--- title: "VHS Transition" url: "https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/vhs-transition.html" description: "Distort from one shot to the next while mimicking the look of a VHS tape that's been recorded over." --- # VHS Transition Universe ## VHS TRANSITION [Video: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_hero.mp4](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Multimedia/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_hero.mp4) Distort from one shot to the next while mimicking the look of a VHS tape that's been recorded over. --- #### Presets Press Play on any of Universe's glitchy yet awesome VHS Transition presets. 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. ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_presets.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_presets.png) As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a VHS Transition look and then save it under its own name by pressing the **Save Preset...** button. --- ### Getting Started in a Timeline ![Premiere_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/premiere-pro_universe.png) ![FinalCutPro_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/final-cut-pro-x_universe.png) ![Vegas_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/sony-vegas-pro_universe.png) ![Resolve_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/resolve_universe.png) ![Image: avidmedia_universe.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/avidmedia_universe.png) 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 ![AfterEffects_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/after-effects_universe.png) ![Motion_icon](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/motion_universe.png) 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 - **Transition Type** determines the overall movement from one shot to the next during the transition. It can **Slide Down** (default) onto the screen or **Slide Up**. There's also the more subtle **Wipe** effect or the comparatively blunt **Cut**. - **Tape Noise Type** controls the stylization of the VHS noise, although you can select **None**. **Color Noise** (below, left), **Bad Tracking** (center), and **Very Bad Tracking** (right) mimic the look of old VHS players that had a hard time syncing the VHS reel, resulting in visible stuttering.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_NoiseType.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_NoiseType.png)\ **Degauss** (below) creates the look of a monitor resetting its color palette.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Degauss.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Degauss.png) - **Tape Noise** customizes the amount of noise covering the shots during the transition. Below, we compare the values of 25 (left) and 175 (right) using the **Color Noise** type.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_TapeNoise.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_TapeNoise.png) - **Tape Distortion** adjusts how skewed the overall shot becomes using a banded distortion method akin to tapes. Below, we compare values of 0 (left) and the maximum of 500 (right). Note that negative values (down to -500) will push distortion in the opposite direction.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Distortion.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Distortion.png) - **Random Noise** controls a secondary noise amount that flickers on and off the image. Below, we turned Random Noise up to its maximum value of 100.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_RandoNoise.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_RandoNoise.png) - **Stroke** contains toggles and adjustments for an optional stroke visible between shots. - **Enable Stroke** toggles whether the stroke is apparent. - **Width** adjusts the diameter of the stroke. - **Color** changes the stroke's color using an eyedropper or swatch. In this image, we changed the **Stroke** color from the dark blue seen in the above examples to red, then we doubled the **Width** from 25 to 50.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Stroke.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Stroke.png) - **Wrinkle Distortion** toggles whether the tape's wrinkle distorts the image as it passes. Below, we've highlighted the wrinkle in a red box.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Wrinkle.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Wrinkle.png) - **Wrinkle Size** modifies the diameter of the wrinkle, maxing out at 20% of the shot. - **Color Controls** contains adjustments for each of the color distortions performed during the transition. - **Red/Green/Blue Offset** controls the distortion of the position of the respective channels on a horizontal axis. For example, in this image, we left **Red Offset** at its default of -50, but we changed **Green Offset** to -100 and **Blue Offset** to 100, causing those to channels to shift to the left and right, respectively.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_ColorOffset.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_ColorOffset.png) - **Red/Gree/Blue Blur** determines the fuzziness of the respective channels. - **Black Level** adjusts what the color adjustment considers as black. Higher values result in a brighter image. Lower values result in a darker image (down to whatever the original shot considers as black). All of the above images use Black Level: 10. Here are values of 0 (left) and 70 (right). Even darker scenes are possible with negative values down to -100.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Black.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Black.png) - **Saturation** controls the intensity (or lack thereof when set to 0) of the collective channels. You can also push **Saturation** down as far as -200 for some interesting inverse color results. - **Luminance Blur** adjusts the fuzziness of the luminance/brighter parts of the image. We illustrate this here with values of 0 (left) and 20 (the maximum, right). Notice how the speckles of our Degauss pattern don't blur. **Luminance Blur** only effects brighter areas of the underlying clips.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_LumBlur.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_LumBlur.png) - **Chroma Blur** customizes the fuzziness of the image's *brightest* parts. - **Chroma Offset X/Y** moves the brightest parts of the image on their x (horizontal) or y (vertical) axis. - **Frame Jitter** controls the amount that the entire frame wriggles around during the transition. - **Skew** adjusts how distorted the imagery becomes as the frames slant. This impacts the source clips as well as the Stroke, as shown here.\ ![Image: Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Skew.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Transitions_VHSTransition_Skew.png) - **Monochrome** removes all saturation from source footage during the transition. - **Frame Style** determines if the frame is preserved (**Original**) or restricted to **4:3** (a standard during the VHS era).