Quick Look: Canopus VideoFX Transitions
Jan. 08, 2004 - Canopus Corp. has released VideoFX Transitions, a collection of more than 500 transitions for video editing applications such as Canopus Let's Edit, Ulead Media Studio Pro, and Adobe Premiere Pro. Because we can't look at all the transitions in a video, we'll take a look at some of the transitions as well as the companion app that ships with the product, VideoFX Organizer. I ran the transitions with Premiere Pro. When accessing the VideoFX transitions from within Premiere Pro, a single VideoFX Effects folder appears in the Video transitions Library with one transition. You drag that transition onto the Timeline, double click it, hit the custom tab, and the Video FX transitions organizer launches. You can then select and customize from one of the 500 transition that you want to place in your project.
VideoFX Organizer[an error occurred while processing this directive]The VideoFX Organizer is a separate applet that enables you to organize, customize and view the VideoFX transitions without going into the NLE. This is probably the best place to start with the VideoFX transitions, because here is where you can view the transitions in a fashion that doesn't take up a lot of your time. When you first launch VideoFX Organizer, the main interface launches with a guide that tells you what can be found in the organizer.
In the main interface, you can find the Effect Categories which lists all the different VideoFX transition families; the Effect list, which houses each effect's presets that are found in each category; the preview window, which enables you to view what the effect will look like; and the toolbar, which helps you find your way around the videoFX Organizer. As you view the different transitions, keep in mind that each of these can be customized in a variety of different ways to suit your own specific needs.
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| Clicking on the Config button in Premiere opens the VideoFX interface that let's you customize the transition. |
For example, if you are working with the Ball Bounce transition, and the transition has the ball bounce only one time, you can change that to bounce twice, thrice, and up to five times. With this particular transition, you can also adjust the depth, the highlight, the number of bounces, the ball's elasticity, and the ball's start position as it makes the transition. You can also adjust the shadow as well as the shadow's colors.
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| NTSC/PAL Color Safe warning |
The color picker also has a built in NTSC/PAL color safe zone, so if you exceed these parameters when adjusting the colors in a particular transition, the software warns you that the colors that you picked are not NTSC/PAL color safe. All of the transitions have some level of customization to them, and some are more customizable than others.
The Transitions
VideoFX Transitions comes in three main categories with several sub-categories in each. These include 3D Objects, Alpha, and Standard. Within the 3D objects category are 3D Object Transitions, which includes such transitions as Film Loop, Gavel-Swap video, and News Machines; and 3D Object Wipe, which features objects such as planes, cameras, and butterflies wiping in several different directions.
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| Alpha Transitions |
The Alpha folder features Alpha animated, which features 46 transitions, Alpha Color Map, which features 13 transitions, Alpha Organic Dissolves, with 30 transitions, Alpha Shape Wipes, with 55 wipes, Alpha Vapor Dissolve, with 10 wipes, and Alpha Wipes, which includes 69 different wipes.
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| 3D object wipes |
When you single click a transition in the transition window, a sample of that transition plays in the preview window at the bottom left of the transition window. When you double click a transition from the variety that are available, the customization window pops open while the transition previews in the window as well.
The Standard folder contains 22 different transitions folders with varying numbers of transitions in each folder.
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| Ball Bounce |
These include Ball bounce, with 10 different bouncing ball transitions; Billboard, with 10 different billboard/pane transitions; Blend, with 17 different blend type tranisitions;
Blinds, which includes 16 vertical and horizontal blind type transitions; blocks, which includes 36 different block type transitions;
Confetti, which features 11 transitions with confetti like you would see at a new year's parade;
Criss Cross, which includes 10 transitions, and has the look of a revolving or criss crossing door. The transitions take the revolving door look and tweaks the angle in various ways;
Cube Spin, which features 10 transitions. These transitions break up into cubes in varying ways; Cylinder Roll also features 10 transitions. These have the look of a piece of paper being rolled up in different ways to make the transition;
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| Rolling Cube |
Four Pages features 10 transitions, all of which break away or come together in fours; Mirror twist features 10 transitions that cause the transition to cut away or filet in several different ways;
Mosaic, which includes 12 transitions, takes the concept of a mosaic pattern, and applies it in varying ways; Page Peel also features 10 transitions which are all basically page peels in different directions;
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| Cleaver is an interesting transition |
Pane Peel also features 10 transitions. These can be best described as the stripping away and assembling of the transitions. Each is unique; Paper Fly includes 10 transitions and offers the concept of the transition as a piece of paper, flying off in a variety of different ways, including side wind, strong wind, and sailing along;
Quad Sphere features 10 transitions, and basically moves four spheres into and out of the transition in varying ways;
Ripple also includes 10 transitions. These give a ripple effect as if you were dropping stones in a still body of water. The transitions differ depending on how the surface of the water is disturbed, and are reflected in some of the names of the transitions, such as pool, corner waves, and wave in; Rolling Cube features 11 transitions. These take the cube spin concept and makes the transitions roll away to the next clip in various ways, such as due South-West, Due South East, side split, and tilt;
Rotating Shapes includes 19 transitions. These are basically different shapes, such as Yin Yang, Clouds, Butterfly, and Floating hearts. The shape starts off as the first clip, then rotates until the second clip is in its place;
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| Confetti |
Shuffle sports 12 transitions. These include such varying transitions as Angled Swap Horizon, Corner Rotate, and Midpoint rotate vertical. These transitions shuffle one clip to the next. It is orderly and not too flashy, just a straight shuffle, though the orientation of the shuffle is different for each;
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| Click image to view some of the transitions in action |
Split features 17 transitions. As with all the others, each is unique. In each of the transitions, the split is an equal breaking up of the transition as in moves to the next clip; Twist includes 19 transitions. These are twisty type transitions that occur in varying ways.
First Impressions
A lot of these transitions are very cool and would work well with a variety of projects. Many of the transitions are clean and very unpretentious. Some of the transitions such as a few of the 3d object wipes are also very corny in my opinion. They would however work in the right situation when the job calls for them, so, its just an added bonus that they are in the library. Overall, the $49.95 collection of transitions is quite large, with many useful ones, and they plug right into the popular video editors, including Canopus' own Let's EDIT, EZEdit, Raptor Edit, Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.0 through 7.0, VideoStudio 5 through 7, and Adobe Premiere 6.0 through Pro. For more information, visit www.canopus.com
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