 
Cooking with
Adobe Premiere
(4.0 or later)
 
 1) Activate the Gradient Wipe. Drag the Gradient Wipe transition from the Transitions window into the T track of the Construction window --- typically between overlapping A and B track clips. You can set the transition to any duration desired. 

2) Select a spice. In the Settings dialog box that will appear, click the "Select Image" button to choose a Video SpiceRack effect from your hard drive.

3) Adjust Softness. Adjust the Softness value in the Settings dialog box to smooth the transition's edge, if desired. From 0 to 128 is possible. If the effect has curved or angled edges, a softness of 3 or more is recommended to smoothly anti-alias the edge. To produce our unique super-soft effects, enter a much higher softness value.

4) Fine-tune the effect. To fine-tune the effect further, double-click the transition's icon in the T track. That will call up a dialog box where you can preview the transition, adjust its range of movement (by percentage), and reverse the transition's flow or image order.

5) Preview. After all settings for the effect are as desired, click OK and then preview. Be sure to use a preview command in Premiere that will render effects, such as Make > Snapshot. That's all, folks!

Tip: To quickly switch to a different spice, Option-click (Alt-click in Windows) the transition's icon in the T track.

Want to learn more Premiere tips and techniques? Take a look at the book Premiere with a Passion by Peachpit Press ($34.95, ISBN 1-56609-165-9).

 


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Cooking with
Adobe After Effects
(3.0 or later)

  
 
 1) Import a spice. Choose File > Import > Footage File, then select a Video SpiceRack effect from your hard drive.

2) Add the spice to the timeline. In the Time Layout window, set the current time to when you want the transition to start. Then drag the imported spice from the Project window into the Time Layout window. To trim the ending time of the transition, set the current time to the desired ending time. Then, with the spice layer still selected, type Option-] (Alt-] in Windows).

3) Activate the Gradient Wipe Effect. In the Time Layout window, click the eye icon (under V) to turn off the visibility of the spice layer. (It doesn't need to be visible to create the effect.) Next, select the layer(s) you want to transition. Then choose Effect > Transition > Gradient Wipe.

4) Fine-tune the effect. The Effect Controls window will appear for each selected layer. In the Gradient Layer submenu of the window, choose the spice you dragged into the Time Layout Window. Then, at desired keyframes set values for the transition's completion (range of movement; from 0% to 100%), direction (turn "Invert Gradient" on or off) and edge softness (from 0% to 100%). Setting the softness to 3% or more will smoothly anti-alias curved or angled edges of the transition. To produce our unique super-soft effects, enter a much higher softness value. When you're done, preview the effect.

Tip #1: By fully expanding the Time Layout window's outline under the Gradient Wipe effect within a selected layer, you can edit the completion and edge softness values graphically in the transition. To drag keyframe values up or down, use the Selection tool. To accelerate or decelerate visual changes, use the Pen tool to add new keyframes or to adjust bezier curves of values.

Tip #2: Unsure which spice you want to use? Choose File > Import > Footage Files and select a handful of spices. Drag them into the Time Layout window and turn off their visibility. Then use the Gradient Layer submenu of the Effects Control window to switch and compare effects. Neat!

 


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Cooking with
Media 100
(3.0 or later)

  

Nubus Media 100 users:
You also can use our spices,
although they will not be
hardware-accelerated. Please
call or e-mail us for the details.


  
 
 1) Create a transition effect. In the Program window, create a transition effect in the fx track between overlapping a and b track material.

2) Enter the Edit Suite. Double-click the transition's cut arrow in the fx track or choose Tools> Edit Suite Mode > Transition (Command-T).

3) Choose WipeDesigner-FastFX. Click the Wipes effect class button at the top of the Edit Suite window, then choose WipeDesigner&endash;FastFX from the adjacent submenu. "FastFX" denotes that your Media 100 hardware will accelerate the rendering of all Video SpiceRack transitions. (Hooray!)

NOTE: To work its magic, WipeDesigner-FastFX currently requires that your primary monitor's color depth be set to millions of colors. If you need to change to this color depth, be sure to re-boot your system for the new setting to be recognized by WipeDesigner-FastFX. Media 100 will reportedly address this limitation in a future release. 

