(serene tones) (shell cracks) (relaxing music) (helicopter propeller whirring) (radio chatter) (upbeat music) (sizzling) (guitar strumming) - Hey how's it going? Parker Walbeck here with
fulltimefilmmaker.com and today I am joined by
our newest team member Landon Bytheway. Landon's been helping me shoot and edit a lot of our latest videos that I posted on this channel. He's a super talented
cinematographer and editor, and he has a specific skill that he does much better than me. Thus why I brought him onto my team, because I'm always surrounding myself with people who are better
than me in certain areas. And the area that Landon
really kills it in is seamless transitions. Now personally, I think this style of shooting and editing is becoming super overused and cliche, especially in travel videos. I do use them from time to time, but I've noticed a lot of videos that either overuse them or misuse them and it distracts from
the content of the video rather than adding to it. So in this video, Landon and I are going to be sharing our top eight seamless transitions and not only showing
you how to achieve them but also hit on when they are most effectively used, and times when they
feel forced or overdone. In this video we're gonna
be covering the basics of shooting and editing
seamless transitions, but there's a lot of in-depth Premiere and After Effects work that is needed for some of these that would take too long
to cover in this video, so we built another mini
course Seamless Video Pro dedicated to teaching you how and when to plan, shoot,
and edit seamless transitions. So if you like this video
and like to learn more about our seamless transition work flow, stick around 'til the end to learn more about our mini course. And yes, this mini course is included inside the full Fulltime
Filmmaker Course as well. Let's go ahead and dive in now to our top eight transitions
that we like to use and when. Landon, go ahead and take it away. - All right, the first and easily
most common transition is probably The Whip. Now I find myself using this transition way more than any other transition because it's great for
keeping the flow of the video, and also from transitioning
from one subject or location to a completely new one. So one of the biggest
mistakes I see people making with the whip transition has to do with the basic camera movement. Obviously you need fairly
quick movements in-camera to be able to mesh both
Clip A and Clip B together. But I find that the majority of the time the camera either isn't moving in the same direction as the other clip, or the transition as a
whole just feels rushed and not seamless. So the solution to this would be planning out your shots ahead of time and knowing which shots
are gonna go together. So if Clip A is this shot of Parker dribbling the basketball then passing towards
the right of the frame, I'm gonna have the camera whip following the action that's taking place. So I'll whip directly to the right. Now in order to have
a seamless transition, Clip B needs to start
whipping in the same direction that Clip A was whipping at the end, which is directly to the right. So for this clip, I'll
throw my camera vertical so it at least starts
whipping towards the right then slowly levels out with the horizon. Now for any transition,
especially The Whip, you wanna make sure
that your shutter speed isn't set too fast because that's part of what's
gonna give away the seam between each of your clips. So instead bring your shutter speed down to about two times your frame rate. So if we're shooting
at 60 frames per second the shutter speed should
be at one over 125. And we also wanna make
sure that the exposure and colors from Clip A to
Clip B match pretty well. So now that our two clips are filmed the editing for this one is super simple. If we did our drop right while shooting all we really need to do is place the clips next to each other and cut them at the right moment. Which is at the peak of the movement and when the colors and exposure between each clip match best. Now normally the speed between each of your clips
will very just a little bit, so some simple timer mapping to adjust the speed at the end of Clip A and at the beginning of Clip B will help that seam become less obvious. Just don't move too fast, otherwise the timer mapping will have the opposite effect and make it more obvious
that you just attempted a Whip transition. Now the goal of a seamless transition isn't to distract the viewers, it's meant to at to
the story of your video and help them feel somewhat attached to the location, people, or
action that's taking place. Now another effect that
I'll drop onto my footage if there's not enough blur
between each of my clips is Directional Blur. Now I love this blur effect because you can key frame it to go from 0% blur to
however high you'd like. I usually put it up to about 15% then I choose the direction
that the blur is moving to make it feel natural. Now it's a great little
nudge for your footage if you forgot to bring
down your shutter speed, or if you just need a
little bit more motion blur. - Our second transition
is seamless Masking. Also known as frame blocking, this is where a foreground object wipes across the entire screen to reveal a different piece of footage. Now there are tons of
