Shotcut tutorial · companion page
Paint a greyscale picture in Photoshop, drop it into Shotcut under Properties → Custom..., and it becomes the shape the cut is made in. One rule governs the result: the darkest pixels wipe first, the lightest wipe last.
Reading in another language? Use the translate picker in the header, or your browser’s own translate command — the Shotcut and Photoshop menu, filter and value names are marked to stay in English so they still match what is on your screen.
There is no filter in this tutorial and nothing is keyframed. You draw a greyscale image in a photo editor, hand it to the transition, and Shotcut reads its brightness to work out what disappears in what order.
The map is not a stencil and it is not an alpha channel. Every pixel’s grey level is a position in a queue: black goes first, white goes last, and the greys in between fill the middle of the wipe.
Photoshop makes the map and exports a PNG. Shotcut consumes it. Nothing else crosses between them, and once the file is saved the photo editor can be closed.
The same three clicks in Shotcut produce a logo punch, a diagonal streak wipe or a scattered chequerboard. All that changes is the picture you feed it — which is why your own artwork works as well as anyone’s.
A custom transition has no speed setting. The wipe lasts exactly as long as the overlap between the two clips, so you pace it by dragging the edge of the transition box.
[ whatever you make the darkest is the first thing that becomes invisible ]
Ben Espanto · 2:37
Click any screencap or timestamp to play that chapter from its exact second, right here in the card. Quotes are transcribed verbatim from the audio. Cards marked DERIVED are not in the published chapter list — they were read out of the frames, and each one names the frame it came from.
“In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use your own logo or any other images to make your own custom transitions.”
The opening title card. Nothing is built here — but the promise is the whole page: a still image you make yourself becomes the shape the cut is made in.
“This tutorial will be done on Shotcut version 20.11.28.”
The published chapter is named Photoshop, but it opens while still in Shotcut: the About Shotcut dialog confirms the build on screen as version 20.11.28, copyright 2011-2020 Meltytech, LLC. The crossover into the photo editor happens at 1:16.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to start with the actual transition file first before we go into Shotcut. And in this instance, you’re going to need some sort of photo editing software.”
An empty transparent canvas in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, document Untitled-1. Derived card: the published list jumps straight from 0:50 to 8:47, so the eight minutes of image work carry no chapters of their own. Anchored to frame 8 at 1:10.
“In this example, I’m going to be using my own logo, which is this one.”
The starting artwork: a two-letter mark on a transparent background. Any shape works — this method never cares what the picture is, only how bright each part of it is. Derived; frame 10 at 1:30.
“What I’m trying to do is start out with a cutout of my logo and then for it to grow across the page until it takes up the entire page.”
The design brief for the image itself: a small shape in the middle that expands outward until it covers the frame. Nothing on screen has changed yet. Derived; frame 13 at 2:00.
“In order for this to work, you first need to make sure that the starting logo or whatever shape you’re going to start out with is in grayscale.”
The colour is thrown away on purpose. The title bar is the proof: it reads RGB/8 before this step and Gray/8 after it. When the dialog offers to flatten, he declines — the layers have to stay separate. Derived; frame 15 at 2:20.
“The way it goes is whatever you make the darkest is the first thing that becomes invisible. And as it gets lighter, that’s the next thing that becomes invisible.”
This is the lesson. Brightness — not shape, not position, not layer order — decides the sequence of the wipe. Darkest pixels dissolve first, lightest pixels dissolve last. Everything that follows in the photo editor is just painting that order. Derived; frame 19 at 3:00.
“I need to make sure that this particular logo here that I’m starting out with, which is going to be my punch out, is 100% black. So I’m going to go image, adjust levels.”
Image → Adjustments → Levels, Channel: Gray. Double-clicking the black eyedropper opens Select target shadow color, and the field he types into is K — the black percentage. Here the swatch reads #000000. Derived; frame 20 at 3:10.
“The next thing I’m going to do is make a copy of it, send it behind the first one, increase the size a little bit, like so.”
A duplicate layer, moved below the original in the stack and enlarged with Edit → Transform → Scale, then centred. The rings have to nest, not overlap edge to edge. Derived; frame 24 at 3:50.
“I want to control the order of how the transition comes in. So this next one here, I’m once again going to go image, adjust levels.”
Same dialog, one step lighter. The K field is caught mid-entry on screen reading 80, with the live swatch at #141515. Derived; frame 27 at 4:20.
“I set it 80 last time. I’m going to do, let’s do 60. So 20, 20% increments.”
