After my previous overview of Open Movie Editor (OME), I decided to create a small How-To regarding an easily obtainable piece of functionality that's not yet standard within OME.
Open Movie Editor natively contains only one transition between clips - a simple cross fade. However, one of the most used transitions in video editing is a fade to black. By adding a black still image, between two clips on a single video track in OME, it is possible to generate exactly what you need.
Here's how by following the steps below:
1. Open your favourite image editor, in this example we've used the GIMP.
2. Create a new image with a solid black background, at the same size as your video clips. We've used PAL 720x576.
3. Save the image as a PNG, although JPG will also work.
4. Switch to Open Movie Editor and navigate to your footage in the Media Browser window. We've previously downloaded two QuickTime clips from stock footage supplier BBC Motion Gallery, to use in this example.
5. Add the first clip to video track one.
6. Add the black still image to the same video track.
7. Add the second video clip to the same video track.
8. Now, overlap the beginning of the black still image with the end of the first clip. A blue area with a red cross through it should appear - this is the length of time that the fade will occur.
9. Adjust the length of the black still image to suit the speed of the fade to black required.
10. Now, drag the beginning of the second video clip over the end of the still image, so that another blue box and red cross appears.
11. Move the timeline marker before the first blue box and test your fade out to and in from black.
Easy! Move the clips, and adjust the length of the black still image until you are happy with the fade.
To make is even easier, we've created a screen cast for you to watch, complete with a couple of extra fades created in OME. Don't adjust your volume, there is no sound.
This screen cast was created with RecordMyDesktop, edited with Open Movie Editor, and transcoded into an x264 file, using a custom Perl script to control FFmpeg.
Open Movie Editor natively contains only one transition between clips - a simple cross fade. However, one of the most used transitions in video editing is a fade to black. By adding a black still image, between two clips on a single video track in OME, it is possible to generate exactly what you need.
Here's how by following the steps below:
1. Open your favourite image editor, in this example we've used the GIMP.
2. Create a new image with a solid black background, at the same size as your video clips. We've used PAL 720x576.
3. Save the image as a PNG, although JPG will also work.
4. Switch to Open Movie Editor and navigate to your footage in the Media Browser window. We've previously downloaded two QuickTime clips from stock footage supplier BBC Motion Gallery, to use in this example.
5. Add the first clip to video track one.
6. Add the black still image to the same video track.
7. Add the second video clip to the same video track.
8. Now, overlap the beginning of the black still image with the end of the first clip. A blue area with a red cross through it should appear - this is the length of time that the fade will occur.
9. Adjust the length of the black still image to suit the speed of the fade to black required.
10. Now, drag the beginning of the second video clip over the end of the still image, so that another blue box and red cross appears.
11. Move the timeline marker before the first blue box and test your fade out to and in from black.
Easy! Move the clips, and adjust the length of the black still image until you are happy with the fade.
To make is even easier, we've created a screen cast for you to watch, complete with a couple of extra fades created in OME. Don't adjust your volume, there is no sound.
Get Flash Player 9 to see this movie.
This screen cast was created with RecordMyDesktop, edited with Open Movie Editor, and transcoded into an x264 file, using a custom Perl script to control FFmpeg.
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