The Insane Power of the Morph Cut in Premiere Pro CC

Looking to create the best interview videos ever? The Morph Cut Transition in Premiere Pro CC is THE transition that will allow you to make jumpcut transitions look perfect and seamless. It’s almost like magic. Check out this tutorial and see how I use it and some of what you need to avoid doing if you’re looking to create the best Morph Cuts. It’s a newer technological feature of Premiere Pro, but as it improves, you’re definitely going to want to be onboard with this awesomely powerful little transition.

Make Your Cut & Drag and Drop the Morph Cut

As you edit your video, find the transitions that have more of the traditional jumpcut where the head/face movement of your subject is noticeable. These transitions are usually the best to be used with the Morph Cut. Go to the Effects panel and go Video Transitions>Dissolve>Morph Cut. Drag it out and drop it right on that transition. I usually like to grab either edge of the transition and drag it inward to make it a little shorter in duration and a little more snappy. Give Premiere a minute or so to analyze the shot and create the best morph cut it can.

Previewing & Smooth Playback Trick

To get a true-blue preview without choppiness or lag, place and In and Out point on either side of the morph cut area (there should be a thin red bar above it) by selecting near the beginning of the morph cut in the yellow and hitting the letter “I” and then select in the yellow area right after the morph cut and press “O”. Now go Sequence>Render In to Out and Premiere will churn for a moment and then you will be able to watch through your Morph Cut without any lag or jumpiness.

Things to Avoid for a Better Morph Cut

It’s pretty simple. Shots of a single person from bottom of the rib-cage (or higher) and up where they don’t move much and are shot over a background that is still and doesn’t change in light very much are the best of the best shots. In general you want to avoid four things:

1. Subject moving too much or “talking with their hands”.
2. Having more than one person in frame.
3. Camera movement. (Lock your camera down on a tripod!)
4. Movement, light, or color changes in your background.

Any of those four things can cause the Morph Cut Transition to return less-than-flattering results. As this technology improves, hopefully it will be able to correct some of these shortcomings, but for now, when and where the Morph Cut is good, it’s great! Check out the video above for all the details and my thoughts on this amazing little feature.

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