Adobe Premiere: how to create a clock that 
displays minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds.

  Here is a receipe on how to create your own custom time-display for use in your movies. The typcal applications for this would be:

• Give your client a rough edit of your movie on tape or on a CD with a time overlay. Client uses this as a reference for comments.
• Imitate sports broadcasts or game shows that needs a time display.
• Scientific or educational purposes.

Overview

  Use Premiere to assemble several 'counting' movies into one. The numbers themselves are created as stills in a graphic app. Firstly a tenth of seconds movie is created by assembling ten stills of the numbers 0 - 9, each still lasting for ... one tenth of a second. Then a seconds-counting movie is made from the numbers 0 - 59, with each still lasting for one second. The procedure is repeated with each still now lasting for one minute, ending up with a one hour movie. Lastly one adds 'hours' if needed. You now have two, three or four movies to combine into one. How many 'counters' you create and combine depends on if you need tenths of seconds and/or hours too in addtion to seconds and minutes. The more experienced Premiere user may even skip the rest, as I've already given so many clues as to what to do. Others may follow along into a slightly cumbersome but rewarding affair. The reward is twofold: you get your own custom design all the way (impress your friends!), and you learn to know Premiere that much better.

An example of a totally custom Time-display 
that can be made with the receipe.

 The real lazy ones can actually download a finished clock H:M:S (it's not the one above!) from here. It's only 1.5 mB, but be warned that the download doesn't always work. Maybe I should get another ISP - or are you just punished for being so lazy?

  Before you proceed, what do you actually get? The result is a smallish video file to overlay any of your own videos. It will be a quite long clip, so you typically chop it's tail off at the end of your project. Be aware that any 'realtime' functionality in most systems is lost, as your entire project now must be rendered before export to tape, but this is true for any type of overlay you make. As for now, the only alternative we have is to create a clock by ourselves from scratch since Premiere doesn't offer any automatic setup, and only a selected few hardware solutions can 'burn' timecode on the finished result without going this route.

Let's go...

1. Decide on dimensions. In this project (minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds) the resulting clock will be 300 x 100 pixels, (three times 100 x 100 graphics) but you can use anything. The numbers given later for 'motion' settings will however only apply to a 300 x 100 setting.
   
2. About half of the work is done in Photoshop, or any graphics app with Layers. Create a document the size of 100 x 100 pixels (height= full project height, width = project width / 3). Then create a stack of numbers from 00 up to 59. Yes that will be sixty layers, thank you... You may want to add a background colour layer too, as I have done here. However you shouldn't do that if you want a clock with the digits only overlaid on the video. Anyway; alignment is important here, or else the digits will jump when counting (but 'jumping' can be an intentional effect too). Then every layer needs to be saved out separately. When using a background I prefer the .bmp format (.pict on the Mac?), for transparent background you can use 32-bit TIF or PSD (native Photoshop). Every file must be named sequentially. A simple 00.bmp, 01.bmp, 02.bmp is perfect. Yes this is tedious, but at least you'll only do this sequence once. As for font type & size, you are completely in charge, but allow some space around the numbers (left side, right side), as you will add a colon between the min:sec:tenth numbers and possibly a frame around the finished clock at the end. By the way: The frame- and colon graphic needs to be full project size; i.e. 300 wide. Use a transparent background for them if this is possible in your app. It will give the best result when overlaying in Premiere. 

    

Creating the tenths-of-seconds counter. 
This will be a one second movie, repeated over an over. 

3. Open Premiere, and go straight to Preferences. Under 'General and Still image', select the default duration for Stills to one (1) frame. Close Premiere. (The best way to make Premiere remember it's new preferences settings is by closing and opening.)
   
4. Open Premiere again, and select a project setting that is typical 'Multimedia'. Avi or QuickTime doesn't matter. Anyway you must immediately change your project settings: video frame size will be 100 x 100, and frame rate must be 10 fps. The resulting finished Clock-movie will also be 10 fps, but it's no problem for Premiere to use this in later movies running at for instance 25 fps (PAL) or 30 fps (NTSC). The clock speed will still be correct!
   
