fade to white and back

[hondashadow]

Hi,

inbetween two scenes I am trying to do a fade to white and back again, using premiere elements. The original file is MPEG. I can only find a fade to black in elements, and can't seem to change this effect to make it fade to white (is is possible?).
Problem is, when I cut the file at the correct position and step through, I can see that my cut is exactly at the right position. I insert a white BMP file inbetween. Then, I use two "cross dissolves", one from the first part of the film to the white BMP, and one back from the BMP to the second part of the film.
Now if I step through, I can see that somewhere halfway my first cross dissolve, suddenly a part of the second film shows up. So what you'd see is clip 1, slowly fade to white, and halfway the fading clip 2 can be seen, just before the screen becomes all white.

Does this have something to do with GOP? Can I do something about this? Or is there a possibility to change the fade to black effect to a fade to white?

Thanks!

[gadgetguy]

I don't have Premier Elements so this is a guess, but try increasing the duration of the white BMP. Alternately, try decreasing the durations of the disolve effects.

[hondashadow]

I had the same thought, so I already tried that.
The weird thing is, after cutting, I step through the frames, and I am absolutely sure that the cut is at the right frame, and that there is no "mixing" of both scenes. I put the white in the middle, and still everything is fine. Next I add the dissolve, and immediately: mixed up!

[guns1inger]

Leave a few frames in between and drag out the fade a little. That way you can be sure there is no overlap. Dissolves are a bitch for mpeg compression, and usually need to be finessed and given extra bitrate because you are changing the whole frame every frame.

[edDV]

I had the same thought, so I already tried that.
The weird thing is, after cutting, I step through the frames, and I am absolutely sure that the cut is at the right frame, and that there is no "mixing" of both scenes. I put the white in the middle, and still everything is fine. Next I add the dissolve, and immediately: mixed up!

Maybe I'm not reading this right but your first description sounded like the the white to video2 fade was going in the wrong direction. And yes you need to hold full white for a few frames for that "limbo" effect to look right.

[gadgetguy]

Next I add the dissolve, and immediately: mixed up!

Just to clarify, you are adding 2 dissolve effects, right? One to dissolve to white, and then another to dissolve into vid2?

[hondashadow]

Sorry for not being clear enough!

Yes, I am adding TWO dissolve effects.
Clip1 -> dissolve1 -> white-> dissolve2 -> Clip2

During the first dissolve (so TO white) I am expecting to see Clip1 fade to white. What I DO see however, is somewhere halfway this first dissolve, one or 2 frames where the first frame of Clip2 can be seen shining through.

I still do not know how it got there, but I did find a solution: I used "additive dissolve" instead of "cross dissolve", and now I get a nice and clean fade effect!

Thank you all for your help!
(and if anybody knows how the original problem may have started, please reply even though I've solved my problem: it might be helpful for someone else in the future!)

[gadgetguy]

My bad, you did say that in your first post. Sorry. The only thing I can think of is that the frame that you want to split on is not a keyframe and the cross dissolve effect wants/needs to utilyze the full GOP so it's reading beyond your desired cut point.

[Bjs]

A similar effect can be accomplished using virtualdub filters ...

I use it all the time for dvd menu transitions .

[Richard_G]

I'll agree with gadgetguy, this is one of the problems with trying to edit mpegs as the full frame only appears every 12 frames or so. It is for this reason that it is always preferable to do all your editing as avi and only convert to mpeg when you have a finished production.

[edDV]

Sorry for not being clear enough!

Yes, I am adding TWO dissolve effects.
Clip1 -> dissolve1 -> white-> dissolve2 -> Clip2

During the first dissolve (so TO white) I am expecting to see Clip1 fade to white. What I DO see however, is somewhere halfway this first dissolve, one or 2 frames where the first frame of Clip2 can be seen shining through.

I still do not know how it got there, but I did find a solution: I used "additive dissolve" instead of "cross dissolve", and now I get a nice and clean fade effect!

Thank you all for your help!
(and if anybody knows how the original problem may have started, please reply even though I've solved my problem: it might be helpful for someone else in the future!)

I don't know about Elements but for normal Premiere I would mix (not cross disolve) to white, then hold white a few frames, then mix to Video2.

In the biz this is known as a "limbo" white transition. As done in "6Ft Under" on HBO.

[guns1inger]

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[daamon]

Hi hondashadow,

There is a free transition from the Burgers Transitions Site called the BW Flash.

Download the file, and install in the [Premiere root directory]/Plug-ins. If that doesn't work, go one directory down: [root]/Plug-ins/Common.

There is another transition in the Burger set that's called "Bloom". Check it out, it's quite impressive and can be customised quite extensively (whie, black, colour, noise, direction of transition etc.).

[hondashadow]

These burgers guys do have some nice transitions, but most of them are too "flashy" for me.

To be honest, most transitions in most programs feel a bit overdone to me. They'd be nice for a music video or something, but for a wedding movie? No way!

Just my humble opinion....

Anyway, thanks for the link, I'll put it in my favourites for future reference!

[daamon]

They'd be nice for a music video or something, but for a wedding movie? No way!

Anyway, thanks for the link, I'll put it in my favourites for future reference!

I agree - wedding videos are best using either simple cross-fades or a stark cut from one shot to the next (i.e. no transition), if the shots warrant it (I usually match mine to a key point in the music accompanying it).