Add Eye-Catching Captions to Shorts & Reels in Premiere Pro With Cutback

Ever wonder how creators get those perfectly timed, punchy, animated captions in their Instagram Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts?

You know the ones, each word is pop-up text that comes up as it's spoken, with stylish highlights or bouncy effects. The kind of captions that make you stop scrolling.

Here's the good news: you don’t need After Effects or any third-party apps to make those anymore.

With Cutback, you can create fully animated captions inside Adobe Premiere Pro using just two clicks.

Let’s break it down.

What Are Animated Captions?

Animated captions are motion-styled subtitles that sync with the speaker’s voice, typically used in short-form video to boost retention. Instead of plain static text, animated captions appear word-by-word or line-by-line with engaging effects like:

• Color highlights

• Scale and bounce animations

• Karaoke-style progressions

• Custom fonts, positions, and timing

These types of captions are no longer just a trend; they’re a retention strategy essential to video production.

How Cutback Makes It Easy

Traditionally, you’d need After Effects or motion graphics templates to create animated captions or fight with the effect controls panel in Premiere. But with Cutback:

• You can create motion captions in two clicks

• Apply them inside Premiere Pro, directly to your timeline

• Choose from prebuilt presets or customize your own

• Instantly preview everything before applying

It’s fast, accessible, and designed for creators who don’t want to spend hours on keyframes, caption styling, and matching the right anchor point. You won’t even have to touch the text tool if you don’t want to.

How To Add Animated Subtitles in Adobe Premiere Using Cutback

Here’s the step-by-step workflow to generate motion captions for your videos.

Step 1: Launch Cutback and Open Your Project

Make sure you have Cutback installed. In Adobe Premiere:

• Go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback]

• Load your audio and video files into the timeline

Step 2: Generate Captions

In the Cutback panel:

• Select [Edit Captions]

• Click [Transcribe Video to Edit Caption] to generate AI-powered subtitles through automatic transcription

📌 Need help with this step? Check our Generate Captions guide.

Step 3: Apply Auto Captions in Premiere Pro

Once you’re happy with your transcription:

• Click [Apply to Sequence]

• Choose [Animated Captions] when prompted

Or…

If you want to apply animation to a specific section only, highlight that part and click [Animated Captions] in the panel.

Step 4: Choose a Caption Preset

You’ll see a list of animated styles, including:

• Word-by-word highlights

• Karaoke-style progression

• Pop, bounce, or fade animations

• Custom-branded looks with color effects

Click any word to preview how that style will appear.

✨ A “PREVIEW” watermark will be shown so you know it's not final yet.

Once you’re satisfied, click [Apply].

Done.

Customizing Your Captions

If you want full creative control over these written visual effects, Cutback offers in-depth customization. You can adjust everything from font styling to animation duration and timing. You can also choose whether you want the caption center aligned to any other alignment of your preference.

General Settings

• Preview Text: Choose which part of the captions to preview

• Shortform Screen Guide: Toggle guides for safe areas in vertical video

• Position: Top, middle, bottom, or a custom location

• Padding & Scale: Tweak spacing and size

• Long Sentences:

  • Scale to fit shrinks text

  • Multi-line breaks it up

  • Actual size leaves it as-is, even if it overflows

Caption Settings

These affect how the subtitle text is displayed:

• Max Line Length: Control how long each line of text is

• Punctuation: Show or hide punctuation like commas or question marks

• Line Format: Switch between single or two-line formatting

• Letter Case: Use uppercase, lowercase, or Title Case

Style Settings

Here’s where the magic happens visually:

• Font: Choose any Premiere-supported typeface

• Stroke & Background Box: Add outline or box styling

• Highlight: Style the current word being spoken (e.g., yellow glow)

• Spoken: Style already-spoken words (e.g., fade-out to gray)

Animation Settings

Control how captions appear on screen:

• Fade

• Pop

• Slide

• Scale/Bounce

• Custom transitions

💡 You can even save your favorite style as a reusable preset.

Best Use Cases for Animated Captions

Not every video needs motion captions. But if you’re making short-form content for mobile, this is a must.

Here’s where animated captions shine:

• TikTok educational explainers

• Reels with fast narration

• Shorts for product demos

• Comedy clips with punchlines

• Motivational speech breakdowns

• Multilingual videos with styled translations

• As depth effects for any of the above

They also improve watch time, accessibility, and brand style consistency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I change the font of animated captions?

A: Yes. After applying an animated caption, head to the [Style] section to select a new font, adjust spacing, or change the background styling.

Q: How do I change karaoke-style caption colors?

A: In the [Style] menu:

• Highlight lets you style the current word

• Spoken lets you style already-spoken words

Use different color combos to add progression or emphasis.

Q: Can I apply captions to specific segments only?

A: Absolutely. Highlight the caption section you want animated and apply your style. This is useful for emphasizing punchlines or quotes.

Q: Do these captions export correctly?

A: Yes. Animated captions are added as graphic clips in your timeline, so you can export them just like any other footage. No need to convert them later.

Final Thoughts

Animated captions are no longer a “nice to have”; they’re a must in today’s short-form video landscape.

They grab attention.

They boost retention.

And with Cutback, you don’t need After Effects or design skills to make them happen.

Whether you’re a creator, marketer, or editor, Cutback’s animated caption presets give you powerful storytelling tools inside Adobe Premiere.

Want to see it in action? Check out our next guide on Translating Captions for multi-language effects. Or go back to basics with How to Generate Captions.

For more in-depth knowledge about the ins and outs of video editing, check out our latest posts on the Cutback blog or our YouTube channel. You can also join Cutback’s Discord community of like-minded video editors.