Changing the scale size of rectangle or text in Premiere Pro

How to Animate a Scale-In Lower Third in Premiere Pro

A lower third that simply slides in from the right is fine. But a lower third that scales in, moves slightly, and eases into place has a lot more life to it. It feels intentional rather than just shoved onto the screen.

The nice thing is that you do not need to start from scratch every time. Whether you are modifying your own existing graphic or tidying up somebody else’s, you can jump into the shape’s animation settings, remove what is there, and rebuild the movement properly.

Clear the Existing Background Box Animation

There are two ways to reset this lower-third background box:

The quick way: delete and redraw the box

Select the graphic clip, go to the Essential Graphics panel, select Background box, and hit Delete. You can then draw a new rectangle and start again.

That works perfectly well. But it is not always the most useful route, particularly when the graphic has other settings you want to keep.

The useful way: remove only the old keyframes

With the graphic selected, find the Shape layer and twirl open its properties until you can see the animated keyframes. Delete the two keyframes that created the original slide-in animation.

Once those keyframes are gone, the box will usually sit off to the side with no animation. That is absolutely fine. You are just clearing the old motion so you can make a better one.

You can also turn off animation using the stopwatch beside the property. Premiere Pro will warn you that this removes the keyframes. That is the point here, so go ahead. You can always drag the shape back into position afterwards.

Set the Anchor Point Before You Animate Scale

The anchor point is the shape’s home base. It decides where the scale animation grows from.

If you leave it in the wrong place, the rectangle may grow from a corner or scale in a direction that looks a bit odd. For a lower-third background box that grows in from the right, move the anchor point towards the left-middle area of the box. That way, the left edge feels anchored while the rectangle expands horizontally to the right.

Select the shape with the Selection tool, then click and drag the visible anchor point into place. For a more precise move, hold:

• Command on Mac

• Control on PC

This helps the anchor point snap to useful edges and positions. It is one of those tiny details that makes the animation behave the way you expected it to.

Animate Horizontal Scale Instead of Scaling Everything

For this effect, we do not want the box shrinking and growing in every direction. We want it to appear from the side.

In the shape settings, twirl open Scale and untick Uniform Scale. This separates the vertical and horizontal scale controls, allowing you to animate them independently.

Now animate Horizontal Scale:

1. Move the playhead to the start of the graphic.

2. Set a Horizontal Scale keyframe using the stopwatch.

3. Set Horizontal Scale to 0.

4. Move forward in time by the amount you want the animation to last.

5. Set Horizontal Scale to 100.

It does not really matter whether you set the value to zero before or after clicking the stopwatch. What matters is that animation is enabled before you create the later 100 percent value. Premiere Pro then has two points to animate between.

At this stage, the background box will scale out from the anchor point. The same approach works for text as well, not just shape layers.

Add Easing to Make the Scale Animation Feel Better

Without easing, the animation starts and stops at a constant speed. It works, but it is a bit robotic.

For the first Horizontal Scale keyframe, right-click the keyframe and choose Ease Out. This means the box eases out of its starting position and accelerates into the movement.

The naming is easy to get backwards, so think about the direction of travel:

• Ease Out on the first keyframe: the motion eases out of that keyframe.

• Ease In on the final keyframe: the motion eases into that keyframe.

When working directly inside the Horizontal Scale property, Premiere Pro may show a shorter right-click menu than usual. That is fine. You can select the easing option directly without hunting through Temporal Interpolation.

Now adjust the distance between the two scale keyframes until the timing feels right. There is no magic duration here. Drag the end keyframe closer for a snappier lower third, or farther away for a slower, smoother entrance.

Add Position Keyframes for Extra Movement

Scaling alone looks good. Adding a small amount of position movement makes the graphic feel even more polished.

At the very beginning, the shape may be too small to grab or judge easily because its Horizontal Scale is zero. Move the playhead forward by a frame or so, then work with Position.

1. Create a Position keyframe near the beginning of the animation.

2. Move the background box slightly to the side, so it starts offset from its final location.

3. Move the playhead to the final scale keyframe.

4. Set the shape’s final Position where you want the lower third to sit.

Hold Shift while moving around the timeline if you want the playhead to snap neatly to the keyframe. This makes it much easier to line up the end of the movement with the end of the scale animation.

The result is a box that both expands and shifts into place. It is subtle, but that subtlety is exactly why it feels good.

Ease the Position Animation Too

The Position keyframes need easing just like the scale keyframes.

Apply Ease Out to the first Position keyframe, then apply Ease In to the final Position keyframe. The box will gently leave its offset starting point and settle into its final alignment.

Do not feel like the Position and Scale animations must take exactly the same amount of time. They can overlap in whatever way looks best. The box might finish scaling while it is still drifting into its final position, or the movement might finish first. Play around with it.

A Simple Recipe for a Better Lower-Third Animation

If you want the quick version, this is the setup:

• Move the shape’s anchor point to the edge or area you want it to scale from.

• Untick Uniform Scale.

• Animate Horizontal Scale from 0 to 100.

• Apply Ease Out to the first scale keyframe.

• Add a small Position offset at the start.

• Set the final Position where the lower third should land.

• Apply Ease Out at the start and Ease In at the end of the position movement.

• Adjust timing until it looks prettier than the default.

Once the background box is moving nicely, the text can come in over the top and the whole lower third starts to feel properly designed. A bit of scale, a bit of position, and a little easing goes a very long way.

FAQs

What is the difference between Ease In and Ease Out in Premiere Pro?

Ease Out controls how motion leaves a keyframe, so it is usually applied to the first keyframe of an animation. Ease In controls how motion arrives at a keyframe, so it is usually applied to the final keyframe.

Why does my shape scale from the wrong side?

The anchor point is in the wrong position. Move the shape’s anchor point to the edge or area that should remain visually fixed while the rectangle scales.

Can I use this scale animation on text in Premiere Pro?

Yes. The same keyframe and easing approach works on text layers. Set the appropriate scale property, create starting and ending keyframes, and apply easing for smoother motion.