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Fade question
I feel a little dumb asking this, but it’s about fades.
I’m trying to replace the sky in a still picture with moving clouds. So, I have two pictures on two different tracks, a building and a sky. The picture of the building is transparent in the top half so that the sky in the other picture can show through. I have arranged the building track above the sky track, and done my keyframing to cause the sky to move.
Everything looks good except for one thing. As I fade these two pictures in at the same time and at the same rate, you can briefly see part of the sky picture bleeding into the lower half where the building is. After the fade is over, everything looks as it should.
If I was fading one picture out and the other one in, I would expect, obviously, to see the two pictures bleeding together. But I don’t understand why you would get that bleeding if both pictures are fading in, and at the same rate.
Any help?
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13 Replies
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[Brian Tallant] “If I was fading one picture out and the other one in, I would expect, obviously, to see the two pictures bleeding together. But I don’t understand why you would get that bleeding if both pictures are fading in, and at the same rate.”
And right there is your answer.
What we see when you move the “Offset”, that is exactly what you are doing here, it is a reduction in Levels over time. It is as if you were to reduce the Levels using the Track Header Level. Adjusting the Track Header Levels Slider is a reduction in the Levels. Do that and you WILL see a lower Tracks levels coming through. It is just that we can use the Levels Offset “Fade” to make small incremental Level adjustments at the Start or End of an Event. You do the Levels adjustment you/we will see the Lower Track’s Events show through. A Level adjustment is not a Fade to anything, although it would appear to be, and certainly not a fade to another colour, here that would be the reverse of White, being Black. Black is NOT a Levels adjustment. It is an “absence” of White. It has a number. It exists. When we adjust-down the Levels : Offset or Track Header : we are removing the existence of ALL that is in the Event or the whole Track. If this done over time, your Level Offset, I’m not surprised you are seeing what you are. As the Levels are reducing ANYTHING that has a value, even if you are Offset Fading something below, will “show” through, and that includes ANYTHING in a Lower Track, it is just that the Upper is having its “values” removed faster, than the Lower Events Levels or “values” and they are showing through.
The use of the word “Fade”, and Fade offset, I feel, is being misleading, in as much as the Fade, that is here, is a Fade or a reduction in Levels. Being pedantic, it is a “Fade-To(or through)-Black”, which is what you are after.
So, getting this under our belts, what I would suggest are these options:
1/- Instead of that straight Offset Fade (Levels reduction) use a Fade Thru-Black Transition at the End of the Event
. . or . . .
2/- Place a Solid Black on the Upper Track and “push” that into the Upper Track Event. You may well still see a “ghost”, it will depend if the Levels in that Lower Track are High enough to appear through.
. . or . . .
3/- On a new, additional Track above ALL the other Tracks place a Solid Black, and Fade that In.
So to recap:
i) The Offset Fade is not a Fade to Black. It is a reduction in Levels. A Levels adjustment will allow the appearance of a lower Track, so it isn’t a Fade to Black.
ii) We would need to force a value of Black to completely remove any other Levels present. And here, (and presently I can’t think of anything else?), that would be one of the Options I’ve given above.
HTH
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
Well, here was my workaround.
Instead of trying to fade in those two still pictures at the same time, I simply rendered the segment (with no fades) as an m2t file. The result was a video clip that showed the building with clouds moving overhead…no fade in and no fade out.
Then, I inserted that video clip back into the timeline and applied fades to it at the beginning and ending. Rendering this time produces the clip with fades just like I wanted.
I prefer not to do that because I have this fear that every time I render video I am losing a bit of quality. Maybe this is an unfounded fear…I don’t know. Am I being too paranoid?
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Sure, making a render, or here an interim combined Media is another way. But I was under the impression that you wanted to have control of the issue you were having?
You haven’t tried my approach or have you not understood my post? My approach wouldn’t require you to render any further than your final render. It would also lead you into understanding the difference between Levels and Fade-Throughs.
G
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
I think one piece of information I omitted is important. The segment in question, where the clouds are moving over the building, is not the beginning of the overall video. There is a scene preceding it.
See, I tried the “fade through black” transition and it caused the preceding scene to completely fade to a black screen before fading in the next one. While this did allow the building and sky to both fade in without the bleeding I saw earlier, it still is not exactly the look I need. It has that transitional black screen, hence the name “fade through black”…which could be fine in other places, but here I really just wanted the traditional crossfade. I also tried your other suggestions and the second one produced the same effect as the first. I couldn’t get the third suggestion to work.
Anyhow, your suggestion worked, in a sense: the building and sky both fade in and out without the bleeding. But, because it has that transitional black screen it doesn’t quite work in this situation.
Could it be that my workaround was the only to get that exact crossfade look I’m going for?
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[Brian Tallant] “Could it be that my workaround was the only to get that exact crossfade look I’m going for?”
That’s for you to decide.
My unravelling of what you had previously presented was to illuminate what the various controls do. It would appear that your exploration has had least demonstrated to you the difference between Levels<>Fades<>Bleed through.
Good for you!
Cheers,
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
One more follow-up question:
My workaround involved rendering a m2t video clip and reinserting it into the timeline so I could do the fade on it. You called it an “interim combined media”…is there any loss of quality in doing this kind of thing?
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[Brian Tallant] ” m2t video clip”
I have no idea if this a lossless conversion or not.
Cheers
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
Thanks for the explanation TJ.
Cheers
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge -
What happens if you nest, rather than render, the video in question? Then try fading it in the parent project.
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Nesting is a possibility. It’s making more work than would be necessary though and inserts another level of potential grief. Again, my way would be to use solid black.
Grazie
Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge
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