How to Make Smooth Video Transitions

Have you ever seen those quick, silky smooth transitions on other people’s videos and wondered, how can I make that happen in my own videos?! Well, this article is for you. We’re going to break down how to make smooth video transitions - without the help of transition effects in post production. 

Making smooth video transitions is easier than you think. You can even do it with your iPhone camera and basic video editing software.

Here’s all you need to do:

In your first scene, pan your camera up, down, left or right. Just make sure to take note of which direction you will be panning, as it will be important for your second clip, and so on.

Make sure there’s a dark, solid object within reach. A tree or light post works well for transitions, but, if you’re in a pinch, having a friend hold up their shoe or their phone works well too!

Now, you need to pan your camera’s lens into that object at the end of your shot. You don’t need to scrape your lens directly against the object, but make sure it gets close enough so that the frame goes completely (or almost completely) dark.

Next, you need to move to your next location, and find another solid, dark object to start your shot from. You’ll need to start filming with your lens close to the object so that the frame is completely dark (you’re basically starting your second shot the way you ended the first shot).

Now, the most important part, make sure you pan IN THE SAME DIRECTION (remember our note a few paragraphs above!) as your first shot. So if you panned right in the first scene, pan right in the second scene (like in the example video here). This will help make the video transition / illusion.

When you edit your two clips, you‘ll want to trim your first clip just after your lens reaches the dark object, and you’ll want to trim your second clip just before you pan from the dark object back into the second scene, and so on.

If your video transition still doesn’t seem as smooth as you’d like, you can always speed up the end portion of your first clip a bit and the beginning portion of your second clip. This can help hide the shift between clips if the two objects you chose to use for the video transition aren’t quite the same colour, or if you didn’t transition into / out of the object fast enough to create the effect.

Trimming may take some trial and error, but the results are usually worth it. Give it a go!

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