Software

Creating Glitch Effects in Premiere Pro

Video Glitch Art — Mathieu St-Pierre

Adobe Premiere Pro is the most widely used professional non-linear editor for video, and its effects panel, timeline flexibility, and plugin ecosystem make it a strong platform for creating glitch art directly within your editing workflow. While After Effects offers deeper compositing control, Premiere Pro excels at timeline-based glitch work where you need effects integrated into a longer edit.

Core Glitch Techniques in Premiere Pro

RGB Channel Splitting

The foundation of many glitch looks is RGB split — offsetting individual color channels to create that signature red-cyan-green fringing.

  1. Duplicate your clip onto three tracks stacked above each other.
  2. On the top layer, use Channel Mixer or the Leave Color effect to isolate the Red channel. Set the blending mode to Screen.
  3. On the middle layer, isolate the Green channel with the same approach.
  4. On the bottom layer, keep Blue.
  5. Offset the top two layers by a few pixels using Position in Effect Controls — nudge X values left or right.
  6. Keyframe the position offset to make the split pulse or jitter randomly.

For a quicker approach, third-party plugins like Red Giant Universe or BCC+ Video Glitch provide one-click RGB separation with built-in animation controls.

Displacement and Wave Distortion

Premiere Pro’s built-in effects can create convincing screen-tearing and wave distortions:

  • Wave Warp: Apply to a clip and experiment with Wave Height, Wave Width, and Direction settings. Animate the Phase property for moving distortion. Short, aggressive bursts work better than constant application.
  • Offset: Shifts the image horizontally or vertically, wrapping pixels around the edge. Keyframe the Center parameter to create tracking-error-style horizontal shifts.
  • Transform: Use Skew and Position keyframes with sharp hold keyframes (not smooth interpolation) to create abrupt, digital-feeling displacements.

Screen Tearing Effect

To simulate digital screen tearing:

  1. Use the Razor Tool to cut your clip at the exact frames where you want the tear.
  2. On the torn segment, apply Crop from the top or bottom to create a horizontal band.
  3. Offset that band horizontally using Position.
  4. Stack multiple thin bands at different offsets for a more complex tear pattern.
  5. Keep each tear to 1-3 frames for authenticity — real digital glitches are fast.

Timeline Techniques for Glitch Transitions

Jump Cut Glitching

The simplest and often most effective video glitch technique uses the timeline itself:

  • Make rapid 1-2 frame cuts between different sections of footage.
  • Alternate between the original clip and a duplicate with heavy effects applied.
  • Use Paste Attributes to quickly apply the same effect stack to multiple short clips.

Datamosh-Style Transitions

While true datamoshing requires codec-level manipulation outside of Premiere, you can approximate the look:

  1. Export a short transition segment and run it through a dedicated datamosh tool or FFmpeg script.
  2. Re-import the moshed clip and edit it back into your timeline.
  3. Alternatively, use the Echo effect with high decay and many echoes to create frame-smearing that resembles P-frame artifacts.
  4. The Posterize Time effect at very low frame rates (2-6 fps) combined with Time Remapping creates stuttering that pairs well with other glitch effects.

Stutter and Freeze Effects

  • Use Frame Hold segments (right-click clip > Add Frame Hold) to freeze specific frames within a sequence.
  • Alternate rapidly between held frames and normal playback for a buffer-overflow aesthetic.
  • Apply Posterize Time at different rates on nested sequences to create layered stuttering.

Effects Panel Glitch Stack

A practical glitch preset stack you can build and save:

  1. Channel Mixer — isolate or swap color channels
  2. Wave Warp — undulating distortion
  3. Offset — horizontal/vertical pixel shift
  4. Noise — add digital grain
  5. Sharpen — push edges into artifacting at extreme values
  6. Posterize — reduce color depth for banding effects

Apply this stack to an Adjustment Layer above your footage so you can toggle the entire glitch on and off. Keyframe the stack’s parameters to pulse glitches in and out rhythmically.

Export Tricks for Enhanced Glitching

Premiere Pro’s export pipeline can itself become a glitch tool:

  • Low bitrate exports: Deliberately encode at extremely low bitrates (under 1 Mbps for 1080p) to force the codec into producing macroblocking, color banding, and compression artifacts.
  • Wrong codec settings: Export with mismatched color spaces or frame rates, then re-import for unpredictable results.
  • Re-encoding loops: Export, re-import, add more effects, and export again. Each generational loss cycle accumulates artifacts.
  • Intermediate format abuse: Export to old codecs like MPEG-2 or MJPEG at low quality, which produce different artifact patterns than H.264.

Practical Tips

  • Save effect presets: Once you build a glitch stack you like, right-click the effect group and save it as a preset for reuse across projects.
  • Use Adjustment Layers: Keep your source footage clean and apply all glitch effects via adjustment layers above. This lets you easily toggle, retime, and adjust your glitches.
  • Nest sequences: For complex glitch builds, nest your glitched sequence inside another sequence. This lets you apply additional effects to the already-glitched output.
  • Rhythm matters: Glitch effects work best when they have rhythmic variation — constant distortion causes viewer fatigue. Tie glitch bursts to audio beats or scene transitions.
  • Preview at full resolution: Some glitch effects look different at reduced preview quality. Always check at full resolution before final export.