Keep it simple or motivate

Transitions should either be motivated or kept very simple. When I say motivated, I mean a transition that relates to the content of the video or one that moves the viewer from one scene to the next with particular aplomb. This final concept is probably the most difficult to accept, especially if you've been eagerly eyeing Studio's capacious quantity of transitions.

Motivated transitions go a long way toward engaging the audience, and they add a lovely professional touch. For example, in past productions, I've used a snowflake transition between songs at a holiday concert, a golf-tee transition between holes at a golf outing, and a bottle-of-bubbly transition between the wedding ceremony and wedding reception.

Had I not had these motivated Hollywood FX transitions, I would have used a simple fade or dissolve instead. That's because random, complicated transitions that don't relate to the content of the videos confuse and possibly irritate the viewer.

This is the primary reason that I'm such a fan of Hollywood FX: because it allows me to add a fun and professional touch to my videos. Pinnacle offers some alluring transitions in the Basic pack, which is freely accessible to Studio 10 users, and in the free Extra pack you get for registering your copy of Studio with Pinnacle. However, as you'd expect, Pinnacle saves the best Hollywood FX transitions for the optional Plus and PRO upgrades. In addition to the extra transitions, the Plus upgrade offers extensive customization options, and the PRO upgrade lets you customize transitions and even build your transitions from scratch.

If you find yourself using lots of transitions, explore the Hollywood FX samples and consider upgrading to either the Plus or Pro versions.