Apple MA261Z/A User Manual - Page 508

Video made this process faster and easier. By electronically mixing two video signals together, you could watch a dissolve immediately and decide if you liked it. The more quickly you can see how an effect will look, the more quickly you can refine it to suit your needs. Film editors had to anticipate how transitions would look and how long they should last without actually being able to preview them; there was never the time or budget to try transitions during editing. It's much easier to preview cross dissolves, fades, and other transitions in a video system, and particularly in a digital nonlinear editing system. In Final Cut Express HD, you can continue to adjust a transition and preview it until you get it just right. Common Types of Transitions A cut, the most basic type of transition, is a transition with no duration; when one shot ends, another one immediately begins, without any overlap. All other transitions gradually replace one shot with another; when one shot ends, another one gradually replaces it. There are three very common transitions used that occur over time: fades, cross dissolves, and wipes. Â A fade out begins with a shot at full intensity and reduces until it is gone. A fade in begins with a shot at no intensity and increases until it is full. These are the common "fade to black" and "fade up (from black)" transitions. Â A cross dissolve involves two shots. The first shot fades out while the second shot simultaneously fades in. During the cross dissolve, the two shots are superimposed as they fade. Â A wipe is where the screen splits, moving from one side of the image to the other to gradually reveal the next shot. It is more obvious than a fade or cross dissolve. Final Cut Express HD also comes with two audio transitions: a +3 dB cross fade (the default) and a 0 dB cross fade. Â Cross Fade (+3 dB): Performs the same operation as Cross Fade (0 dB), but applies an equal-power ramp to the volume level, rather than a linear ramp. Note: An equal-power ramp uses a quarter-cycle cosine fade-out curve and a quarter-cycle sine fade-in curve. As a result, the volume is maintained at a constant level throughout the cross fade. Â Cross Fade (0 dB): Fades the first clip out, while simultaneously fading the second clip in. This effect applies a linear ramp to the volume level. As a result, the volume level dips in the middle of the cross fade. Each cross fade results in a different audio level change as the transition plays. Your choice of cross fades depends on the clips you're transitioning between. Try one, then try the other to see which sounds better. 508 Part VII Fine-Tuning Your Edit