5. In the Timeline, select one of the highest magnifications, like '4 frames'. Import the BMP-files with numbers from 00 to 09. Select them all, and drag to the TimeLine. They will line up nicely behind eachother. Drag the time-marker from start to end, and see that you have a counter now, going from 00 to 09. Export this movie, preferably uncompressed. It's only one second, so the file won't be big at all. (Export settings must be similar to project settings, i.e. 10 fps, size 100 x 100.)
   On Transparency
   Please note that if you're creting this project using tranparent graphics, you must render to a video format that is 32 bits, also called  'millions +', to maintain transparency throughout. You could also key out the background colour as the last thing you do in the finished file.

Creating the seconds counter.
Again we will manipulate preferences. Each still will last for one second this time.

6. In Preferences, under 'General and Still image', select the default duration for Stills to ten (10) frames. Close Premiere.
   
7. Open Premiere. Project settings should be the same as for the previous movie. Set the Timeline to a magnification of like '2 seconds'. Import the entire numbers sequence, from 00 to 59. Select them all (select the first picture, hold down Shift, scroll, click on the last picture), and drag to the Timeline. Drag the Time-marker to ensure that you indeed have a counter from 00 to 59 now. Export this movie as above, uncompressed.

Creating the minutes counter.
This is very similar to the two previous steps.

8. In Preferences, under 'General and Still image', select the default duration for Stills to six hundred (600) frames. You want each digit to last for one minute; 60 seconds, and since we work with 10 frames per second here, one minute equals 60 seconds x 10 frames per second = 600 frames. Close Premiere.
   
9. Open Premiere. Project settings should be the same as for the previous movie. Set the Timeline to one of the medium magnifications, like '20 seconds'. How long does your clock need to be? It's up to you. If you need one hour or more you must import the entire numbers sequence from 00 to 59. If you only need to display this clock for say three minutes, import only 00, 01 and 02. Select all the number-files you need (if you have many, select the first picture, hold down Shift, scroll, click on the last picture), and drag them as a group to the Timeline. That's all. Export this movie uncompressed or with as little compression as possible.

Combine the seconds- and tenth of seconds counters into one movie.
A one minute main building block

10. Start a new project and change project settings to be 200 pixels wide. Everything else is the same. Import the 'tenths' and the 'seconds' movies you made earlier. Place the 'seconds' movie on the timeline on track V2 (important!), and the 'tenths' movie below it. Drag the latter to the Timeline several times, so that you have a group of 4-6 Clips. Be absolutely sure that you have no gaps between these (you use the 'Snap to edges' function of course). Change the Arrow tool to the Black-arrow-inside-box tool. Select the group with it, and Copy. Switch to the ordinary arrow-only tool, and Paste repeatedly until you have a total of 60 Clips of the 'tenths' movie. This should align perfectly with the start and end of the single 'seconds' movie which stretches out above it.
      You will probably have seen now that your 'seconds' movie is distorted and covers the entire view in the Monitor window. Right click the single long 'seconds' clip in the Timeline, and select 'Video options / Maintain Aspect Ratio'. Right-click once more on this clip, and select 'Video options / Motion'. 
    
    In the Motion window, under 'Alpha' you select 'Use Clips'. Then select the first keyframe in that Timeline. After '#0' put '20'. Select the last keyframe in that timeline, and after '#1' you also put '20'. The goal is to move the entire clip off center and align it perfectly with the right edge of the movie. Since the two keyframes are the same, the clip is kept still. The number '20' doesn't correspond to pixels or anything - it's an internal measurement unit that Premiere uses. If your project isn't my size, you will probably need to experiment to find the right offset.
      Select the first 'tenths' clip and repeat the procedure: Right click and select 'Maintain Aspect Ratio'. Then, in Motion window select 'Alpha: Use Clips', but for the keyframes enter -20 (minus twenty) as the number so that it aligns wiht the left side of the new movie.
      Time to do a quick proof: move the Time marker to the beginning of the Timeline, hold down the Alt-key and click on an early frame (i.e. right beside the Time marker). What you should see now is the two movies perfectly aligned beside eachother. If they don't align, you must go back to 'motion' to make adjustments.
     Using 'Paste Custom'
     When satisfied, you must copy the setting in the first 'tenths' clip to all the 59 following ... - fortunately this is easy! Select the first clip and Copy (Ctrl + C). Switch tool to Black-arrow-with-box and click on the second clip. Notice now that this and all the folowing clips are selected too. Now use 'Paste custom'. The shortcut is Ctrl + Alt + V. In the dialog, de-select 'contents' and select 'settings'. Click 'OK'. Now you're done! Alt+drag in the timeline to ensure everything is right. Export this project uncompressed (or with minimum compression). The Export Movie settings must be changed to accomodate the new size (i.e. 200 wide). Name it "secondsandtenths".

