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FLICKER CUT TRANSITION

Presets

A range of Flicker Cut preset types give you one-click access to fully configured transitions. 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 Flicker Cut look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.

Getting Started in a Timeline

1. 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.
2. Modify the Duration of the transition either by entering a length in the field or dragging directly in the timeline.
3. 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

1. Apply the transition to the layer from which you want to transition.
2. 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.)
3. 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.

Modify the Transition

• Pattern Select contains a drop-down list of what strobe pattern will occur in your transition. A is the transition's first source, B is the second source, and C is the Color chosen. See the last section of this page for a play-by-play example of a pattern in action.
• Cycles adjusts how many times the strobe cycles through the pattern selected above during its transition. For instance, if you watch closely, you'll see that the video clip atop this page goes through four cycles and concludes with a black screen (because we selected black for the Color and our End Behavior is Solid Color) before feeding into the B source.
• Color selects via a swatch or eyedropper tool what color displays during the strobe transition. (Note: Color has no effect if there is no C present in your Pattern Select choice.)
• Color Opacity adjusts the transparency of the Color over whatever background is present.
• End Behavior determines how the transition behaves upon its completion.
  • None results in no effect being applied to the final part of the transition (leftmost image, below).
  • Solid Color ends the transition with the selected Color (shown as brown in the second frame).
  • Fade Color fades from the selected Color into the last part of the Pattern (third frame).
  • Fade White fades from white to the last part of the Pattern (right).
    
• Hold A/B Frames toggles whether the first frame of the transition will be of the original A source and the last frame of the transition will be of the original B source. This is primarily meant for After Effects, where the transition (by default) affects every single frame to which it's applied unless this toggle is enabled, allowing for slightly more control over how the transition begins and ends. For instance, given the setup illustrated in End Behavior above, our last transition frame with Hold A/B Frames checked would be solid brown. With the control unchecked, it becomes the first frame of the B source. (Note: If you are not using After Effects, this toggle will likely have no visible effect.)
• Effects
  • Fade Clips toggles whether each clip fades during its duration on screen. Note that this fade is controlled via Fade Exposure (see below).
  • Fade Exposure adjusts the brightness of each clip during the transition. Note that since Fade Clips (above) is controlled using Fade Exposure , setting this to a higher number than its default with Fade Clips enabled can result in a "flashing" effect, as shown below. We used the Color to A Flash preset, which defaults to a Fade Exposure of 200. The leftmost image shows the last frame of the A source before the transition starts. That's the baseline exposure. Because that preset uses Pattern Select: C/A, the transition's first event is to display the Color (black). Next, we see the A source with Fade Exposure: 200. As the control's name implies, this value fades throughout the transition cycle until it reaches the next cycle start.
    
    
  • Invert A/B Clip will invert the colors of the A and/or B clips, producing a solarized effect.
    
  • Contrast increases or decreases the range of brightness between colors within the source clips.
  • Noise adjusts how much artificial noise is overlaid onto the sources.

Flicker Cut in Action

In the above video, we started with the Color - A Inv - Color B preset. This resulted in the following default values:

We used the eye dropper tool to change our Color to tomato sauce red, just to make tracking events and cycles a bit easier.

You see how our A source plays for the first second of the video (left, below), then the Flicker Cut Transition kicks in. The transition begins with the beginning of our B source because Hold A/B Frames is checked. With a Pattern Select of C/A/C/B, we normally would have started the transition with C, or our tomato-red frame. However, Hold A/B Frames overrides that for the first transition cycle. After that held B source, we're back to the A clip — the second event in our C/A/C/B progression — only it's solarized, because Invert A Clip is checked.

After the inverted bit, then we get the red frame, the third event in our pattern. Then, we're back to the B source, the last event in our first cycle.

Ultimately, the event flow goes like this:

• Before transition: A source

• Transition (cycle 1): B (from Hold A/B Frames), A inverted, C, B

• Transition (cycle 2): A inverted, C, B

• Transition (cycle 3): A inverted, C, B, C (because End Behavior is Solid Color)

• After transition: B source