Garbage Matte in Premiere CC: A Beginner's Guide

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A garbage matte is a fundamental tool used in video editing to isolate specific parts of an image or clip. It can be particularly useful when working with footage that contains unwanted elements, such as distracting backgrounds, objects in the shot you don't want to keep, or even entire sections of the frame.

In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of creating a simple garbage matte using Adobe Premiere CC (CC stands for Creative Cloud). While there are more complex applications and uses for this technique beyond what's covered here, understanding these basic principles will lay the groundwork for tackling more advanced projects later on down the line with ease.

What is a Garbage Matte?

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In essence, a garbage matte refers to any area of an image or clip that you want to remove. This could be anything from unwanted objects in frame (hence 'garbage') all the way up through entire layers within your composition if needed.

To begin our example let's first create two new color mattes: one called 'light blue' and another named simply 'dark blue.' These will serve as our basic tools for isolating specific areas of interest later on during post-production work with Premiere CC.

1. Create a New Project in Adobe Premiere CC

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Open up Adobe Premiere CC and create a new project by going to File > New > Project... (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N on Windows or Command + Option + Return on Mac).

In the 'Project Settings' dialog box, select HD 1080p24 from the dropdown menu under 'HD'. Name your project something descriptive like 'Garbage Matte Tutorial'.

2. Import Your Footage

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Once you've created a new project in Premiere CC, it's time to import some footage for our tutorial. Go to File > Import (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + I on Windows or Command + Shift + C on Mac) and select your desired video file format (.MP4,. MOV etc.). In this case, we'll be using a simple MP4 clip with a solid white background.

3. Create Color Mattes

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Now that you've imported your footage into Premiere CC, let's create our three color mattes:

* Go to Window > Effect Controls (or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + / on Windows or Command + Option + Shift + />).

* In the 'Effect Controls' panel, double-click anywhere inside it to reveal a list of available effects.

* Underneath 'Video Effects', expand out the 'Color & Grading' category and then click-and-drag both 'Solid Color 1' and ' Solid Color 2' onto your timeline.

4. Apply Color Mattes

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With our three color mattes now visible in Premiere's timeline, let's apply them to our footage:

* Double-click on the first solid white matte (this should automatically be named Layer 1) to bring up its properties panel.

* In this panel, under 'Common', select 'Solid Color' from the dropdown menu next to 'Mode'.

* Choose a light blue color for your fill and hit OK.

Repeat steps 3-4 above but with these changes:

* For the second solid white matte (now called Layer 2), choose dark blue as its fill instead.

* Rename this layer something descriptive like 'Dark Blue Fill'.

5. Apply Color Grading to Your Footage

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Now that we have our three color mattes applied, let's add some basic color grading effects to enhance the overall look and feel of our footage:

* Select both your light blue (Layer 1) and dark blue (Layer 2) fill layers in Premiere's timeline by holding down Ctrl + Shift on Windows or Command + Option while clicking directly on them.

* Go up to Window > Effect Controls again and double-click anywhere within the 'Effect Controls' panel to reveal a list of available effects.

In this case, we'll apply some basic color correction using Adobe CC's built-in Color Grading tools:

1. Underneath 'Color & Grating', expand out the 'Color Wheels' category.

2. Click-and-durrry both 'Saturation' and 'Hue vs. Sat.' onto your light blue fill layer (Layer 1).

3. In the 'Effect Controls' panel, adjust these sliders to taste in order to desaturate the middle section of our image while maintaining its overall brightness.

Repeat steps A-C above but with these changes:

* Apply a similar color grading effect using Adobe CC's Lumetri Color Grading tools instead:

+ Underneath 'Color & Grating', expand out the 'Lumetri' category.

+ Click-and-durrry both 'Exposure' and 'Contrast' onto your dark blue fill layer (Layer 2).

* In the 'Effect Controls' panel, adjust these sliders to darken and contrast our footage accordingly.

6. Composite Your Footage

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With all of our color grading effects applied, let's finally composite our footage together:

1. Go back up one level in Premiere CC's timeline by clicking on the little house icon at the top left corner of your workspace.

2. In this main timeline panel, select both Layer 1 (Light Blue Fill) and Layer 2 (Dark Blue Fill).

3. Right-click anywhere within these selected layers to reveal a context menu with several options for merging them together.

For our purposes here, we'll choose 'Merge Selected Layers into One' from the dropdown list:

This will combine all three of your fill layers – light blue, dark blue, and white – into one single layer called 'Composite 1'. You should now see an image that closely resembles what you wanted to achieve with this tutorial: a simple garbage matte applied using Premiere CC's built-in color grading tools.

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And there you have it! With these basic steps outlined above, you've learned how to create and apply a simple garbage matte in Adobe Premiere CC. Of course, as mentioned earlier, the possibilities for using this technique extend far beyond what we covered here – but hopefully, this tutorial has provided a solid foundation upon which you can build more complex projects later down the line.

Remember that practice makes perfect; so don't be afraid to experiment with different color grading effects and techniques in Premiere CC until you feel comfortable working within its powerful (if sometimes daunting) interface. Happy editing!