applications for masking and you can actually do it pretty easily right inside Premiere Pro. But if there's fine tuning
that needs to be done I'll usually bring it into After Effects. I think the two most important aspects of making an awesome
seamless masking transition is first, making sure that again, you're using the same directional movement from both Clip A and Clip B and that each clip is either shot on a different focal length or is providing somewhat
of a different perspective or location than what the previous clip gave. For example, in this clip I'm
gonna be playing some soccer and we'll go from one perspective of me dribbling the
ball to a different one. Now for Clip A what's key here is making sure that the object that's wiping across the entire
frame and being masked out, hit every part of the frame at one point and moves in a smooth, continuous motion. Now in this case, my ankles are going from the left to the
right side of the frame plus the camera is orbiting
slightly to the left, so my ankles are going
to move a bit quicker across the screen than if we were just
shooting a static shot of me dribbling across the camera. Having multiple kinds of movement, meaning the subject moving
and the camera also moving, helps the transition moves faster and can actually help distract your eye from being able to tell any
flaws in the transition. Now the second clip is another moving shot and the key to these two clips working perfectly together is matching the camera
movement between clips. So since our camera was orbiting slightly towards the left, Clip B needs to at least
start with that same movement at that same speed. Once those two clips are filmed, all we really need to do is create a clean mask on the first clip by drawing it out with a pen tool then going frame by frame and making sure that it completely wipes across the frame. I usually adjust the feather quite a bit so that movement feels
a little more seamless, and again, we have a full
tutorial in the paid course walking you through the full process of masking if you're
not sure how to do that. But for the second clip, it's as easy as placing it directly
under the first clip and then just moving it left
or right on your timeline until the timing of the
two clips matches up. You might need to do a
little bit of speed wrapping to match the speed between each clip, but besides that, you're
probably good to go. - Now, onto the third transition, which is the Smooth Zoom. Now this transition is slowly becoming more and more cliche, especially in travel videos, but I think that if you do it correctly it'll help add to the story of your video rather than take away from it. Now I find that this transition
works exceptionally well when the theme of each clip is identical. For example, in this video
of my trip to Iceland, I zoomed in on a waterfall to then reveal a couple of
friends jumping into a lake. It wasn't too overbearing of a transition because it was going from a water theme to more water. Now this transition is a great example of one that should have
some prior planning. If you're zooming from
a clip of some trees to a clip of Parker's face. It's honestly kind of
a useless transition, because you're not adding to the story. You're probably just throwing it on because you feel you couldn't figure out how to make those two
clips cut together well. Now to make this transition work well and not be cliche, we need two clips that either
follow a certain theme, like tying travel-themed
hyper lapses together, or the water theme example I just gave. And generally it helps sell the zoom when both clips have
the same camera movement of pushing in or pulling out. - Now to show you how we pull
off the smooth zoom effect, we're going to take a look under the hood of my Thailand travel video where I had four different clips that were each shot on the glide cam slowly pushing forward. I then sped them all up and then threw on Warp
Stabilizer to smooth them out. So here's what the four clips look like before applying any Smooth Zoom presets. Now we've actually created
our own Smooth Zoom presets for Premiere Pro that we sell separately that include a zoom in, a
zoom out, an up and down, a side to side, and a
spin transition preset, but we are including these
for free in the paid course. And we made sure to
make these super simple and easy to use. All you do is create an adjustment layer then drag the preset on top, and there you have your
smooth zoom transition. Then once I apply that to all the clips here is the final result. Now the drawback to this preset is that it's not super customizable, so if you like to make
tweaks or add other effects like Landon's Iceland example that has optic compensation to give it that warpy look. Or maybe throw in some
chromatic aberration then we recommend using After Effects and we'll leave a link in the description for more advanced presets
that we recommend using. But remember, don't
use presets as a crutch and just drag and drop
them onto two random clips. Make sure your edit is
already flowing well and then use the preset
as the cherry on top. The fourth transition is Luma Key. This one is also becoming
