to the individual points. You may adjust the point just like any other Bezier shape.

Rectangle Mask Tool

Drag to create an unconstrained rectangle. Hold Shift to create a perfect square. By default, rectangles are created not in bounding box mode. You can immediately start editing the individual points. Since rectangular objects in video are rarely perfectly square due to perspective, having immediate access to the point is most often the right choice. Double-click to enable bounding box mode.

Pen Mask Tool

The Pen Mask Tool can be used to create irregular shapes with as many points as you need. Click to create a control point.  Click and drag to create a curve. Click on the starting point again to close the shape. A complete mask must have at least three points. You can also use the Pen Mask Tool to add or remove control points from masks created with the other vector mask tools.

You can only use the Pen Mask Tool to create new masks, but the Pen Graphics Tool can also be used to edit mask points.

Bounding box

The new bounding box is a convenient way to scale and rotate any Vector mask. Double-click to enter or exit bounding box mode. You can drag the sides or the corners. Hold the shift modifier to constrain proportions.

Refining and combining masks

Object masks and vector masks have the same refinement controls.

It softens the edge of the mask. You can adjust this from the Effect Controls panel or, in the case of vector masks, from the UI in the Program Monitor.

It controls how transparent the mask is. This is useful to dial in the strength of the mask.

It can grow or shrink the mask. This is especially useful on Object Masks to help clean up the edge. Shrinking by a few pixels can often remove an unwanted fringe. 

It switches the mask from add to subtract. Think of it as switching from “keep this area” to “get rid of this area.”

It combines the masks together. Any number of Object Masks and Vector Masks can be combined to create complex masks. The Blend Mode of a mask operates on the full result of all the masks that came above it in the stack.  

Mask overlay

The mask overlay is a semitransparent shaded area that fills in the inside of the mask. This is a visual aid to help you judge where the mask is. There are six colors to choose from (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow) as well as black and white, which shows the alpha. Different colors are useful if the predominant color in the content you are masking is the same color as the overlay, and it’s hard to distinguish. Set the Overlay to None to turn off the overlay entirely if the overlay is obscuring your ability to judge the effect you are working.

Direct manipulation toggle

Use this tool to enter and exit direct manipulation mode. In other words, turn on and off the on-screen controls for things you can directly interact with in Program Monitor. This goes beyond masking. Select the chevron   icon to toggle open the list of each item that has direct manipulation controls. This is contextual to the currently selected clip.