A 3D transition that divides layers into diamond-shaped segments that rotate vertically or horizontally in an offset fashion to reveal a second layer.
Presets
Four Diamond Wave presets mean waving goodbye to long effect setup times. Simply keyframe the Mix duration (see below) and tune to taste! Find these presets via the blue Open Dashboard... button or the Choose a Preset... button below it.
As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a Diamond Wave look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.
Getting Started in a Timeline
Drag the transition over your edit in the timeline, placing it at the end or beginning. Alternatively, you can place it between two successive clips.
Modify the
Duration
of the transition either by entering a length in the field or dragging directly in the timeline.
You can choose the
Alignment
(Center at Cut, Start at Cut, End at Cut, or Custom Start) either by positioning the transition in the timeline or by choosing from the Alignment drop-down in some host applications.
Getting Started in a Compositor
Apply the transition to the layer from which you want to transition.
Choose the footage layer you would like to transition to in the
Transition B
drop-down menu.
(Note for Motion users:
Drag the footage layer up to the Transition B box.)
Animate your transition using the
Mix
slider from 0% to 100 percent. Set a keyframe for 0% where the transition should start, then set another at 100% for the end.
The
Tiles
control allows you to set how many sections the transitioning layers are broken into. In the example below, the difference between 3 (left) and 8 (right) is obvious, but also observe how value changes can alter what is visible in the scene, evidenced by how the wave is not visible in the right image. Note: The more sections you have, the longer the render time might be.
The
Dolly
slider lets you move the camera closer in or farther away along the z axis from the transitioning layers. Bringing the control to 0 will move the layer directly to the camera. Increasing the slider value will move the camera away from the layer.
The
Direction
drop-down menu changes which direction the animation effect moves: South East (shown in the clip at this page's top), North West, North East, or South West.
Motion Blur
Add realistic motion blur by choosing a setting from the drop-down menu: Off (shown left, below), Low, Medium, or High (right).
The
Motion Blur Shutter
angle default is set to 180 degrees. Raising it
will spread the motion blur iterations, with a high number of blur levels.
Lower values can help minimize banding artifacts.
The
Edge Smoothing
drop-down menu provides levels of edge anti-aliasing, giving edges a less jagged look. Options for the smoothing strength are
None, Low, Medium, or High. Selecting High may increase playback and render time.
Lights
adds lighting to your transitions.
Turn on the
Lights
from the drop-down by selecting Local or Global.
Choose the
Light Type:
Ambient
activates the Ambient color picker and affects the overall composition.
Directional
allows you to use the
Light Diffuse
color and
Light Position X/Y/Z
controls.
Below, we show keyframing a Spotlight position to correlate with the North East animation direction.
Positional
activates the
Light Specular
color and
Light Factor Constant/Linear/Quadratic controls.
Spotlight
gives you the most control, activating the
Light Direction X/Y/Z
sliders as well as the
Light Cutoff
and
Light Exponent
controls.
The
Light Intensity
slider controls the brightness.
Light Ambient/Diffuse/Specular
color pickers allow you to control color tones that appear within the light.
Light Cutoff dictates the spotlight's range.
Light Exponent controls the illumination falloff from the light's center. Higher values increase falloff, thus shrinking the illuminated area. Light Cutoff and Light Exponent often need to be manipulated in tandem. In the following example, we show a Light Cutoff of 75 degrees with a Light Exponent of 2 (left), 5 (center), and 10 (right).
Light Factor Constant/Linear/Quardratic are all falloff fade types and determine how your spotlight illumination diminishes from center to edge. To learn more about these falloff patterns, see our Animation Tween Examples page.
Camera
allows you to enable the
Local
camera, then
Zoom, Rotate
and
Translate
its position in 3D space. The
Camera Ortho
checkbox allows you to see the transition in an orthographically projected view that has no depth, which means you can view the layer more accurately without the distortion of parallax.
Playing with these camera parameters can create some intriguing effects. To illustrate, consider these two captures of the same animation frame, with the left example having a Camera X Rotate value of 30 and the one on the right at 80. Perhaps now the "diamond" in Diamond Wave makes more sense, eh?
