Alpha transitions

I just downloaded the Alpha Transitions off the Apple website, "for use with Final Cut Pro 7" it says...but I have never (knowingly) used an alpha transition before, and I don't know how they work.

Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks!
Casey

Drag the folder into FCP. Then go to effects>video transitions>wipe>alpha transitions. Add that to a a cut. Then go to any one of the alpha transitions in the folder that you just imported, drag the clip, clip alpha matte and wipe matte into the respective image wells.



www.strypesinpost.com

How the transitions works, is that the clips don't have any embedded alpha channels.

To use it manually in FCP (if you want to do it manually, that is), lay your two clips in a sequence, with an overlapping area for the transition. Then drop the wipe matte in between the two clips in the transition area, and select your outgoing clip and set blend mode to travel matte-luma, because you don't have an option to for inverted luma, you invert the wipe matte with the invert filter, then drag the transition clip, and its clip alpha matte onto the sequence. Make sure the transition clip is on top its alpha matte, and set the clip to travel matte-luma. And adjust speed of the transition to taste by adjusting the speed and length of the transition clips.



www.strypesinpost.com

And this is Kevin Monahan from FCP World, showing you how to make your own alpha transition in FCP and Motion.







www.strypesinpost.com

How ya like that?

More tutorials to come, but I'm afraid there will be a small charge to view them. Stay tuned!

Kevin Monahan
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Great tutorial, Kevin. Really clear and easy to follow. I was wondering though, why all this palaver via Motion is better than dropping a .tiff with transparency over the top of a push wipe, and key framing it to pass at the same time?

Let me try to answer that before Kevin does another tutorial and charges small fee for that.

You have more control over the wipe (you really want the wipe to follow the movement of the Daibutsu, rather than operate as its own entity). Also, with a wipe matte, you can easily animate different kinds of transitions- you can use different elements randomize the wipe (eg. inkblots, water, explosion), you can accelerate the speed of the wipe together with your transition object, etc...



www.strypesinpost.com

Oh, right, with gradients I can see this. But a black/white wipe? I think I'm getting lazy in my old age. Don't want to leave the comfort of FCP to have to trek over to Motion.

I will check it out though, cause the tute was cool.