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

Borders are a great way to frame your content, separate sections, or add a specific mood to your footage. A thin white border can give footage a clean, modern look. A thick black border can create a photo-frame effect. Premiere Pro does not have a one-click border tool like Photoshop, but you can create one pretty quickly using the graphics tools.

Today I am going to show you how to create a border in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Create a Border in Premiere Pro

Drawing the Border Shape

1. Find the Rectangle Tool in the toolbar. It might be hidden behind the Pen Tool or Ellipse Tool. Click and hold to find it.
2. Position your playhead at the beginning of where you want the border to appear.
3. Change the Program Monitor zoom to about 25% so you can see beyond the edges of the frame.
4. Draw a rectangle that covers the entire frame from edge to edge. Getting it exactly right at this stage is not critical since we will adjust it next.
5. Switch to the Selection Tool (V). Drag the rectangle so the top-left corner snaps to the top-left corner of the frame.
6. Zoom to about 75% and adjust each corner of the rectangle to align perfectly with the frame edges. Grab the edge handles to stretch the shape to fit.

Styling the Border

7. Select the graphics layer on the timeline and go to Effect Controls.
8. Expand Shape > Appearance.
9. Remove the fill by unchecking the Fill checkbox or setting its opacity to 0. We only want the outline.
10. Enable Stroke by checking the Stroke checkbox.
11. Set the stroke width to about 80-100 for a prominent border. Adjust to taste. Lower values (20-40) create a thinner, more subtle frame.
12. Click the color swatch next to the stroke to change the border color. White and black are the most common, but any color works.

Adjusting the Border

13. Extend the graphics layer on the timeline to cover the full duration you want the border visible.
14. If the border is not perfectly centered, adjust the Position under the Motion controls in Effect Controls.

Variations

• Rounded corners. After creating the rectangle, adjust the corner radius in the Shape properties for a softer, more modern look.
• Animated border. Keyframe the stroke width to grow from 0 to full size, creating a border that draws itself on screen.
• Picture frame effect. Use a thicker stroke (150+) with a color that complements the footage for a decorative photo frame look.
• Vignette border. Instead of a hard stroke, use a feathered mask on a black solid to create soft, darkened edges around the frame.

Tips

• Use this with split screens to add a dividing line between the two halves.
• Layer multiple borders for a decorative effect. A thin white border inside a thick black one creates a classic double-border look.
• Save as a template. Once you have a border you like, right click the graphics layer and export it as a Motion Graphics Template so you can reuse it in any project.

That is how you create a border in Premiere Pro. It takes a minute or two with the graphics tools, and it adds a nice finishing touch to your footage.