VFX
Edit by Takahiro — from dx4agency

dx4agency VFX Edits cut on the beat.

Music-video edits for Instagram and TikTok: flashes, shakes, stacked lyrics and crushed blacks. Cut in Premiere Pro, finished in After Effects — and below, step by step, how it's done.

Watch the edits How an edit is made
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The latest edits from @dx4agency on Instagram and TikTok.

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from song to post How an edit is made

Six steps, in the order they happen. Each one has a live demo — play with it. Pr is Premiere Pro, Ae is After Effects.

01

Find the drop first.

Every edit starts with the song, not the clips. I pick 20–30 seconds with a build-up and a drop, find the tempo and put a marker on every beat. That beat grid decides where each cut, flash and lyric lands.

  • Pr: play the song and tap M on every kick — each tap leaves a marker.
  • Ae: Keyframe Assistant › Convert Audio to Keyframes — a value that spikes on every hit, ready to drive effects.
  • Changes happen every 1, 2 or 4 beats. The drop gets the biggest hit of the whole edit.
PrMarkersAeAudio → keyframesBeat grid
Audio · beat griddemo
Tempo 140 bpmBeat 1.1Section 0:00–0:20Drop bar 3
02

Cut on the kick.

The rough cut happens in Premiere. I pick the best moment from every clip and snap each cut to a beat marker: quick 4–8 frame shots in the fast parts, a longer hold right before the drop.

  • C razor, V select, S snapping on — cuts lock straight onto the markers.
  • Q / W ripple-trim to the playhead, so nothing leaves a gap.
  • The finished cut goes to After Effects through Dynamic Link — no exporting in between.
PrTimelinePrRazor & rippleAeDynamic Link
Premiere Pro · sequence 9:16demo
00:00:00:00
V2
V1
A1
03

Keyframes & easing.

Every move is two keyframes and a curve between them. The curve is the feel: linear looks robotic, Easy Ease breathes, a steep exponential curve punches. Switch the curves and watch the frame.

  • Select the keyframes and press F9 for Easy Ease.
  • Graph Editor ⇧F3: drag the speed handle to 80–100 % for a hard punch-in.
  • Motion blur on — fast moves smear like a real camera instead of strobing.
AeGraph EditorPrTransformGSGSAP eases
After Effects · speed graphinteractive
04

Stack the effects.

In After Effects every effect sits on its own adjustment layer above the footage, trimmed to a few frames on the beat. Turn the layers on and off to see what each one adds.

  • New adjustment layer: ⌥⌘Y. Everything under it gets the effect.
  • Shake is one line of code on Position: wiggle(14, 40) — 14 times a second, up to 40 px.
  • Hold keyframes (⌘⌥H) switch an effect on and off on an exact frame.
AeAdjustment layersAeExpressionsPrEffect controls
After Effects · compositioninteractive
Footageclip.mp4
05

Crush the blacks.

Footage straight from a camera or a download looks flat and grey. In Lumetri Color I pull the blacks down, push contrast, take saturation out and lay film grain on top — that dark, expensive look. Drag across the frame.

  • Basic: contrast up, blacks and shadows down until the darks go solid.
  • Creative: saturation down; some shots go fully black and white.
  • Finish: grain and a soft vignette on one adjustment layer over the whole edit.
PrLumetri ColorAeAdd Grain
Lumetri · before / afterdrag
Graded frame from the Paranoid edit
FlatGraded
Contrast +40
Blacks −55
Saturation 60
Grain 30
06

Lyrics, then export.

Lyrics never sit on one flat line. A small lead-in, an outlined middle and a huge key word in red, each word appearing exactly when it's sung. Then it ships as a vertical video made for phone speakers.

  • Ae: text animators with a Range Selector reveal the line letter by letter.
  • Every word is timed to the vocal, the key word lands with a small slam and a shake.
  • Media Encoder: H.264, 1080 × 1920, 30 fps, high bitrate so the grain survives the upload.
AeText animatorsPrExport
After Effects · lyric compdemo
is it me or am I paranoid?
Size1080×1920
Frame rate30 fps
CodecH.264

your turn FX Lab

Hit the pads — or the keys 1–8 — to throw the same effects I use onto a real edit. Each one shows how it's built in Premiere and After Effects.

Live · WebGL
140 bpm metronome

two apps, two jobs Premiere vs After Effects

The editwhere the story gets cut

A timeline for the whole video: all the clips, the song, colour and export. Fast to cut, fast to move things around — this is where the rhythm is decided.

  • Best at cutting & pacing
  • Colour Lumetri Color
  • Sound Essential Sound, markers
  • Effects simple, per clip
  • Shortcut I live on C Q W

The shotwhere each moment gets built

Layers and keyframes for a few seconds at a time: effects, animated text, tracking, compositing. Slower to work in, but anything you can imagine is possible.

  • Best at effects & motion
  • Text per-letter animators
  • Motion Graph Editor, expressions
  • Tracking 3D Camera Tracker, Roto Brush
  • Shortcut I live on F9 U ⇧F3
Premiere cut Dynamic Link After Effects VFX back to Premiere export Instagram & TikTok

Same ideas, on this page

Every animation on this website runs on GSAP. A GSAP timeline is an After Effects composition, its eases are Graph Editor curves, and ScrollTrigger turns your scroll into the playhead. Video editing and web motion are the same craft.

got a track? Let's make an edit

For artists, brands and your own clips. Send the song and the footage — or just the idea.

DM on Instagram TikTok info@dx4agency.eu