Using Transitions properly...

[emhz]

Hello,

I have all video editing tools, but mainly like to use Ulead MediaStudio Pro for most editing jobs.

My question is regarding transitions...

Yes, I drag a transition between video clips and this works. However, it doesn't actually use the first frame of the next clip in the transition effect.

For example,
When using a transition such as a "peel" effect from top left, when it plays, it is a black background, instead of peeling into the first frame of the next clip.

Hopefully this is clear?

Anyone know how to use transitions this way?

Any help appreciated...

--
mike

[erayboul]

I was recently adding the Dip-to-black transition on an Adobe Premiere Pro timeline (I can only imagine that Ulead MediaStudio Pro is similar). When I added the transition, I received a message that frames would be repeated because I didn't have enough handles. The way that I understand handles and transitions is that handles are extra frames in your clip prior to the In point or after the Out point. The transition tries to use frames in those handles instead of using frames within the portion of the clip that you selected with your In and Out points. In Premiere's case since I had my In point on the B clip at the very beginning of the clip, it simply repeated frames (which I never really noticed in the dip-to-lack transition). I can only guess that your In point for your second clip is also at the very beginning of the clip ad instead of repeating frames, it shows black frames. If that is the case you will need to bring your In and/or Out points in a little bit on any clip that involves a transition.

[Richard_G]

I think I know what you mean. Are you saying that a transition doesn't peel from one clip to the other but peels from black?

If this is right, have you got the clips in the right place? A transition will only work between Va and Vb not between any other video tracks. It will also only work if the clip is there in the first place. Playing a track with nothing in it results in a black screen in Mediastudio Pro.

To get the transition to work properly you need to have the two clips in Va and Vb and place the transition between them. They must also overlap. I'll give an example using a simple transition, such as a 1 second crossfade commencing 10 seconds in from the beginning of your project. You would need a video clip on track Va starting at the beginning and ending at the 11 second mark. On track Vb, you would need the second clip starting at the 10 second mark and the transition on the Fx track running from the 10 second to 11 second marks. When played back, you will see the clip that is on Va until the 10 second point, that will start to fade out and the clip on Vb will start to fade in. At the 11 second point, you will only be able to see the clip on Vb.

Changing the crossfade for a peel or any other transition should then give the correct effect.

Hope I read the problem right and that this helps.

PS to erayboul. It is wonderfully vague and meaningless (unless you were the programmer) messages like this that made me decide that Mediastudio Pro was far easier to get to grips with than Premiere!

[emhz]

Richard_G,

Yes, that was exactly my problem!

While I quickly found that the transitions work from Va to Vb, I still couldn't get them to work as I wanted.

I did, however, find a workaround after experimenting quite a bit with it...

What I did was simply take the first frame of the second video and save it as an image. I then inserted the image in Mediastudio Pro along with the transition effect and extended them in the timeline to about 3 seconds or so. This worked perfectly!

I was just trying to find a simpler way of doing this. If not resorting to this method, I would still get a black screen during transition. Not sure why?

If there is a simpler way without actually applying so many filters to the main video clips, I would definitely like to know...

Thanks to both who replied.

erayboul,
I have Premier Pro, but honestly refuse to use it. For one, it is not as user-friendly as Mediastudio Pro and I can do much more with Ulead than I can with Adobe.

--
mike

[Richard_G]

I've just tried and found that I'm not suffering the same problem you seem to be. I put two DV avi files on tracks Va and Vb with a 5 second peel between them in the Fx track. Works perfectly. I then tried the same thing using a pair of DVD compliant mpeg files and it works perfectly. So I shortened the transition duration to 1 second and it still works perfectly.

I must admit I'm not sure why you are getting a black screen either. Although without knowing more about what you are doing and what the file formats are, I'm afraid I can't help any more as I can't reproduce the problem.