Transitions could be thought of as the bread and butter of video editing. Or, perhaps, as the peanut butter that makes scenes stick together. When you deal with clips, if you choose wisely, one clip can in many cases cut to another without anything between the clips. To get a better understanding of the concept of a cut , just try watching any few minutes of television or a movie and looking for the spots where the camera switches from one view to another ”this usually happens most rapidly in music videos . Some people prefer cutting from one scene to another without any blending. But there are times when you want to find a way for one clip to lead smoothly to another, and a transition is a perfect way to accomplish this. The following is a list of iMovie's transitions:
Figure 15.11 shows the Transitions palette in iMovie, which can be easily accessed simply by clicking the Trans button. The Transition palette enables you to choose a transition to use in your iMovie, as well as make some simple adjustments to the way the transition appears. Figure 15.11. The Transitions palette.
Sample Transition ”Cross DissolveTo get a better understanding of transitions, let's take a look at the Cross Dissolve transition. Simply put, a cross dissolve is a standard tool that's used all the time in television and films to blend one scene into another. You probably see hundreds of cross dissolves every week without even realizing it. We'll start with a movie containing two clips. If we watched the movie as is, when one video clip ends, it would simply cut from one video clip to another. But a cross dissolve could help the scenes blend. iMovie gives you the ability to drag-and-drop a transition in between the two clips, and Figure 15.12 shows the transition. The transition appears between the clips. Figure 15.12. Two clips "sandwich" the Cross Dissolve transition.
Essentially what happens over the course of a cross dissolve transition is that you see less of the first clip and more of the second. Figure 15.13 represents the blending of two video clips. Figure 15.13. Cross Dissolve ”At the beginning, you see the first clip. Toward the middle, you still see the original clip, but you also see a fair amount of the second clip, "merged in" with the original clip. At this stage, both clips are semi-transparent . At the end, you see the second clip.
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