Overview
You might be interested in adding an overlay to your video on export. It could be timecode for your export for mix, or just a watermark to show a work in progress. Either way, they are easy to set up.
Accessing Overlays Menu
The overlay menu is located under the “Effects” tab of the standard Adobe export window. From there you have several options to choose from, however we are only interested in the 3 overlay options.
Image Overlay
This is as straightforward as it sounds. Choose an image from the “Applied” dropdown, and then adjust its position. The image will be shown over the top of your entire video. This is useful for adding a logo, or quickly adding a “Preview” watermark.
Name Overlay
This will display the name of the current clip on export. This can be useful if you are sending a reference cut to someone, and want to make sure they have the proper files imported on their end. The Format dropdown gives you some options for naming them and gives you the option to add prefixes and suffixes.
Timecode overlay
By far this is the most useful overlay. This will display the current timecode of your export. When you are exporting for a mix, it is typically a good idea to enable the timecode overlay. It will help with organization and communication between you and your sound designer or mixer.
Exporting
Once you have enabled your desired overlay, continue to set up your export settings as usual, and export. For more information on exporting from Premiere see our Introduction to Premiere or Understanding Codecs, Proxies, and Transcoding guides.