more and more cliche, especially in travel videos, but I think it's because
we typically see people using the Luma Key transition poorly and aren't unlocking the
full potential of that effect which makes it feel cheap. So let's talk about how to use it to its fullest potential. The Luma Key effect basically removes all of the shadows or
all of the highlights from an image. Now I think the best way to get the most out of this Luma Key transition and not have it be just another
drag and drop transition is by doing two things. First, you should have a subject that fills most of the frame. This will distract the viewer's eye to focus primarily on
the dominant subject, and not notice any of the imperfections that happen when you
apply the Luma Key effect. The second thing that
helps a Luma Key effect be more profound and less cliche is by going from either a bright scene to a dark scene or vice versa. The Luma Key is your chance to transition between two completely different scenes that normally wouldn't be
able to go together very well. For our example, we're
going to transition from me being inside my dark office to a bright shot outside. And to help distract the viewer's eye from seeing any imperfections, we're going to have
both a dominant subject and have the dominant
subject do a quick movement like a 180 jump. Once Clip A is shot and it looks good Clip B is literally going to be the exact same thing, but in a
different, brighter location. Once we're in the editing room, we just need to do some
time remapping to make sure those two clips are moving at the exact same speed. Then do a little bit of repositioning, so the eyes stay in the
center of the frame. After that, we'll just
add the Luma Key effect to the first clip and then key frame it, so that it goes from zero to 100 and that the peak of the animation is happening at the same time that I'm at the peak of my 180 spin. Now we can smooth it out just a little bit so there's no sharp edges from the shadows and even add some blur to
really mesh it all together. - All right, the fifth transition is Rotation. Now there's a couple different ways that you could do a rotation transition, and the first way, which
is my preferred method because it makes editing in
post a little bit easier, is by doing the roll on
location with your camera. So I just use the infinite
roll feature on my Ronin S. Now for this example I'm just gonna have Parker
walk away from the camera while I follow him and
do the infinite roll. Clip B is gonna be the same movement with the same subject, but at a different location. Now all I need to do to make sure that these two clips work well together is be at roughly the
same distance and height from Parker, and make sure that my camera is rolling in both the same direction
and at the same rate. Now in post, these two
clips probably only need some time remapping to be able to really flow
well into each other. But if they need an extra boost, I'll throw on a radial blur and just animate the key frames until I think the motion
blur looks natural, and it hides the seam between each clip. Now if you don't have a gimbal that can do the infinite roll feature you can also just do a handheld rotation like this example from
Landon's Iceland video. In this example Clip A actually didn't have
any in-camera rotation. Clip A did however at least
have some subject movement. So he used that subject motion and exaggerated it into a rotation by digitally zooming in, then key framing a digital rotation to match the speed of the
in-camera rotation of Clip B. That way, both clips are rotating in the same direction
and at the same speed. Then he just added the effect Radial Blur to help blend the two
together more seamlessly. So even if you didn't plan out two rotation shots beforehand, sometimes you can use this trick to cheat the rotation effect and still make it work. Moving on to our sixth
transition is the Match Cut. Now this is one of the
oldest types of editing cuts in Hollywood movies. A match cut technique isn't
really a seamless transition, but depending on how you use it it can feel pretty seamless. For this example, the
focus of each of our clips will be on the action that's taking place. So I'm gonna be running from the left side of the
camera towards the right and then jumping in a very specific way once I get to the middle of the frame. For the second clip I'm going to do the exact same movement but in a different location. And then Landon's going to make sure to make the exact same camera movement trying to keep me, the subject, in the exact same spot in his frame. Now there's really no
fancy editing that goes on in creating a match cut in post. All we need to do is match up the scale and positioning of each of these clips, so that they match identically then trim it at the peak of the movement. What really helps match
these two clips together isn't actually what you're
seeing on the screen, but also what you're hearing. So using sound effects
or beats of the music will help hide the cut even
