- Reference 4.1 Understanding a Project
- Exercise 4.1.1 Creating a Project
- Reference 4.2 Defining the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.2.1 Appending the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.2.2 Rearranging Clips in the Primary Storyline
- Reference 4.3 Modifying Clips in the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.3.1 Performing Insert Edits
- Exercise 4.3.2 Rippling the Primary Storyline
- Reference 4.4 Timing the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.4.1 Inserting a Gap Clip
- Exercise 4.4.2 Blading and Deleting
- Exercise 4.4.3 Joining a Through Edit
- Exercise 4.4.4 Refining Some Sound Bite Edits
- Reference 4.5 Editing Above the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.5.1 Adding and Trimming Connected B-roll
- Exercise 4.5.2 Understanding Connected Clip Sync and Trimming Behaviors
- Reference 4.6 Creating a Connected Storyline
- Exercise 4.6.1 Converting Connected Clips into a Connected Storyline
- Exercise 4.6.2 Appending Clips to a Connected Storyline
- Reference 4.7 Editing Below the Primary Storyline
- Exercise 4.7.1 Connecting a Music Clip
- Reference 4.8 Finessing the Rough Cut
- Exercise 4.8.1 Adjusting the Edits
- Exercise 4.8.2 Adjusting Clip Volume Levels
- Exercise 4.8.3 Connecting Two Additional B-Roll Clips
- Exercise 4.8.4 Refining Edits Using Cross Dissolves and Fade Handles
- Reference 4.9 Sharing Your Progress
- Exercise 4.9.1 Sharing an iOS-Compatible File
- Lesson Review
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Exercise 4.8.4 Refining Edits Using Cross Dissolves and Fade Handles
Some of your audio edits may contain a click or pop at their start or end points. Every clip that has audio has the potential to “catch a click.” A quick solution is to rapidly fade the audio in or out using a technique called ramping.
Catch a Click
Pleasant-sounding audio travels in a sine wave with a peak and a trough per cycle.
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Each cycle of the waveform traverses the zero crossing point two times as the soundwave peaks and then goes down to the trough and then repeats. When an audio clip has a start point that catches the audio soundwave anywhere other than at zero, you may hear a click as the playhead grabs on to the soundwave in progress.
At the end of the first sound bite, move your pointer over the audio waveform of MVI_1042.
Two fade handles, or “birds-eyes,” appear at the ends of the clip. These envelope handles allow you to quickly or gradually ramp the audio into or out of the edit.
Move your pointer over the ending fade handle.
When positioned over the handle, the pointer changes to a pair of arrowheads pointing left and right.
Drag the fade handle to the left about five frames.
The number of frames to move is dependent upon how tight the edit is against “kid.” You do not want to cut off the last word Mitch says.
Position the pointer over the beginning of the next sound bite.
Drag the fade handle right from the start point to add a small ramp into the clip’s audio.
The clicks and pops are fading away. These audio ramps also soften the clip’s entry and exit. When an audio clip was recorded in a noisy environment, a cut into or out of the clip will make the edit undesirably obvious as the noise pops into or out of the mix. In addition to audio edits, let’s soften some video edits. A fade-in is not necessarily required if your edit starts with black. But the sunset clip definitely needs an easy, blending transition in and out.
For now, you will use a keyboard shortcut to apply the default transition: cross dissolve. When placed between two clips, a cross dissolve transition blends two images together by varying their levels of transparency. One appears to fade away while the other appears to fade into view. When applied to a single edge of a clip that does not adjoin another clip, the Command-T cross dissolve will either fade the clip in from black or fade out to black. A few cross dissolves placed into your project will smooth the clips’ entries and exits.
Using the Select tool, click the start point of DN_9420, and press Command-T to add a cross dissolve.
A cross dissolve with a one-second duration blends the previous shot into the sunset shot. This sets up the shot and begins to slow down the pacing for the ending segment.
While you may apply many transition types and customizations here, let’s add a few more cross dissolves to your project.
Select the end point of DN_9420, and press Command-T.
Select the start point of the GOPR0009 clip, and press Command-T.
Review this transition by playing the project.
Notice that while the video is fading in from black, a momentary cut to Mitch on-camera appears as the helicopter landing clip continues to fade in. This occurs because the Mitch clip starts while the transition from black is still in progress.
Lengthen the gap clip to push Mitch’s sound bite, MVI_1046, to start after the transition is completed.
Now Mitch doesn’t make a surprise appearance during the landing. So far, you’ve applied one transition at a time. As easy as it is, selecting single points is tedious. Fortunately, you can apply a transition to both points of the same clip at once.
In the project, select the DN_9424 clip, and press Command-T.
A cross dissolve is applied to both edit points, but the ending dissolve should be a little longer than the default duration of one second.
Place your pointer over the left edge of the transition in the project.
The pointer becomes a resize icon without a filmstrip. This allows you to set the transition’s duration.
Drag the transition’s start edge to the left away from the transition’s center until the duration info indicates two seconds.
Now you have a slower fade to black at the end of the project.
Review your project, looking and listening for edits that could be softened with a cross dissolve or audio ramp. A quick tip while you are reviewing: When it comes to video transitions, less is more.
With a few audio ramps and a couple of video cross dissolves, your rough cut is ready to show to the client.
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