Soft wipes, dissolves, plug-in?

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Level 1

106 points

Soft wipes, dissolves, plug-in?

Every few years I ask this question, just to see what might be new out there:

I cut a film on Media100 many years ago. The Media100 had a built-in plug-in that allowed me to do soft wipes from any direction or point. They looked like very sophisticated dissolves ... I could control where the wipe started and ended - meaning I could get one image truly BECOMING another without the viewer being conscious of a dissolve happening. I've been looking for something like that ever since, but without much luck. It seems like all the third-party wipe collections are rather flashy commercial looking affairs, no great subtlety there. Great for TV spots.

Just wondering if anyone ever produced a set of soft wipes, or sophisticated dissolves, that would allow me to control where the wipe/dissolve starts and stops, from a point, from a side or a top-bottom?

All ears,

Ben

MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 12, 2015 1:30 PM

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Answer 1

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Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:26 PM in response to Ben Low

I think this is what you mean.

The wipes are based on a gray scale image that has a pattern. The white areas appear first, the black areas last. FCP has a transition called gradient image. If you insert the gray scale image into the well in the transition inspector that will be used to create the wipe. This is also a third party alpha transition that you can download that will use the transparency of the image to create the transition, similar to the alpha wipe transition that was in legacy FCP, if you had that.

This is a very crude one. I'm just using a still image, not a proper grayscale image with gradients.

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Answer 2

Oct 12, 2015 10:26 PM in response to Ben Low

as an addendum (Tom, i'm always amazed, what's 'hidden' inside FCPX … never noticed that wipe before)

the actual out-of-the-box Wipe offers some settings with handy OSC, to set the borders blur and direction of wipe ......

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Answer 3

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:26 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom and Karsten,

Both terrific suggestions, thank you. I'm going to do some experimenting tomorrow and report back results. I remember an earlier iteration of FCPX where the Wipes were pretty basic, and not particularly 'soft'. So I'm going to see what they are doing now.

I'll come back and click a 'This solved my question' when I figure out which suggestion comes closest ... unless they are identical ... but they are both very helpful looking, thank you guys X 10.

Ben

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Answer 4

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:34 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Wow. The FXPX wipes have certainly improved!! Very nice. It almost does what I was looking for ... good enough to go with for sure. The one I had in mind, and here your solution might work better Tom, is the dissolve/wipe starting somewhere in the centre of the frame, a point somewhere IN the frame, and expanding out. But maybe a bit more experimentation with the standard wipe will give me something like this.

Tom, is there a way you can feather the grey scale image you are using to create the more complex wipe?

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Answer 5

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 12, 2015 10:39 PM in response to Ben Low

Playing more with the standard wipes I see they will do exactly what I was wanting to do ... I don't remember them being this smooth (soft) when I was working with them a few years ago.

They are very nice. And I can use the different shapes, and place the start point anywhere in the frame, do a big feather ... and one image becomes the other in a most discrete and unpredictable manner. Love it.

I'm a super happy camper.

Thank you again guys, wonderful help.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,010 points

Oct 13, 2015 1:48 AM in response to Ben Low

TThere's no feather control, but you might be able to blur the image.

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Answer 7

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 13, 2015 5:43 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Aha! I never thought of that! Yes, intriguing. Thank you Tom. Now I remember I once had a collection of the grey scale images ... mmm ... maybe they are still somewhere in a folder attached to my FCP7. They were specifically designed for doing exactly what you have suggested, very particular images. I'm wondering if you might just happen to know where one could get such a collection? I'm going to poke around in my FCP7. If I find that old collection I'll post a note here.

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