Premiere Pro · Cutting and the timeline
How to make slow motion in Premiere Pro
Short answer
Shoot at a higher frame rate, then slow the clip to the sequence rate. Right-click the clip, choose Modify > Interpret Footage, and set Assume this frame rate to the sequence rate, such as 23.976.
In Premiere Pro
01
Check the clip's frame rate
In the Project panel, the Frame Rate column shows what the clip was shot at. 60 or 120 fps footage gives the smoothest slow motion.
02
Interpret the footage
Right-click the clip in the Project panel, choose Modify > Interpret Footage, and set Assume this frame rate to your sequence's rate. A 60 fps clip in a 23.976 sequence plays at about 40% speed with every frame used.
03
Or set a speed
For a clip already in the timeline, open Speed/Duration (Cmd+R or Ctrl+R) and set the speed below 100%.
04
Smooth it
In Speed/Duration, set Time Interpolation to Optical Flow to generate in-between frames, or Frame Blending for a softer look.
05
Render and check
Press Enter (Return on Mac) to render the clip, then play it back and watch for warping around moving edges.
- Optical Flow works best on simple motion. Busy backgrounds and crossing objects tear.
Eddie AI
Do it in Eddie
Eddie slows shots down and ramps into slow motion when you ask.
Ask "Slow this shot to half speed" or "Ramp into slow motion as she jumps." Eddie won't ramp a shot while someone is talking unless you insist. The speed change carries into the Premiere export as a real speed change on the clip.
Back to Premiere
Open the edit, click Export and choose Premiere. You get a Premiere project (.prproj) or the older Premiere XML. In the desktop app, Send to Premiere Pro builds the edit inside Premiere through Eddie's panel, which the app installs for you.
If you imported the footage through the desktop app, the timeline points at your original camera files, so Premiere relinks to them. If you uploaded on the web or pulled from cloud storage, it points at Eddie's proxy media; relink to those, not to the camera originals.
From the help center
Questions
- What frame rate should I shoot for slow motion?
- 60 fps gives 40% slow motion in a 24 fps sequence. 120 fps gives 20%.
- Why does Optical Flow look warped?
- It guesses frames between real ones and fails on complex motion. Try Frame Sampling or Frame Blending instead.