Back in Hour 5, "Adding Transitions: From Dissolves to Zooms," I skipped a few of the more-involved transitions. I'll run some by you here. Creating Image Mask TransitionsThis is more like a special effect than a transition. Basically you use any imageblack and white, grayscale, or full color as a means to display part(s) of clip A and part(s) of clip B at the same time. Clip A shows through the black area of your image (or any part of it that is 50% or more gray), and clip B shows through the white area (or any part that is less than 50% gray). To reiterate, in this case Premiere sees things only as black or white. Even if you use a mask with color, Premiere will make the transition by converting the color image to grayscale. To do this, you'll need a mask. To get some hand's-on experience, I'd suggest you make a rudimentary mask using a tool such as MS Paint. Create your mask and save it on your Premiere scratch disk. Figure 9.11 shows how a mask might look. Basically it's a stark black-and-white graphic. Remember the black area will let that part of clip A show through, and the white area displays that section of clip B. Figure 9.11. A rudimentary mask created in MS Paint for use with the Image Mask transition.
Task: Create an Image Mask TransitionTo create an Image Mask transition, follow these steps:
As with most transitions, if you click the little down arrow, you'll switch how Premiere performs this transition. Instead of letting clip A show through the black portion of your mask, clip A now shows through the white and clip B shows through the black. Creating Gradient Wipe TransitionsThis is more like what you'd expect to see in a transition. It works like the Image Mask transition in that it lets parts of clip A and clip B display together using a custom mask, but the Gradient Wipe transition actually moves from one scene to the next using a smooth animation. In a reversal of the Image Mask transition, clip A shows through the white area whereas clip B shows through the black. Also, in this case, Premiere does see things as graygradually. As the transition progresses, the gray areas " darken " and more of clip B shows through until at the end of the transition only clip B is onscreen. As with the previous task (the Image Mask transition), I'd suggest you create a grayscale gradient mask. Figure 9.14 shows a very rudimentary example using black, two grayscale areas, and white. Figure 9.14. A rudimentary grayscale mask created in MS Paint for use with the Gradient Wipe transition.
Task: Create a Gradient Wipe TransitionTo create a Gradient Wipe transition, follow these steps:
Similar to the Image Mask transition, you can change how this transition works by clicking, in this case, the R button. This starts the transition from the top instead of the bottom. Creating QuickTime TransitionsI don't know why the QuickTime transitions get such minimal coverage in the Premiere manual or other how-to books because they are almost as varied and customizable as all the standard Premiere transitions. Using the same two color mattes (or two video clips of your choosing), find the QuickTime transition (in the QuickTime folder) and drag and drop it over the edit point. It'll replace the Gradient Wipe transition. This automatically opens the Select Effect dialog box shown in Figure 9.16. If you scroll down the transition menu you'll see a lot of familiar names Cross Fade (same as Cross Dissolve), Push, Radial, Slide, Wipe, and Zoom. There is some redundancy here, but the customizing tools are different and in some ways are an improvement over Premiere. Figure 9.16. The QuickTime transition interface with the Gradient Wipe transition customization interface.
Just to see how the QuickTime transition process compares to Premiere's, select the now familiar Gradient Wipe transition. I've highlighted it in Figure 9.16. Note that QuickTime transitions automatically display a real-time preview. Nice. Adjust the Edge Blur setting to see how that changes things. If you double-click the Matte window, you can select your gradient graphic and see how that'll work. The Percentage sliders work much like the sliders in Premiere's Transition Settings dialog boxthey indicate where the transition will start and end. If you make the first slider 100% and the second 0%, that is like changing the direction of the arrow in the Premiere Transitions Setting dialog box. Select the Iris transition and open the Wipe Type drop-down menu. Here is the QuickTime transition's real power. Check out all those types of irises. Try a diamond; then change the Horizontal and Vertical repeat numbers to something like 2 and 3. Add a border (4 pixels works well), select a color, and soften the edges. It should look like Figure 9.17. Figure 9.17. QuickTime's Iris transition offers infinite customizability .
Try the Implode transition. This is the perfect means to let one image slide down a drain to reveal a sink. Using an X/Y axis you can select the specific endpoint. Finally, explore the Wipe transitionsall 36 of them!
Task: Stringing Together Multiple TransitionsThis is an instance where you'll want to shift the regular direction of a transition from clip A to clip B, to clip B to clip A. Backwards . It's best to use the A/B editing mode because you need to have a large overlap. After eight steps your timeline should look like Figure 9.19:
Figure 9.19. Multiple transitions let you shift from clip A to clip B then back to clip A.
You can use multiple transitions to give a brief glimpse of a clip before going back to it. |