4) Select a spice. Click the Custom Settings button in the Edit Suite window to choose a Video SpiceRack effect from your hard drive.

5) Fine-tune the effect. Use the Edit Suite window to adjust the duration of the transition and preview the effect. With additional controls along the bottom of the Edit Suite window, you also can adjust the range of movement and edge appearance of the transition --- or reverse the effect's direction. (To see these additional controls, you may need to click the panel expansion button in the lower right corner of the Edit Suite window.)

Tip: Hungry for our unique super-soft effects? Currently, WipeDesigner-FastFX only supports an edge softness of up to 15 pixels. For softer edges, you'll need to detour into Adobe Premiere or After Effects --- until a Media 100 update adds full edge softening power.

 


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Cooking with
in:sync Speed Razor
(all versions)

  
 
 1) Add the Black to White transition. Add the Black to White transition to your project's Transitions Library, if it's not included already. To do that, choose File > Add Transitions. (Or click an empty Library cell and from the submenu choose Transition.) Then select BLKNWHTE.TRA from the file list in the Add Transitions dialog box.

2) Apply the transition. Like applying any transition in Speed Razor, drag the Black to White transition from the Transitions Library and drop it between overlapping clips in the Composition window.

3) Select an effect. Select a Video SpiceRack effect from your hard drive. (Current versions of Speed Razor can create transitions only from .BMP images.)

4) Fine-tune the effect. In the Image Transition dialog box that will appear, choose the fade direction of the transition. To slightly soften the edge of the transition, such as to anti-alias any angled or curved edges, turn on the Feathered option. To switch to a different effect, click the Browse button.

Tip: Version 4 of Speed Razor will add enhanced capabilities to our spices. Check back here for new instructions after 4.0 is released!

 


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Cooking with
FAST Video Machine
(all versions except Lite)

  
 
 1) Open a new DVE Group. From the Project Manager window, choose Group > New DVE Group. That will open an empty new window within the Project Manager window. In that window, click the gray down-arrow icon in the upper-right corner (or right-click anywhere within the window).

2) Load the desired spices. In the Load Alpha Wipe dialog box that will appear, select one or more Video SpiceRack files that you intend to use in your project.

3) Apply the transition. From the Project Manager window or the Workbench, drag a loaded effect into the FX1 or FX2 track, typically between overlapping clips in the V1 and V2 tracks of your project's timeline.

4) Adjust softness. To soften the transition's edge, double-click the transition in the timeline to open the DVE Editor. Then click the Alpha Wipe button in the DVE Editor window. The Load Alpha Wipe dialog box will then appear. Enter a value of 0 to 100 for softness. If the effect has curved or angled edges, a softness of 3 or more is recommended to smoothly anti-alias the moving edge. To produce our unique super-soft effects, enter a much higher softness value.

Tip #1: Use the Workbench to can save your favorite spices for convenient re-use in several projects. 

Tip #2: If you install our spices in the Images subdirectory of your Video machine directory, they will be easy to find when loading alpha wipes into your project.

 


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Cooking with
Discreet Logic OnLINE
(3.5 or later)

  
 
 1) Open the Transition Effects window. Click the Special Effects icon in the Timeline toolbar (or right-click the Timeline), then choose Transition Effects from the popup menu that will appear. 

2) Select a spice. Select a desired Video SpiceRack effect from the Transition Effects window. (Our spices appear with purple icons in the window.)

3) Adjust the effect's properties. To adjust the direction of the transition, click the Forward or Reverse button in the Transition Effects window. To rotate the starting point and orientation of the transition, click the Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical button. To customize the transition with Key frame control, press the Key Frame button to open the Key Frame Editor. There you can dynamically alter the effect's speed of movement, edge softness, border size/softness/color and other qualities. 

Tip: If the effect has curved or angled edges, an edge softness value of 3 or more is recommended to smoothly anti-alias the moving edge. To produce our unique super-soft effects, enter a much larger softness value.

4) Apply the spice. Drag the spice's icon from the Transition Effects window and drop it to the right of an incoming event (clip). Or click the Apply button to add the selected spice to the head of the current event on a tabbed video track. An icon will then appear on the Timeline to show that you have added the transition. Note that our effects are available for video tracks, not the graphics track.

 
