Effects and transitions

Surface Gloss Determines how much the surface reflects light (as on the surface of a piece of photographic paper) from –100 (low reflectance) to 100 (high reflectance).

Surface Material Determines which is more reflective: the light or the object on which the light is cast. A value of –100 reflects the light’s color, and a value of 100 reflects the object’s color.

Exposure Increases (positive values) or decreases (negative values) the light’s brightness. A value of 0 is the default brightness of the light.

9(Optional) Repeat steps 3 - 7 to add more lights (Light 2 - Light 5).

10(Optional) If you added a clip to use as a bump layer (Lighting Effects texture), choose the track containing the bump layer clip from the Bump Layer menu. Use the controls to adjust the properties for the bump layer.

More Help topics

“Apply Lighting Effects textures” on page 330 “Adjust position, scale, and rotation” on page 293 Creating a Title on a Reflective Surface

Apply Lighting Effects textures

A bump layer in the Lighting Effects lets you use the pattern or texture from a clip to control how light reflects off an image. Using a clip with textures like paper or water can create a 3D-like lighting effect.

1Add the clip you want to use as a bump layer (texture) to a separate track in your sequence.

2Click the Toggle Track Output icon to hide the track containing the bump layer clip.

3Add the Lighting Effects to a clip in the same sequence.

4In the Effect Controls panel, click the triangle to expand the Lighting Effects.

5(Optional) Click the triangle next to Light 1 to adjust the light’s properties.

6Choose the video track containing the bump layer from the Bump Layer menu.

7From the Bump Channel menu, specify whether to use the bump layer clip’s red, green, blue, or alpha channel to create the lighting effects texture.

8Select the White Is High option to raise the white parts of the channel from the surface. Deselect this option to raise the dark parts.

9Scrub the underlined text to specify the Bump Height value from flat (0) to mountainous (100).

Transition overview: applying transitions

A transition moves a scene from one shot to the next. Generally, you use a simple cut to move from shot to shot, but in some cases you might want to transition between shots by phasing out one and phasing in another. Premiere Pro provides many transitions that you can apply to your sequence. A transition can be a subtle crossfade or a stylized effect, such as a page turn or spinning pinwheel. While you usually place a transition on a cut line between shots, you can also apply a transition to only the beginning or end of a clip.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

By default, placing one clip next to another in a Timeline panel results in a cut, where the last frame of one clip is simply followed by the first frame of the next. When you want to emphasize or add a special effect to a scene change, you can add any of a variety of transitions, such as wipes, zooms, and dissolves. Apply transitions to the timeline using the Effects panel, and edit them using the Timeline and the Effect Controls panel.

Transitions are available in the Video Transitions and the Audio Transitions bins in the Effects panel. Premiere Pro provides many transitions, including dissolves, wipes, slides, and zooms. These transitions are organized in bins by type.

For a video tutorial that shows how to apply and adjust transitions, see the Adobe website.

For a video and a print tutorial on making transitions, see the Adobe website.

Franklin McMahon provides a video tutorial on the Layers Magazine website that shows how to apply transitions and set the default transition.

Phil Hawkins has two Premiere CS5 tutorial videos on applying transitions at Infinite Skills.

Kevin Monahan shows how to create new transitions based on effects in an article on the Adobe website: using effects as transitions in Adobe Premiere Pro in this blog post.

You can create custom bins to group effects any way you’d like. (See “Work with bins” on page 106.)

Clip handles and transitions

In most cases, you don’t want a transition to occur during the essential action in a scene. For this reason, transitions work best with handles—the extra frames beyond the In and Out points set for the clip.

The handle between a clip’s Media Start time and In point is sometimes called head material, and the handle between a clip’s Out point and Media End time is sometimes called tail material.

A B C D E F

A clip with handles

A. Media Start B. Handle C. In point D. Out point E. Handle F. Media End

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

In some cases, the source media may not contain enough frames for clip handles. If you apply a transition, and the handle duration is too short to cover the transition duration, an alert appears to warn you that frames will be repeated to cover the duration. If you decide to proceed, the transition appears in a Timeline panel with diagonal warning bars through it.

