Create a Countdown in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

A countdown is a great way to help show the passage of time. It can be used in sports videos, a compilation video, or really anything that is time dependent. Sadly this necessary feature isn’t as straight forward as some of the other effects. So today, I am going to show you How to Create a Countdown in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Create a Countdown in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

• Create a transparent video by going up to file->new transparent video.- Drag the transparent video on to the timeline, adjust length to desired length.- Go to Effects, grab “Timecode”, drag and drop onto transparent video.- Go up to effect controls. From the Timecode controls lower the opacity down to 0.- Turn off field symbol with the checkbox.- Go to Timecode source –set to generate.- Go to time display set to default which in my case is 24. (if you do change, make sure it matches your sequence settings or your time will be off)- We only want to see minutes and seconds Create mask on time code and use it to cut the sides off OR- Search for crop effect and drag over, adjust left crop to and right crop to cut the right and left side off.
• Now we need to reverse the timer to make it a countdown.- Right click on the transparent video and go to “nest”. This will create it’s own sequence.- Now right click on the new nested sequence, go to speed duration, and click the “reverse speed” button.- To adjust the color of text –go to effects, click on tint, drag it onto the nested sequence, then you will be able to change color- If you’d like to adjust the time (where it starts) drag footage out longer, or use the offset in the timecode.

There you have it, that is how you create a countdown in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. With just a few effects and a little cropping we can create a countdown that should work for any scenario.

Other Premiere Pro Tutorials:

• RGB Glitch Effect- Whip Pan Transition- Quickly Edit Footage to a Beat