How to Create Trending Shortform Caption Effects in Just Two Clicks

Introduction

You've seen dynamic caption effects in Shorts, Reels, or TikToks — now you can create them in just two clicks, directly inside Premiere Pro using Cutback. No need to jump between different editing tools. Choose from karaoke-style effects, word-by-word highlights, depth effects, or create your own custom style. Best of all, everything uses graphic clips in Premiere Pro, making it fast to apply and edit.

This page covers the following:
✅ Create motion-style captions in just two clicks ✔️
✅ Customize animated captions in detail 🔧
✅ Frequently asked questions 💬

Create Animated Captions in Just Two Clicks

Step 1. Open a new project in Premiere Pro and prepare your audio and video files in the sequence.

Step 2. Go to [Window] > [Extension] > [Cutback] to launch the Cutback panel.

Step 3. Select the [Edit Captions] menu and generate the transcription.

Need help generating captions? Check out our guide.

Step 4. After reviewing the transcription, click [Apply to sequence] > [Animated Captions].

• Want to apply motion captions to specific segments only? Select the section, then click [Animated captions].

💡 Tip: For short videos or clips that don’t require fine editing, you can apply motion captions directly from the [Animated captions] menu.

Step 5. Choose from a list of presets or select a custom animated caption style.

• Click a word to preview how it looks before applying.

• "PREVIEW" will be displayed behind captions while in preview mode.

  

Step 6. Click [Apply] to finalize and add the animated captions.

Customize Your Animated Captions

1. [General]

   • [Preview text]: Choose the text to preview before applying the animation.

   • [Preview text in current frame]: Shows the line containing the selected word.

   • [Shortform screen guide]: Displays a safe area guide to avoid captions being blocked.

   • [Position]: Set to top / center / bottom, or enter a custom position.

   • [Padding]: Adjust the side padding of captions.

   • [Scale]: Resize the captions using a slider or input.

   • [Long sentence]: Choose how to handle long lines that exceed screen width:

     1. [Scale to fit]: Shrinks text to fit on one line.

     2. [Multi-line]: Breaks into multiple lines.

     3. [Actual size]: Leaves as is, even if it overflows.

2. [Caption]

   • Max line length, punctuation display, two-line formatting, letter case settings, etc.

3. [Style]

   1. [Default]: Edit font, stroke, and background box settings.

   2. [Spoken]: Apply color effects to words that have already been spoken.

   3. [Highlight]: Style the currently spoken word with color or box effects.

4. [Animation]

   • Choose the animation effect for how captions appear on screen.

💡 TIP: You can edit and save any animated caption template for reuse later.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I change the font of animated captions?

  Yes! After selecting a caption effect, go to the [Style] menu to change the font, color, and other styles.

• How do I change the color of karaoke-style captions?

  After selecting an effect, go to [Style] > [Highlight] for current speech, or [Spoken] for past speech. Adjust the color styles for each segment accordingly.