Copy, scale, lighten — the same three moves again. The size of the step is arbitrary; what matters is that each ring is lighter than the one inside it. Derived; frame 32 at 5:10.
“This is the one that’s pretty much going to take up the whole screen almost.”
The outermost ring, scaled until it almost reaches the canvas edges, and lightened again. The accepted swatch measures 62, 63, 63 in RGB on screen. Derived; frame 36 at 5:50.
“Finally, I’m just going to go and add another layer at the bottom… I’m just going to black out the background just like that.”
A new layer underneath everything, flooded with the lightest tone in the set. On screen the foreground swatch is set through Color Picker (Foreground Color) with K typed as 20 — hex #585655 — and the Fill dialog runs at 100 %. Without this floor the transparent areas have no brightness at all and the wipe has nowhere to finish. Derived; frame 40 at 6:30.
“It doesn’t matter how you want the transition to go, as long as the first step is always going to be the darkest black and the last step is always going to be the lightest black.”
The finished map. Measured off this frame, the five plateaus read 0, 8, 34, 56 and 82 on the 0–255 grey scale — five clean steps, dark at the centre, light at the rim. Derived; frame 45 at 7:20.
“Make sure that the file that you’re working with is the same size as the video that you’re going to use it for.”
Image → Image Size reads Width 1920, Height 1080 pixels — document size 26.667 × 15 in at 72 pixels/inch. The map is sampled across the frame, so a mismatched canvas stretches the wipe. Derived; extra frame at 7:48.
“Even if you save it as a JPEG, it’s okay. But for all intensive purposes, let’s just save it as a PNG file.”
File → Save As, file name logo transition, Format: PNG (*.PNG). The file that later appears in Shotcut is named logo-transition.png. Photoshop is finished at this point and can be closed. Derived; frame 51 at 8:20.
“Okay, so we’re back in Shotcut. And so I downloaded two random videos. This is the video of leaves. And then this is the second one.”
Back in the editor. The Playlist holds video01.mp4 at 00:00:20:19 and video02.mp4 at 00:00:19:04. Neither clip is special — the technique works between any two.
“Under video mode, I have it set for 1080p, meaning that it is 1920 by 1080.”
The open menu shows the selection dot on HD 1080p 23.98 fps — not on the item under the cursor. That is the mode the transition file was sized to match. Derived; extra frame at 9:20.
“Just for consistency sake, I’m going to increase the size of this second video to make sure these black bars disappear.”
The second clip has a different aspect ratio, so it is scaled to fill. Panel values on screen: Size 2112 × 1114, Zoom 110.0 %, Size mode Fill, Horizontal fit Center, Vertical fit Middle, Rotation 0.0°. It opens at 1920 × 1013 and Zoom 100.0 % before he scrolls it up. Housekeeping, not part of the effect. Derived; frame 63 at 10:20.
“I’m going to grab this second video and all I’m going to do is drag it right into the first video. And I’m assuming that this is how long I want the transition to last.”
The overlap itself is the transition. Dragging clip B left into clip A turns the shared region into a purple crossed box on the timeline, and the length of that overlap is the duration of the wipe. Derived; frame 65 at 10:40.
“At this point, when I do this, I’m actually going to drop the preview scaling a little bit. Let’s say let’s drop it to 540.”
Settings → Preview Scaling. The status button under the player then reads Preview scaling is ON at 540p. This is a playback-performance setting only; it does not change the export. Derived; frame 66 at 10:50.
“The minute you drag one video into the other, it defaults to the transition called dissolve… you can actually drop down all the way down to custom.”
With the transition box selected, Properties shows a Video list that starts at Dissolve and runs through Cut, the bar and barn-door wipes, the Matrix patterns and the iris shapes. The last entry in the list is Custom... — that is the door this whole tutorial walks through. Derived; frame 70 at 11:30.
“I’m going to select the custom transition that we just created in Photoshop. And I happen to call that logo transition.”
Choosing Custom... opens a file browser. The file picked is logo-transition.png, sitting in a Custom Transitions folder on the desktop alongside the other maps used later. Derived; frame 72 at 11:50.
“All of a sudden, this is what the transition looks like. You notice that it started out with a small be in the middle, and then all of a sudden it got bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Second clip showing through the shape of the first logo ring, then the next, then the next. Properties now reads Custom... with logo-transition.png named beneath it, Invert Wipe unchecked, Softness 20 % and Audio: Cross-fade. Derived; frame 74 at 12:10.
“The transition was a little long, so we can actually grab this overlap and shrink it.”
