Years ago, if you wanted to buy high quality motion graphics such as light leaks, film leaders, countdowns and other film effects you were limited to the royalty free site, Artbeats. However, that all changed when Luca Visual FX started selling these items for an affordable price. Since 2010, Luca Visual FX has provided a growing collection of drag and drop Alpha Transitions that work in almost every popular NLE and compositing application. This collection includes Film FX 1 & 2, Leaders, Light Transitions, Grunge and Modern Transitions. With each pack, the user is given anywhere from 16-86 transitions to use on their projects. These transitions are compiled of selection film burns, film flashes, light leaks, countdowns as well as freely interpreted light effects and contemporary looking transitions. I’m going to address how to use these transitions in your next project as well how users on both Mac and PC can benefit from using these transitions. I’ll also touch base on the advantages between using these over plugins.
How To Use Alpha Transitions
These alpha transitions are real easy to use. All you have to do is drag and drop them over your edit point in your NLE. Since they come in both in high resolution, lossless codecs, their quality is always top notch and they also come with embedded transparency. One thing I recommend when you using these transitions is placing a marker at the wipe point of the transition. The wipe point is the point in the transition where it covers the screen or most of it. Having a marker at that point makes it easier to snap to your edit point. Now, you have the ability to manipulate the transition to your liking by changing its scale, position, blend modes and/or color. Best part is you can stack multiple transitions to create one unique transition of your own.
One thing to note is that Alpha Transitions have 2 ways of being using in Final Cut Pro 7. In Final Cut Pro 7, you can actually use some of these Alpha Transitions with the Alpha Transition wipe. All you would have to do is drag them in the first drop well of the Alpha Transition wipe. Then you have the ability to manipulate duration and other parameters.
Advantages over Plugins
One of the advantages to using these transitions over plugin-based transitions is their ease of use. With these drag and drop transitions, there are no parameters to learn or modify. Lay one of them over your edit point and you’ve added instant production value. Better yet, these transitions render and export quickly. Some plugins can be render hogs but you won’t get that with these transitions. You don’t run into the issues you would when dealing with plugins when you have these items. These Alpha transitions are not tied to any software package so you have the option of purchasing the whole collection or a la carte.
Another advantage of these transitions is that they can be used as overlays for your clips, (blend modes like SCREEN OR ADD can enhance the impact of the color and shapes). Although they are shown as transitions, I can overlay them over video clips to give them a distinctive look. Transitions like the Leaders collection or Film FX can give your footage a cinematic or grind house look by placing them on top of your clip. In order to achieve this, you would have to use a filter that can may or may not be RAM intensive and wouldn’t allow you to view it in real time without some rendering.
LVFX offers 2 free tailor made customization of Film Leaders Transitions to buyers who want to change the word, name or even insert a logo.
The ultimate advantage of using these transitions is their cross platform encoding. These transitions come in the Animation and Pro Res 4444 codec. Whether you are working on a Mac or PC, you are able to use these transitions. You don’t have be in the situation where you are a platform switcher and sacrifice access like you would with some plugins. One thing to note is that these transitions work even if you on older OS platforms such as 10.3 and 10.4. These transitions are guaranteed to work with most of your NLE or compositing program.
Overall, Alpha Transitions from Luca Visual FX are a versatile set of transitions. These drag and drop transitions offer the user a lot manipulation options and creative avenues. As a freelance editor, I find myself using these more often than plugin transitions because I’m not bogged down by long render times or complex parameters to change. Try out a demo of these transitions (Modern Transitions you can be fully downloaded as trial watermarked copy) and you will instantly want them on every project from here on out.
There is a special promotion for these alpha transitions going on right now. You can get 20% off any pack when you use the the coupon code CHANCE2WIN. Those who use the code are automatically entered into a drawing where 5 buyers will be chosen to get a free single pack of alpha transitions they don’t already at the end of NAB. So don’t miss your chance to partake in this excellent Alpha Transitions.
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