In this article you will discover my top five favorite smooth and seamless video transitions, you will need to master. In order to take your videos from dull and boring, to the edge of your seat exciting.
The included video has eight transitions worth watching, in this article you will discover my top five. Let’s start off with the whip, which looks very much like it sounds. You quickly pan or whip from one scene and seamlessly merge into another with a whip in the same direction. Be careful to match the same speed between your clips and also ensure you have the correct white balance and lighting to make the transitions between each shot less jarring.
The second transition is masking also known as frame blocking, this is where a foreground object wipes across the screen to reveal a different clip of footage. To make this more effective use the same directional movement between clips. You can also use different focal lengths between clips or a different perspective on the second clip.
The third transition is known as the smooth zoom which you will see quite often in travel videos. A couple of ways to make this work is to use the same theme between your video clips and to use speed ramping to tie the two clips together.
The fourth transition is known as the luma key which removes all of the shadows or highlights from one video clip as it moves into the second clip on your timeline. Going from a bright scene to a dark scene or vice versa can also help you to make things appear more seamless.
The fifth movement is the roll which can be done easily using a gimbal like the DJI Ronin S. In order to pull this one off, it will help if you are at the same distance and height from your subject. Also your camera will have to roll at the same speed and direction to make things appear smoother.
You should check out the included video for three more seamless video transitions that I didn't cover in this article. The video also contains some excellent examples that are well worth watching, if you are serious about videography and improving your video editing techniques.
I am so fascinated by video, but I fear the idea of diving into a whole new hobby with its own set of knowledge and gear... This was really cool to watch regardless. Thank you for posting it.