There is no speed control on the transition — duration is length. Dragging the edge of the purple box in makes the same map play faster. Derived; frame 76 at 12:30.
“The order of how the transition blends in is based on how dark the image is. So we started out having the smallest be as the darkest, and then the next smallest was the next darkest.”
The payoff, back in the editor and visible in the preview: the ring order on screen is exactly the tone order painted in the photo editor. Read it the other way round and you can design any wipe you like before you ever open Shotcut. Derived; frame 80 at 13:10.
“I don’t want to take credit for this particular transition or this particular tutorial, because I actually learned this from a fellow Shotcut member.”
The published chapter is titled only Credit, which does not say what it is. It is an attribution: the channel card on screen reads Jonray JR, and the transition files used in the rest of the video carry his name in their filenames. He also donated a folder of ready-made maps.
“He doesn’t start… the darkest part doesn’t start in the middle, which means that these dark parts up here will be the start of the punch out.”
The file open in the photo editor is Video Transition by JONRAY 02 DIAGONAL RAIN.png. Same idea, different drawing: dark streaks in the upper left, fading to white at the lower right. Read the tones and you can predict the wipe before running it.
“Because the darkest areas were at the very top up here, you can assume that when the blend begins, it’s going to start from here.”
Same route as before — Properties, Custom..., pick the file — and the transition panel now names Video Transition by JONRAY 02 DIAGONAL RAIN.png. Stepping the playhead with the arrow keys shows the streaks arriving from the top-left corner first, exactly as the tones predict. Derived; frame 97 at 16:00.
“This is checkerboard. And if you notice again, the darkest areas happen to be on the top left. And then as you move, you notice it gets lighter and lighter.”
The published chapter title is the lowercase fragment “checkerboard top left”; the file on screen is spelled Video transition by JONRAY 08 CHEQUERBOARD TOP LEFT.png. Randomised squares graded from black in the top-left corner to white at the bottom right, so the squares dissolve in that order.
“We’re going to assume that when we use this transition, it kind of swipes from left to right with a checkerboard pattern.”
Loaded the same way and stepped through frame by frame. Squares of the incoming clip appear scattered but biased to the left, because that is where the dark squares are. Derived; frame 106 at 17:30.
“Going back to any of the photo editing software that you have, all you have to do is make sure that whatever you want to start with, whatever the first punch out is going to be, that needs to be the darkest area.”
The published chapter title is the fragment “dark area”. Nothing new happens on screen — the chequerboard map from the previous chapter is still open in the photo editor, unchanged — because the point being made is verbal and general: whatever you want to punch through first, paint it darkest. Anything works as a map; he names a bat signal and an Autobot symbol. That sentence is what makes the method yours rather than his. Frame 107 at 17:40, the exact chapter boundary.
“That happens to be really quick. Oh, because we sped it up. So I could actually pull it back a little bit just to make it a little bit more gradual.”
The logo map is reloaded and the overlap is dragged back out, because it had been shortened earlier. Length is the only timing control there is. Derived; frame 114 at 18:50.
“Nothing really technical, at least on the Shotcut side. The one caveat is you do need to have some sort of photo editing software.”
An honest limitation stated plainly. Photoshop is a paid subscription; the free alternative he names is GIMP, which he does not demonstrate. Nothing new is on screen here — the editor is simply playing back. Derived; frame 118 at 19:30.
“Let’s say you’re in a pinch and you have your own logo and you don’t have access to any of these photo editing softwares. What you can do is you can comment me on this video.”
An offer, not a technique: send the logo, he builds the map. He puts a nominal price on it in the video. Still no interface on screen. Derived; frame 124 at 20:30.
“Jonray JR was kind enough to share his folder of custom transitions that he’s already created. And I am also willing to share that with you guys.”
The folder behind Diagonal Rain and Chequerboard Top Left is offered to viewers on request, password protected, handed over by email. Derived; frame 129 at 21:20.
“Every video on my channel was done on Shotcut. So, aside from examples of what Shotcut can do, you can also visit my playlist of tips and tutorials, all geared toward the beginner.”
End cards: the channel, the Shotcut Tips and Tricks playlist, and the Bentacular travel and food channel where the techniques get used. Derived: the published chapter list stops at 17:40 while the video runs to 23:36. Frame 137 at 22:40.
Every value below was read off the screen in the video, not from the narration. Steps 1 to 8 happen in Photoshop; steps 9 to 12 happen in Shotcut. Each heading says which application you are in.
The map is sampled across the whole frame, so its pixel dimensions must match the project video mode. In the video both are 1920 × 1080.
