why is such a simple effect so hard to accomplish?

December 12, 2007 2:45 AM

Adobe Premire 6.5 - How do I get a still image (5 seconds) to fade in from black (or out to black)? Bonus question - How do I get still images to fade into each other (smoothly, not dithered)?

I'm a novice at Premiere. The "transparency" function has me stumped. I have poured over the manual and tried every "key". Even with a totally diagonal transparency line from one corner to the other using any and all settings, all I ever get is 100% image or 100% black.

"Fade" in Premiere only seems to apply to audio

Can someone explain in plain speak how to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

Bonus Bonus question: Please explain the transparency tools in plain speak. arrrrgh!!

Thanks in advance!

XO

posted by sandra_s to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

I haven't used premiere 6.5 is years (sorry), but....you need two "keys" for an animation. One at a 100% and a 2nd key, later in time at 0%.

This is the basic principle of animation (two keys separated in time, with a different value in each key.)

I did a google search of "premiere 6.5 transitions", which yielded three links which looked good:

Adding transitions in Premiere
A youtube video showing this.
The DV show explaining how to do this.

I don't remember the transparency tools, but that should get you started.
posted by filmgeek at 3:21 AM on December 12, 2007

Best answer: To fade to black, you'll need a clip of black (File->New->Black Video). With your source on one track, drop the black onto the another track with overlap, then drop in a cross fade transition.
posted by plinth at 4:32 AM on December 12, 2007 [2 favorites]

Video Effects are in a separate folder from Audio effects. Look for "crossfade".
posted by signal at 8:49 AM on December 12, 2007

what plinth said.

something worth understanding is that in premiere a lot of transitions work between video tracks so that if you have a clip on track 1 and another one on track 2 you can drop a transition (such as a fade) in between the two tracks.
posted by shmegegge at 10:41 AM on December 12, 2007