Quick transitions

One way to apply a transition effect in a sequence is to drag it from the Effects panel to the edit directly.

I'm going to go to the Window menu here and choose Effects, browse through my Video Transitions and perhaps I'll take the default Cross Dissolve and drop it straight in between these two clips.

This works perfectly but I'd like to show you a faster way using the keyboard.

If I zoom in a little using the Navigator here so we can see that transition more clearly, you can see that I can change the duration of a transition effect by dragging the ends much as you might trim a clip.

If I hold the Shift key, then I can make an asymmetric adjustment.

See, I am making the beginning of the transition shorter than the end.

You can also double click on the transition effect to specify a new Duration. put in 2.00 here.

I'm not worried about the punctuation because I know Premiere Pro CC will correct it for me and I'll click OK.

With a transition effect selected you can go to the Effect Controls panel and access more advanced options.

This particular transition effect is quite simple so all I can really choose is where the center of the transition effect is.

I'm going to select that transition effect and I'm going to press Backspace or Delete to remove it.

When you add a transition effect it has a default duration and you set that in the timeline Preferences.

That's under the Edit menu in Windows and the Application menu in Mac OS.

You can choose whether the Duration for a transition effect is in Seconds or Frames.

And it's pretty useful choosing Seconds because then, the frame rate of your sequence doesn't matter.

I'm pretty happy with 1.00 Second so I'll click OK.

Keyboard shortcuts for applying transitions actually apply the default transition.

So, we ought to specify that next.

In my Effects panel, I think I'm going to choose something nice and visible.

I'll go to the Iris transition effects and I'll choose the Iris Diamond.

To specify this as the default transition effect right click on it and choose Set Selected as Default Transition.

It’s just one option in that menu.

Now we're ready to use the keyboard.

I'll zoom back out a little on the Timeline so we can see what's going on.

And now I'm going to need to choose the clips that I want transition effects to be applied to.

I'm going to marquee select all of these clips so you can see what happens.

There are three keyboard shortcuts to add a transition effect to video, audio or both.

And let's check out how they work.

First, if I press Shift D for default you can see every clip whether it's video or audio gets a transition effect including the ends of those clips.

I'll just undo with Control Z here in Windows, that would be Command Z on Mac OS.

Command D or Control D adds a transition effect just to video clips.

Again, I'll undo.

And Shift Command D or Shift Control D will add transition effects only to audio clips.

And I'll undo again.

You'll notice again that every time you apply transition effects this way using a keyboard shortcut, the clips at the ends of your sequence also receive a transition effect.

And for more control, you can also select multiple edits and apply transitions using a keyboard shortcut.

To do this I'm going to deselect by clicking on the background of the Timeline panel or in depressing the Escape key.

I'm going to hold down Control here on Windows, this would be Command on Mac OS and I'm going to marquee select a range of edits.

Let's try Shift D again and we're applying transition effects only to these selected edits.

I'll undo once more with Control Z or Command Z.

I can also deselect and select a range of clips and use my keyboard shortcut.

In this case I'm going to press Shift D, which should give me a transition effect on all video and audio clips, but of course in this case I've specifically selected just video clips, so it doesn't matter.

Although the keyboard shortcut would add an audio transition effect there's no audio selected and so on this occasion it's just as transitions between the selected clips.

Because this combination of selecting individual clips segments and pressing Shift D is so convenient and easy to remember it's probably the shortcut, you're most likely to keep in mind.

But do remember that there are variations on the theme.

And keyboard shortcuts are almost always faster than dragging with the mouse.

That's a quick introduction to applying transitions with keyboard shortcuts in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.