Special Edition Using® Mac® OS X v10.2

Adding Transitions

The segment between two clips in a movie is called the transition. You can use different transitions to smooth the flow from one clip into the next so that your series of individual clips doesn't look like a series of clips, but rather a movie that flows smoothly from one scene to the next. All video uses transitions of one sort or another.

The three most common types of transitions are the Straight Cut, Cross Dissolve, and Fade To or From Black. The straight cut isn't a transition that you have to apply; this is what happens when you don't add a transition. A Straight Cut transition occurs when one scene runs right into another. As long as the adjacent scenes are similar enough, the straight cut seems very natural and you ...