RGB Glitch Effect Tutorial in Premiere Pro CC (2018)

Glitch effects are popular in tech-themed films, music videos, and anything with a digital or cyberpunk aesthetic. The RGB glitch effect works by splitting the image into its red, green, and blue color channels and offsetting them slightly, combined with a choppy frame rate that makes everything feel unstable and broken. It is a striking look that you can create entirely within Premiere Pro using color curves and blend modes.

Today we are going to walk through how to create the RGB glitch effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Create an RGB Glitch Effect

Setting Up the Color Channels

1. Create a new sequence and drag in the footage you want to apply the glitch to.
2. Duplicate the footage three times so you have the same clip on three tracks stacked on top of each other. You can hold Alt and drag the clip up, or use copy and paste.
3. Now we need to isolate each clip to show only one color channel.

Isolating the Colors

4. Select the top clip (Track V3). Apply Lumetri Color to it (or open the Color workspace).
5. In Lumetri Color, go to the Curves section. Click the Red dot to select the red channel curve. Drag the top-right point of the curve all the way down to the bottom. Then do the same for the Green channel. Leave Blue untouched. This clip now only shows blue.
6. Select the middle clip (Track V2). Apply Lumetri Color. This time, drag down the Green and Blue curves, leaving only Red. This clip now only shows red.
7. Select the bottom clip (Track V1). Apply Lumetri Color. Drag down the Red and Blue curves, leaving only Green. This clip now only shows green.

Blending the Channels

8. For each of the three clips, go to Effect Controls > Opacity and change the Blend Mode to Screen. When all three clips are set to Screen, the colors combine back into a normal-looking image. If you play it back right now, it should look almost identical to the original.

Adding the Glitch

9. Go to the Effects panel and search for Posterize Time.
10. Drag Posterize Time onto two of the three clips (for example, the top and middle clips).
11. In Effect Controls, set the Frame Rate for each clip to different low numbers. Try something like 8 on one and 12 on another. The lower the number, the choppier and more glitchy that color channel looks.
12. Now when you play it back, the red, green, and blue channels update at different frame rates, creating that classic RGB glitch look where the colors separate and stutter independently.

Offsetting the Channels

13. For an even stronger glitch, offset the Position of one or two of the clips slightly. In Effect Controls, under Motion > Position, shift the horizontal value by a few pixels. This creates the visible color separation where you can see the red, green, and blue edges of objects split apart.

Tips

• If playback is lagging, press Enter on the timeline to render the preview. The effect is computationally heavy with three stacked clips.
• Animate the intensity. Keyframe the Posterize Time frame rate to go from a normal 24fps to a choppy 6fps and back. This makes the glitch pulse on and off instead of being constant.
• Combine with glitch text for a complete digital distortion look.
• Add a VCR line effect on top for an even more distorted, retro-digital aesthetic.
• Use it sparingly. RGB glitch effects are most impactful when used for short bursts (a few seconds) rather than sustained for an entire sequence.

That is how you create an RGB glitch effect in Premiere Pro. It looks complex but it is really just three color-separated copies of the same footage blended together with different frame rates.