Hour 5. Adding Transitions: From Dissolves to Zooms

This is one of the principal reasons you bought Premiere. It does transitions. With a simple drag and drop, voila, you've turned a cut edit into a wipe ”or a 3D spinning cube or a curtain opening to a new scene or a page peeling back ”you name it.

Cuts-only edits can be abrupt. Transitions ease the change from one scene to the next. The most common is the dissolve ”one scene fades as the next comes into view.

Premiere offers dozens of transitions. Most have very limited usefulness . They may look wildly entertaining but frequently can detract from your finished product rather than enhance it. First-time editors tend to go overboard when it comes to transitions ”throwing in gratuitous tumbling boxes, swirling scenes, and sliding bars. I'll cover the best Premiere has to offer and explain when to use them.

The highlights of this hour include the following:

A brief history of video editing
When to use transitions
Experimenting with transitions
Testing transitions with multiple options
Resolving transition technical issues
Adding transitions to your project
Editing tips from an expert