Vexercise 2 Drops! Transitions (and past iterations)

[lola]

Hi folks! It's time for Summer School Vexercise 2!

Here's the instructions:

Vexercise 2 Focus on Transitions: (1 minute video) Use transitions for every edit. Extreme version: use as many different transitions as you can.

You can also absolutely opt to do the earlier versions of Vexercise 2, Visual Continuity &or Lightbuilding

For the transitions version of this vexercise, you can use the default transitions that come with your editing software, but you can also look further afield for some more possibilities.  Here's a video that links to some promising resources for transitions! 

If you're new to editing, here are a couple of basic tutorials on using transitions
Using Transitions in Premiere
Using Transitions in Resolve

On a meta note, I feel like the use of transitions in fan video/vidding differs pretty radically depending on which corner of fan video (vidding/edits/etc.) you're in (and also for that matter the time period!) In the vidding tradition, shall we say (Vividcon tradition, maybe?) clean cuts are definitely a key aesthetic for a tight, clean, feel, but even within that editing style, transitions can be used so effectively. But in other corners of fan video, transitions are a highly visible part of the video itself, rather than careful accents.

What are some of your favorite videos that use transitions, either subtly or as a sort of spectacle? Let's link them below and come up with a little playlist of sorts! 

Comments

[extrapenguin]

My first thought when I read the summer school assignment was "Was George Lucas actually just doing the summer vexercises when he was rudely pulled to the past?" since that man definitely has a slide cut fetish. So, I obviously made a vid for Revenge of the Sith: A Turn of the Wheel. The music, Volturian - Crimson Dust, was 1:10 on its own so I didn't do any cutting there.

Since transitions were the point of the thing, it sort of changed the editing mindset? So instead of cutting on the beat, clip-internal stuff happened on the beat. I also tried to do motion matching with the transition types – swirly spiral transition when they were going around, side wipe when someone was coming from the side etc – which sort of worked? The side wipe enhanced some of the sideways movement, though a lot of the rest was more handwavey, especially since there wasn't always much overlap for the clips. (I clipped EVERY lightsaber fight in RotS. Then I ended up only using the stuff from the first sequence. /o\) And if the transitions are silly, well, that's just canon-typical. :P

Kdenlive notes:
1. The first and last frames of the transition are always just one source. So if the transition is 3 frames long, only the middle frame will be a blend of the two clips! However, even if there's only 3 frames of overlap, you can safely extend the transition by one frame in each direction without any hinky effects.
2. You can download extra transitions at kde.org! I only figured it out too late for the vid, but some of those look pretty rad.

[seekingferret]

You can also design your own wipes for KDE pretty easily, by making a greyscale image in an image editor like Glimpse and then saving it as a PGM file.

[extrapenguin]

TIL! I wasn't sure of the PGM filetype. Probably not going to make my own wipes, though.

[marah_sarie]

A few vids I have bookmarked that make use of transition effects:

Crowley's Saunter | Tip Pon It | Good Omens by RebeccaHansson (lots of shaky visual effects and quick movement)
CA: The Winter Soldier | Everybody Wants To Rule The World by VilyaXxX0llwyna
Abigail Hobbs|| Blinding by Shainira (Hannibal-typical blood, gore and violence, also some flashy light effects)

Definitely in all three, the transitions really feel like they contribute to the overall feel of the vid (although in different ways for each one!)

[nu_breed]

I think Lim's Tony Stark vid Expo is a goddamn masterclass in transitions (and other effects including lightbuilding which is also relevant for the 2.0 version of Vex 2).

Visual triggers: very heavy on light popping and shaky camera work and rotations and fast cuts.

[marah_sarie]

I went with Original Vexercise 2 first, so here is my Visual Continuity one:

Garden of Eden (斗罗大陆 | Douluo Continent)

Stuck to one minute this time!

[lola]

This is beautiful, and so smooth! I love the song choice too. I really have to get back to watching Douluo Continent. I dropped it at some point for kind of no reason at all...

[marah_sarie]

And here's my Transitions one:

The Rebel Path (斗罗大陆 | Douluo Continent)

Going all in on the Giant Spiders in this one, plus warnings for body horror and injury. Visual triggers for fast cuts, glitchy effects and motion blur (please let me know if there's anything else I should be giving a heads up for!)

[caramarie]

My transitions are still mostly just crossfades – I am a very hard-cut type of vidder so even that feels fancy to me :p But I had a good dig around in the transitions section in Vegas, which I've never actually done before. It's interesting to know what there actually is!

Live in the Real World (Alice in Borderland)