360 degree video plugin Skybox VR was recently made free for Adobe Creative Cloud owners. This formerly $180 plugin adds three-dimensional effects to Premiere Pro and After Effects. I’ll briefly cover my experience with Premiere.

The effects included with Skybox don’t create any “edges” like the default Premiere Effects. There are only four that really matter for video editing.

“Skybox Rotate Sphere” allows the creator to choose what the default starting viewing position is.

“Skybox Blur” and “Skybox Glow” are two powerful effects that alter your video without creating edges. You can also use them in conjunction with an adjustment layer to create interesting transitions between 360 degree video clips.



3. Keyframes allow the glow to peak in the between the two video clips and then fade. This creates a cool transition for 360 degree media.

4. Adjustment layer allows the effect to be applied between two video clips.

3. Keyframes allow the glow to peak in the between the two video clips and then fade. This creates a cool transition for 360 degree media. 4. Adjustment layer allows the effect to be applied between two video clips. “Skybox 2D” is the real star of the show. This effect allows you to edit any two dimensional object in three dimensions. This includes: text, video, pictures and logos. This effect gives you the ability to rotate an object on the z-axis, move it around the sphere and resize it proportionately in three dimensions.



This video was placed into the 360 shot with Skybox 2D. Notice how it has been rotated so that it looks like it is resting on the counter.

Problems:

360 degree video editing is very processor intensive. I needed to set my preview resolution to ¼ and blow an external fan onto my system in order to edit even with an overclocked six core processor, liquid cooling and a mid-range (950Ti) graphics unit.

4. I recommend turning down the preview resolution when editing. This should put less strain on your computer.

4. I recommend turning down the preview resolution when editing. This should put less strain on your computer. The “rotation” effect that is part of “Skybox 2D” ran fine within Premiere but created horrifying glitches in the rendered video. Beware!

Conclusion:

I highly recommend Skybox if you are doing 360 degree video editing. Its Premiere Pro tools are simple but powerful, and there is a lot more depth in its After Effects add ons.

To download Skybox send an email to dvaplugin@gmail.com. Include your Adobe ID as well as your first and last name.

Premiere Pro Tutorial for Skybox

*You need to stitch the fish eye (raw Ricoh THETA camera footage) video together with Ricoh’s app. Tutorial here

My Video (Click the image):