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Working with 8K, 6K, or sometimes even 4K footage, can quickly overwhelm even powerful editing systems. In Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, we can reduce the stuttering and playback issues by creating proxy workflows. Proxy workflows allow you to edit with lightweight copies of your footage while preserving the quality of the original media.
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In this tutorial, we'll create proxy media in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Let's get started with Adobe Premiere Pro. Begin by selecting the clips you'd like to optimize.
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Right-click the selected footage and choose Proxy, then Create Proxies. The Create Proxy window allows you to choose the format, preset, and storage location for your proxy files. For most workflows, these are the only three settings you'll regularly configure.
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In this example, we're using QuickTime with a lower resolution preset to improve playback performance. Keeping proxies inside a dedicated folder helps keep projects organized and simplifies relinking if files are moved later. Once everything looks correct, click OK.
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Premiere automatically sends the selected clips to Adobe Media Encoder. Adobe Media Encoder handles the rendering process in the background, allowing Premiere to remain available for additional work. Each selected clip is added to the queue as a separate encoding job.
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Click the Start Queue button to begin generating the proxy media. Depending on the number of clips, the codec, and your hardware, proxy generation can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Once Media Encoder finishes generating the proxy files, return to Premiere Pro.
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The proxies are now attached to your project and ready to use. At this point, playback performance won't change until Proxy Playback is enabled. To switch between your original media and the newly created proxies, use the Toggle Proxies button in the Program Monitor.
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With Proxies enabled, Premiere now references the lightweight proxy media during editing. Notice how playback is now significantly smoother, even though we're editing the same project. Timeline scrubbing is also much more responsive, making it easier to review edits and navigate complex sequences.
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That's all there is to working with proxies in Premiere Pro. Once your proxy media has been generated, you can switch between your original footage and proxy files at any time, while Premiere continues to preserve the quality of your original media for export. If your workflow also includes Adobe After Effects, the process is very similar with one primary difference.
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Premiere manages proxies at the project level. After Effects uses a slightly different approach, attaching proxy files to individual pieces of footage. And this difference can actually be useful.
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Instead of proxying everything in a composition, you can target the individual source footage that's creating the biggest performance bottleneck. That allows lighter proxy media to handle demanding source footage, while other assets can remain at their original fidelity. As you are working in After Effects and you begin to experience timeline stuttering and playback delays, or the all-too-well-known slowed-down audio effect, it's time to activate some proxy layers.
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Unlike Premiere Pro, you cannot select multiple media files at a time and create a batch of proxies. You will have to select the individual layer you would like to proxy, select Create Proxy, and then select Movie. From here, Adobe After Effects will place the new proxy file in your render queue.
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For this project, we will make a proxy of each video file and leave other assets in their full fidelity. For this project, we'll keep the new proxy media in its own After Effects proxy folder, then render the lightweight version. Once each new proxy render is targeting the new proxy folder, go ahead and click Render.
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Depending on the size of your footage, this may take a while. Once the rendering is complete, you can go back into the project panels and link the proxies to the media. Do this by right-clicking on the footage layer, going to Set Proxy, and click File.
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From there, you can select the corresponding proxy file. Once a proxy is assigned, After Effects displays a proxy indicator beside the footage item in the project panel. You can toggle between the proxy and original media at any time.
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Notice that as we switch, After Effects updates the file path and file size to reflect the media currently in use. Premiere Pro and After Effects handle proxies a little differently, but both workflows serve the same purpose, keeping high-resolution media manageable while you work. Proxy assignments are managed independently in each application.
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However, if Premiere and After Effects are working from the same source media, then the same suitable proxy files can be assigned in both, so there's no need to generate duplicate proxy media. For individual editors, that means smoother playback and a more responsive workflow. And in shared storage environments, proxies can also reduce bandwidth demands when multiple workstations need access to high-resolution media.
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Those are the basics of proxy workflows in Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. Thanks for watching! For more professional media workflow and shared storage resources, visit SmallTree Communications at small-tree.com.