Combine one 'minutes' counter with X instances of the "secondsandtenths" movie into one.
We're almost done!

11. New project and change project settings to be 300 pixels wide. Everything else is the same. Import the 'secondsandtenths' movie and the 'minutes' movie. Place the 'minutes' movie you made earlier in track V2. Fill up with the newly made 'secondsandtenths' movies underneath. How many you will need depends on how long your 'minutes' clip is (see point 9). Right click on 'minutes' clip in Timeline and select 'Video options / Maintain Aspect Ratio', and then select 'Motion'. In the Motion window, select 'Alpha: Use Clips' and set both keyframes to -26,4. (Again the goal is perfect alignment with the movie edge. If your project settings are not the same as mine you will have to enter another number here by trial and error.) Repeat this procedure with the first 'secondsandtenths' clip, but keyframes are set to 13,4. Copy this clip, group select the others and Ctrl+Alt+V (see 'Using Paste Custom' above). Export. Your clock mechanism is now finished!

11b:  If you need an 'hours' counter in addition to this, just import the necessarry still(s) and stretch it on a new track above. You should be able to figure out the rest by now. Project settings must anyway accomodate how many counters you have in total, ie. 400 x 100 if you want hours counting too.

Applying colons (or other digit separators) and framing.
Since the clock itself is finished, this part is optional.

12. Continue in the same project, but you will need an additional Video track for this. Get one from the Timeline menu, 'Add video track'. Import your Frame- and Colons graphic, and drag it to the Timeline, above the clock. Duration will be the last one set in preferences; one minute. Stretch the right edge of clip so that it lines ut with the end of the clock-movie. Right click and select 'Transperancy'. If you prepared the graphic against a transparent background in Photoshop / your graphic app, then you just select 'Alpha' from the drop-down menu here in Premiere. If you created the graphic against a solid background, use 'select colour', click on a colour, and make adjustments to tolerances. Use Alt + click in the Timeline for proofing. When done, it's time to export the final movie. As usual, export settings must accomodate project settings. It doesn't do this automatically, so set frame size to the new width, here 300. Which compresor you will use, and even the choice of Quicktime or AVI is up to you. Premiere can combine almost anything with anything in later projects. (i.e. a QuickTime clock-movie with a DV AVI is no problem.)
      The resulting file needn't be that large, even if it's a long 'movie'. It depends on the detail of your graphics.
      If you set out to mimic a sports broadcast or a Trivia-game, then just exchange the 'frame' with somthing more flashy to get the right look, and extend the width of the clock to full video width - or whatever.
    

Usage in real projects

13. Whichever size of your movie where you want to use the clock, the procedure is the same:
    - Import clock-movie, and drag it to the timeline above any other video.
    - Right-click and select Video / Maintain Aspect Ratio.
    - Right-click once more and select 'Motion'
    - In the Motion Window, select 'Alpha: Use Clips'
    - Select the first keyframe, and go to 'Zoom'. You will definetly want to make your clock smaller than your video, so put a negative number here; -75 (minus 75) is good for starters. Directly above Zoom, enter Position numbers. Here you will have to experiment. When done, take note of all three numbers (zoom, x-pos and y-pos). Select the last keyframe and insert the same numbers here.
    - Alt + click in the Timeline and drag for proofing. When satisified, you export your movie. Since the clock overlays every frame of your video and thereby changes it's content, the entire section with the clock must render. This is what fast computers were intended for, so I hope you have one.

Hope you find this useful. Good luck!