The art of transitioning

[JazzyDJ]

I've noticed that the best music videos usually all have one thing in common... they transition their seens in a smooth segway style. By that I mean that usually there is some type of visual that remains long enough while another part of the picture transitions, and then once that is complete the rest of the visual transitions.

A good example of this is the classic zoom in through the eyes and see the following scene on the other side.

It's difficult to put into text and descibe this visual style exactly, but most of you have scene enough amvs to understand what I'm attempting to describe. This years clash was the video I was watching when I decided to post about this, but there are so many more videos that do this and even do it better. Videos like last years Hit The Floor or previous to that, Whisper of the Beast. (Ironicly 2 of those are Naruto videos even though I really don't like Naruto.) The best videos, no matter the catagory, all seem to feature smooth transitions like this that flow.

What are some tips to create such nice smooth flowing transitions through out the video? Are there any rules that you would live by as an editor?

[Knowname]

this


you'll see it in the chorus. it's like a crossfade only the screen goes dim, not all the way black than fades back in with scene 2. normal crossfades leave residues behind, these don't. rather they do, but ppl don't consider 'dimming' the screen as a residue. I don't consider it a fade to black either, cuz it doesn't. It's more like fade into the other scene w/ black. I'd say more but I'd be giving away the age old secret to perfect fades, or rather 'the phade'.

I think this video has it too I think.

[EvaFan]

You can usually have really smooth transitions without much work if any... if you just follow the first scenes movement. If the first scene ends moving left (or something in the scene) then have the next scene begin at a point where its moving left (or again something in the scene) and the overall transition just comes out looking cleaner/softer even if its a hard cut. For scenes that you really want to use that don't have the same directional flow for a trasition that might be where some FX come into play. If there is generally no movement between the transitions things as simple as fades or masks work really well. I find myself enjoying action and dance vids alot more when they use this kind of transitional work atleast for the intense parts.

[Bauzi]

I guess it's hard to explain how to make smooth transitions. It's probably better to look at examples:

This MEP has some extrem smooth transitions between different animes. It's worth to load it into VDM or some similar program to look at the transitions frame by frame.

[Knowname]

Most comedy videos I have have really HORRIBLE transitions. I'll post a few when I get back, but DCDeveloperX has always been known (by me) for his sweet transitions ^_^

My tip (other than my first post) is shorten your transitions in some way. Don't have to make short transitions. you can make 30 frame transitions (crossfades) if you like just shorten the duration to like 0-60%. It's not as hard on the eyes. using short crossfades is always good though, like 5 frames, it's pretty much undeterminable, but your eyes thank you ^_^

Also try not to use too many crossfades. I noted last night that comedy vids in particular just go crossfade crazy. ><

[Bauzi]

just shorten the duration to like 0-60%. It's not as hard on the eyes. using short crossfades is always good though, like 5 frames, it's pretty much undeterminable, but your eyes thank you ^_^

Stop giving such advices. This is really subjective. I really hate it when somebody doesn't have the guts for hardcuts and only uses annoying 5 frames crossfade. The experienced viewer does notice this.

[Kitsuner]

It boils down to finding similar elements in both clips to match up, like shape, color, or direction of movement. Masking overlays work too, as Eva-Fan suggested.

[Knowname]

just shorten the duration to like 0-60%. It's not as hard on the eyes. using short crossfades is always good though, like 5 frames, it's pretty much undeterminable, but your eyes thank you ^_^

Stop giving such advices. This is really subjective. I really hate it when somebody doesn't have the guts for hardcuts and only uses annoying 5 frames crossfade. The experienced viewer does notice this.

lol you're right, I don't really think anybody's eyes could be worse off than mine lol so I didn't really take that into consideration but anyway this is what this amounts to, it actually IS a hard cut just instead of going from 0% to 100% your just going from 60% to 100%. It's a lot less jarring to the eyes ESPECIALLY if their better and more sensitive than mine -_-.

But yeah, a hard cut every now and then and a fade to black (or a 'phade'... if you can figure out how to do one of those...) is good as well. Don't be like Pwolf and just do one type through the entire video lol

This thread made me realize that I just did one type in my current project so now I'm redoing it . I was better at this when I was younger though but I simply let it slip. My old videos have very few eye straining moments ^_^

IMO.

[Douggie]

I never really understood what the deal is with AMV-editors and crossfades. It seems like there's this unwritten rule in the AMV-community that crossfades are for slow songs/moments and cuts are for faster songs/moments. Crossfades are overused. Remember the school parties in junior high where your local cheap DJ was hired? When that guy spins and transitions from one song to another he always uses a crossfade - and chooses two songs that don't fit either. And when you're dancing, at that moment of transition, during that fade, there's this garbled sound where you have no idea how to dance to it because you have no idea what is going on until the crossfade is over. That's the feeling I have with most crossfades in AMVs.

Cuts aren't "hard" by nature and they can be "smoother" than crossfades if done correctly. Cuts are still the natural way to go and every other type of transition is not something we see in our daily life vision. It really feels like people are also using crossfades to go the easy route, like that school DJ does. If you read books about editing then you see there are millions of ways to make cuts invisible.

Anyway, every type of transition that isn't a cut, from fades to wipes has its place. I like most of them when they are "invisible" and blend in really well, but to make a transition obvious can have its purpose too, like Kurosawa did to make it look like a turning of a page (Lucas is just pushing it though). Nowadays with effects, you can use all kinds of tricks to make one scene blend into another by making it look like one camera shot (like fast zooms and pans) or as if something is covering it (like invisible wipes).

Invisible or not, it should have a function or else it just gets really annoying and gimmicky.

[Bauzi]

Douggie, thanks for bringing up the DJ example, because this brings a whole new light on crossfades for me. This probably will help me to improve, because to be honest: Crossfades are my personal bitch.

Don't know how to sync it?

Hey! Fade out, fade in to new scene
Or crossfade!

Don't know how to keep up the flow or mood?
Crossfade!

The scene is too static?
Crossfade! Or slight zoom in/out

It's often a sign of lack of ideas or originality when I use them.


I like Crossfade, but I can surely say what I don't like: When videos sync a lot of stuff with crossfades or use so many pointless crossfades. It just doesn't feel right.