Add transition effects

Transition effects can help to smooth out abrupt changes in a clip or help to make a sequence more exciting.

It's pretty straightforward to apply a transition effect.

Here, I've got three clips in a sequence, ready to go and I've got the Effects panel on screen.

I'm going to expand the Video Transitions category and then we've got this long list of types of transition effects.

There are a lot of transition effects available, but you apply them all in the same way.

I'm going to expand the Dissolve category.

And here you can see the Cross Dissolve which is easily the most used transition effect.

I'm going to drag this in between the first and second clip in the sequence.

And before I release the mouse, I'm just going to hold it there in position so you can see the highlight.

The highlight shows the beginning and end of the transition effect and there's a default duration for that in the preferences.

If I drag this transition effect directly in between these two clips, then half of the transitions before the cut and half of it after.

If I move my cursor just a little to the left, you can see now all of the transitions over the end of the first clip.

And if I drag to the right, you can see it's going to be just over the beginning of the second clip.

So, where you drop the transition effect, changes the timing of the effect.

I'll just move back to the center and release the mouse so you can see the icon for it.

In fact, I'll zoom in a little on the Timeline and then let's play through the effect.

Looks good.

Transition effects reveal the ends of the clips that would otherwise be hidden.

So, it's always important to check the result in case something you intended to exclude has now been revealed.

Of course, you also need enough overlap that is enough clip handle for the duration of the transition.

I'm going to click to select this transition effect and I'm going to press the Backspace or Delete key to remove it.

Now, I'm going to scroll over a little bit here and just navigate across to the edit between the second and third clips.

And here, I'm going to right click on the cut and I'm going to choose Apply Default Transitions.

Notice that it's a plural.

That's because I might have selected multiple clips and transitions would be applied to every edit.

If I just click away to deselect the join there you can see that the transition effect has only been applied to the beginning of the second clip.

And that's because the second clip has no handle at the beginning.

I'll just undo with Command Z here on Mac OS or Control Z on Windows and you can see the little white triangle at the top left corner of the clip that indicates there is no handle for that clip.

All of the clip is used at the beginning.

You can also use the keyboard to add transition effects.

I'm going to hold down Command here on Mac OS, - this would be Control on Windows - and while I do, I'm going to lasso across this edit.

That's going to put me into the Trim Mode in the Program Monitor, but it's also going to highlight that join.

Now, I can press Command or Control D to add a video transition.

I can use Shift Command D or Shift Control D on Windows or if I select lots of different types of clip, I can use Shift D, and that will just put every kind of transition that applies in.

The transition that is supplied is the default and you can set the default transition by right clicking on the transition you want in the Effects panel and choosing Set Selected as Default Transition.

It's a good idea to experiment with transitions and get used to the effect that they have on your finished sequence.

But in the main, I think you'll find that you'll stick with the Cross Dissolve effect.

It's worth noting at this point that there are audio transitions as well.

I don't have any audio clips in the sequence, but you apply them exactly the same way.

I'll just click on the background of the Timeline panel here to deselect that edit.

And I'm going to play through this transition.

Great.

I want to mention again the importance of checking your transitions and be aware that a transition effect can only apply where you have clip handles.

That's the part of the clip that you haven't used in the sequence that's going to be revealed by the transition effect.

So, that's adding transitions and removing them in Adobe Premiere Pro.