Transition using duplicate frames

For best results with transitions, shoot and capture source media with sufficient handles beyond the In and Out points of the actual clip duration you want to use.

Singleand double-sided transitions

Transitions are typically double-sided—they combine the last video or audio material from the clip before the cut with the first material from the clip right after the cut. You can, however, apply a transition to an individual clip so that it affects only the beginning or end of the clip. A transition applied to a single clip is called single-sided. The clip can be immediately adjacent to another clip or sitting by itself on a track. You can apply double-sided transitions only when the clip before the cut has a handle at its tail, and the clip after the cut has a handle at its head. For more information, see “Applying transitions” on page 333.

Using single-sided transitions, you have more control over how clips transition. For example, you can create the effect of one clip departing using the Cube Spin transition, and the next clip fading in using Dither Dissolve.

Single-sided transitions fade to and from a transparent state, not to and from black. Whatever is below the transition in a Timeline panel appears in the transparent portion of the transition (the portion of the effect that would display frames from the adjacent clip in a two-sided transition). If the clip is on Video 1 or has no clips beneath it, the transparent portions display black. If the clip is on a track above another clip, the lower clip is shown through the transition, making it look like a double-sided transition.

Single-sided transition with clip beneath it (left) compared to single-sided transition with nothing beneath it (right)

If you want to fade to black between clips, use the Dip To Black dissolve. Dip To Black doesn’t reveal any underlying clips; it always fades to black.

In a Timeline panel or the Effect Controls panel, a double-sided transition has a dark diagonal line through it, while a single-sided transition is split diagonally with one half dark and one half light.

Last updated 1/16/2012

Effects and transitions

A B C

Types of transitions

A. Double-sided transition using duplicate frames B. Double-sided transition C. Single-sided transition

Note: If a double-sided transition must repeat frames (rather than use trimmed frames), the transition icon contains additional diagonal lines. The lines span the area where it has used the repeated frames. (See “Clip handles and transitions” on page 331.)

Applying transitions

To place a transition between two clips (centered on the cut line), the clips must be on the same track, with no space between them. As you drag the transition to a Timeline panel, you can adjust the alignment interactively. Whether or not the clips have trimmed frames determines how you can align the transition as you place it between the clips. The pointer changes to indicate the alignment options as you move it over the cut:

•If both clips contain trimmed frames at the cut, you can center the transition over the cut or you can align it on either side of the cut so that it either starts or ends at the cut.

•If neither clip contains trimmed frames, the transition automatically centers over the cut and repeats frames from the first clip, or from the second clip, or from both clips, as needed to fill the transition duration. Diagonal bars appear on transitions that use repeated frames.

•If only the first clip contains trimmed frames, the transition automatically snaps to the In point of the next clip. The transition uses the first clip’s trimmed frames for the transition and does not repeat frames from the second clip.

•If only the second clip contains trimmed frames, then the transition snaps to the Out point of the first clip. The transition uses the second clip’s trimmed frames for the transition and does not repeat frames from the first clip.

The default duration of a transition, for either audio or video, is set to 1 second. If a transition contains trimmed frames, but not enough to fill the transition duration, Premiere Pro adjusts the duration to match the frames. You can adjust the duration and alignment of a transition after you place it.

Note: In Premiere Pro CS5.5 and later, transition commands operate on all merged audio track items together. However, timeline targeting must be enabled to apply the default audio transition to multiple audio tracks at one time. The desired audio transition must be the user selected default, and you must use the Apply Audio Transition command. If you drag and drop the transition, it will be applied to a single audio track only.

Apply a transition between two clips

1In the Effects panel, find the transition you want to apply. You’ll need to expand the Video Transitions bin, and then expand the bin containing the transition you want to use.

2To place a transition between two clips, drag the transition to the cut line between two clips, and release the mouse when you see the Center At Cut icon .

Note: As you drag over heads or tails of clips in a Timeline panel, you can see the area covered by the transition outlined.

3 If a dialog box appears containing transition settings, specify options and click OK.

To preview the transition, play the sequence or drag the current-time indicator through the transition.

Last updated 1/16/2012