Less tedious way to do "Matched Dissolve" ?

chrisp

Newbie Joined: Jul 18, 2017 11:53 Messages: 14 Offline

Solved by

Dec 07, 2018 23:13

hi. first post here. just bought PD17 and editing some video of landscapes. i have a fade going from one moutain range to another. unfortunately, one set of mountains is lower than the other so the fade is jarring. ok i thought, i'll crop/move the first video so that the ranges are the same height. much better transition. : ) but this is a real pain in the butt the way i did it.

1) insert fade between clips.
2) go into crop effect for first clip. tween/crop/transform it to match second clip.
3) get out of power tools window and go back to movie
4) see if it looks good.
5) repeat until it looks good.

my issue is there is no way to see the transition (both clips overlapping) while i crop/tween the first clip. if i could do that it would be about 10 times easier. is there a better way to do this?

much thx

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 08. 2018 14:15

StevenG

Contributor Joined: Jan 14, 2014 14:04 Messages: 513 Offline

Dec 08, 2018 08:21

What happens if you position the playhead on your timeline mid-way through your cross-dissolve as you adjust the position of your clips to match each other?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 08. 2018 08:22

chrisp

Newbie Joined: Jul 18, 2017 11:53 Messages: 14 Offline

Dec 08, 2018 13:37

Quote What happens if you position the playhead on your timeline mid-way through your cross-dissolve as you adjust the position of your clips to match each other?

it adjusts the clips together as if they are the same layer. would be great if that worked.

chrisp

Newbie Joined: Jul 18, 2017 11:53 Messages: 14 Offline

Dec 08, 2018 14:13

ok, i think this is officially called a "matched dissolve". damn, can't find anything in the manual about it or in my first google search.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Dec 08, 2018 21:10

OK. There's an easier way. Before you add the transition, move one of the clips (for example, the leading one) to a lower track, and have its end go slightly past the end of the 2nd clip (in this example, overlap a short section of the following clip from underneath).

Now place the scrubber in the overlapped area then click on the lower clip and drag the thin green line from near the top of the clip about 1/2 way down. You're setting the opacity here, and when you're around 50% you'll be able to see both clips overlaid on one another.

Do all your zooming/cropping here, and then restore the lower clip to full opacity and realign them in the original track so you can place your transition. That's it!

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chrisp

Newbie Joined: Jul 18, 2017 11:53 Messages: 14 Offline

Dec 10, 2018 13:41

Quote OK. There's an easier way. Before you add the transition, move one of the clips (for example, the leading one) to a lower track, and have its end go slightly past the end of the 2nd clip (in this example, overlap a short section of the following clip from underneath).

Now place the scrubber in the overlapped area then click on the lower clip and drag the thin green line from near the top of the clip about 1/2 way down. You're setting the opacity here, and when you're around 50% you'll be able to see both clips overlaid on one another.

Do all your zooming/cropping here, and then restore the lower clip to full opacity and realign them in the original track so you can place your transition. That's it!

hey thanks. that kind of worked. gave me some more ideas.

the issue is the clip will have 2 transitions. one at the beginning and one at the end. they both need to match as well as posible. i'm basically matching horizon (clips of many landscapes) lines. so sometimes they need to go up or down or rotate a bit. this means scale, position, and rotation are effected. ideally there would be a keyframe at the beginning and end of the clip since it would be rare that transforming the whole clip would work for both transitions. see what i mean?

so far i see no way to set these keyframes with a preview. your method gives a preview (great) but no keyframes to edit and no rotation options. my method has keyframes and rotation but no preview.

i'm kind of suprised this is not a basic thing. these types of edits have been used in films for decades. psycho uses one matching a victim's eye to the shower drain. that was 1960. : )

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Dec 13, 2018 20:01

Quote hey thanks. that kind of worked. gave me some more ideas.
...
so far i see no way to set these keyframes with a preview. your method gives a preview (great) but no keyframes to edit and no rotation options. my method has keyframes and rotation but no preview.

I don't think you did much more than look at my approach with the timeline preview window

When you open up the PiP Designer, you have all keyframe options available for the track 2 overlaid clip (the partially transparent motorcycle in my attached image), which is clearly aligned over the track 1 clip (the skydiver). If you make the designer full screen, you'll have the best view and you can even zoom in from there if needed (usong the Fit drop-down list at the window's upper right).

Please give this a try because it sounds like it will do everything you're looking for!


Filename	pip opacity keyframe.jpg	Download
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