more from your viewers. So instead of this, we could have something like this. (energetic music) - All right, our seventh transition is The Glitch transition. And this one really only comes into play when it matches the style of video that you're trying to create. You don't really have to worry too much about the specific shots
that you need to get if you plan on using a Glitch transition, but I think the most classy way
of using a Glitch transition is by glitching in your
dominant subject, like this. Now to make this happen, all we needed was a clean, push-in shot of our location for Clip A, then the same shot but this time with our subject for Clip B. Now the editing for
this type of transition is super quick and easy
with the Transition pack. Again, link in description for the pack that includes some Glitch presets. But, if you want to do it by scratch, just bring everything into After Effects, line up your clips properly, then we'll use an effect
called Set Channels to create that chromatic look. Then just key frame four or five frames in slightly different positions, so that when played back in real time it looks like it glitches quickly. - Our eighth and final
transition is the Frame Fill. This one can be used in
so many different ways. You could transition using a lens flare or a light leak in post and letting it fill the entire frame, or you could move the camera
behind a foreground object that fills the entire frame, then seamlessly move to another scene. The lens flares and light
leaks that I like to use are from Lens Distortion and Rocketstock. Links in the description once again. But for our example,
Landon's going to take a shot of my hands on my desk, then move the camera towards the left and let the darkness of my
shirt fill the entire frame. Then for the second clip he's started with a dark foreground of my acoustic foam panel, and moved the camera in the same direction that Clip A ended on. To mesh these two clips together we'll place them side by side, cut them at the right moment, and maybe do a little
bit of speed wrapping so the speed of the movements match. By doing a fade with the
opacity of one of these clips this transition really becomes seamless and is a great way to
transition between one scene to a completely new scene. But there you have it. Those are our top eight
seamless transitions. Again, you can see in-depth editing breakdown videos of each
of these transitions in the full course. We've honestly only scratched the surface of everything you need to know to create seamless transitions. So if you'd like to learn more, you can join the full 15 video mini course Seamless Video Pro that only includes a bunch more tutorials, but also includes the raw
transitional video clips along with corresponding Premiere Pro and After Effects project files, so that you can follow
along with our tutorials and play around with them to master your transitional skills. We also go more in-depth teaching you our top 10 tips to effectively shoot these
transitions in-camera. And we'll also include links to our favorite free Premiere Pro and After Effects preset packs. And for you Final Cut Pro X users, we're including 25% off
Ryan Nangle presets. Ryan being one of the best Final Cut Pro X transition artists that I've seen out there, that I'd recommend learning from if you don't use Adobe products. We're also throwing in 20
free slow motion sound effects that we often use to help
sell the transitions, with links where to download loads of other sound effects for free as well. We also have a couple in-depth
virtual job shadow videos where we break down every aspect of the creative process in
creating seamless transitions, from the planning stages all the way out to the rendering out of the final product. And we'll include a preplanned
shot list that we created, so that you can get an
idea of the planning that goes into these videos. - We also walk you through the basics of using After Effects for those who have never used it, to help you expand your editing skills. And we'll also break down popular videos and how they achieved certain
effects and transitions. We'll also throw in feedback videos of us breaking down our students' edits, and explaining when and how they have misused or
overdone a transition. - And lastly, we'll also be throwing in our favorite orange and teal lut that I use on most of my videos. The awesome guys at lutify.me made me a custom lut that
you can buy on their site. Again, link in the description, or if you join the paid course we'll throw it in for free along with a tutorial on how we use it in our color grading process. And we'll continue to add new content to this mini course to address any questions you still have after going through the tutorials and to keep up-to-date on new transitions that become popular in the future. - And yes, all of this is included in the Fulltime Filmmaker course as well for those who are already members, or would like to join our
full online film school. But that's it, thanks for tuning in. You can click over here
to join Seamless Video Pro or links are also in the description. Big thanks to Landon for sharing his talents and knowledge with all of us. You can follow his work
on Instagram @landonbtw also don't forget to
subscribe for more content just like this. And, if you have any further questions, please let us know. (blows raspberry)
