The short answer to this question is yes, you can use a filter as part of a transition while editing video in Adobe Photoshop. Actually, you don’t need to “add” the filter to the transition. You can leave the traditional transition out of it and just use the filter itself. Transitions from video clip to clip oftentimes look better and are more graceful when set up with fades, but that’s up to you and what your project calls for. I actually wrote a post recently that covers this topic. It’s all about fades, filters and transitions while working with video in Photoshop.
Okay, I’m going to give you the lowdown right now. If you want to learn the specifics for this process, simply click through to my previous post. What I’m sharing here is a brief recap.
To add a filter to a transition follow these instructions:
1. Open your video clips into Photoshop and ungroup them in the Layers panel so each clip is on its own layer in the Timeline panel.
2. Arrange the clips so they are end to end, meaning, just as one ends, the other begins. Or however you would like your video to flow.
3. Duplicate each clip and then convert the duplicates to Smart Objects.
4. Set the duplicates up so they are stacked on top of their original counterparts, meaning, if you have the first original clip as the bottom layer, then arrange the Smart Object copy of that one right above it as the next layer. Then, repeat that process. Again, you can see screenshots of what I’m talking about here.
5. Apply the filter you’d like to use to the Smart Object layers. In my previous post, I used the Gaussian Blur filter, but you can experiment with some others to see what looks good.
6. Reduce the duration of the Smart Object layers so they’re only about two seconds long. You want the first duplicate to sit at the end of the first original video and the second duplicate to sit at the beginning of the first original video.
7. Apply a fade to the beginning of the first duplicate layer in the video sequence and then another fade to the ending of the second duplicate layer in the video sequence.
8. Apply a final fade to the beginning of the second duplicate layer. Basically, as the video progresses, you’ll see the first original clip. Then, you’ll see it fade into the first duplicate that has the filter applied to it. After that, you’ll transition (fade) into the second duplicate clip that has the filter applied to it and than that one will fade out into the second original video clip.
9. Shorten the beginning of the second original clip by about a second so the transition into that is smooth. In my post, you’ll see how I overlapped both clips.
The entire process is actually rather straightforward once you practice it once or twice. Take a look at the example video I made of the result.
Adding a Blur Transition to Video Clips in Adobe Photoshop
If you have any ideas or suggestions for how to add or use filters and transitions for video in Adobe Photoshop, please let us know below. Thanks!
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