The application on screen is Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, identified by its window title and by the taskbar label at 14:20. Any photo editor that can do greyscale, layers and a black-point adjustment will do the same job; the video names GIMP as the free alternative but does not demonstrate it.
Drop your logo or artwork onto the canvas, then run Image → Mode → Grayscale. Decline the offer to flatten — the layers have to stay separate so each one can be toned independently.
The title bar is how you check it worked: it reads RGB/8 before the conversion and Gray/8 after it.
Select that layer and run Image → Adjustments → Levels with Channel: Gray. Double-click the black eyedropper to open Select target shadow color, and type the black percentage into the K field. For the first shape that is 100 % — hex #000000.
This shape is the punch-out: it is the first thing that disappears when the transition runs, because nothing on the canvas is darker.
Duplicate the layer, move the copy below the original in the stack, and enlarge it with Edit → Transform → Scale. Centre it so the shapes nest cleanly inside one another.
Layer order in the photo editor is only about which shape you can see while you work. The transition never reads layer order — only the final flattened brightness.
Repeat step 3 on the new layer with a lighter value. The video walks the K field down in even steps: 100 %, 80 %, 60 %, 40 %. The size of the step does not matter; the order does.
Caught on screen mid-entry: the K field reading 80 at 4:26 with the live swatch at #141515, and the accepted fourth ring measuring 62, 63, 63 in RGB.
Add one more layer underneath everything and fill it at 20 % black. On screen the foreground swatch is set through Color Picker (Foreground Color) with K typed as 20 — hex #585655 — and the Fill dialog runs at 100 %.
Do not skip this. Transparent pixels carry no brightness, so without a floor the wipe has no final step and the last part of the frame has nothing telling it when to go.
Five shapes, five distinct greys, darkest at the centre. Sampled off the finished canvas in the video, the plateaus measure 0, 8, 34, 56 and 82 on the 0–255 grey scale.
If two areas end up at the same brightness they will wipe at the same moment and read as one shape. Separation is the only thing you are checking for.
File → Save As, give it a name you will recognise in a file browser, and set Format: PNG (*.PNG). The video notes that a JPEG works too; PNG is simply the cleaner choice. Keep it somewhere you can find again — in the video the maps live in a Custom Transitions folder on the desktop.
Photoshop is finished here and can be closed. Nothing else moves between the two applications.
Under Settings → Video Mode, confirm the project is running at the same frame size you drew the map at. The selection dot in the video sits on HD 1080p 23.98 fps.
If your two clips have different aspect ratios, scale the odd one out with Size, Position & Rotate first. In the video the second clip ends up at 2112 × 1114 at Zoom 110.0 %. That is housekeeping, not part of the effect.
Put both clips on the same video track, then drag the second one left so it overlaps the first. The overlap becomes a crossed box on the timeline — that box is the transition, and its length is the duration of the wipe.
There is no speed control. To make the wipe faster or slower, drag the edge of that box in or out.
Select the transition box and open Properties. The Video list defaults to Dissolve. Scroll to the bottom of that list, choose Custom..., and pick the PNG you exported. The transition redraws immediately.
Softness feathers the boundary between the two clips as it sweeps. Invert Wipe flips the reading of the map, so the lightest pixels go first instead — the fastest way to reverse a wipe without redrawing anything.
Drag the transition box to taste, and step the playhead through it with the arrow keys to see the order the map produces. To get a different look, change nothing here — draw a different picture and load that instead.
Everything you need to design a new wipe is in one sentence: whatever you want to punch through first, paint it darkest.
Read directly off the frames of the video and split by application, so you always know which window a value belongs to.
| Setting | Value | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Application | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended | Window title bar; taskbar label at 14:20 |
| Document | Untitled-1 | Title bar |
| Colour mode | Grayscale (Gray/8) | Image → Mode → Grayscale |
| Canvas size | 1920 × 1080 px | Image → Image Size |
| Document size | 26.667 × 15 in at 72 px/in | Image → Image Size |
| Tone adjustment | Levels, Channel: Gray | Image → Adjustments → Levels |
| Tone control used | K field, Select target shadow color | Black eyedropper inside Levels |
| Tone ladder | 100 % → 80 % → 60 % → 40 % black | Innermost shape outward |
| Background floor | 20 % black · #585655 | Color Picker (Foreground Color), then Fill at 100 % |
| Value caught on screen | K 80 % · swatch #141515 | Select target shadow color at 4:26 |
| Fourth ring, accepted | RGB 62, 63, 63 | Colour picker at 6:04 |
| Measured tones, final map | 0 / 8 / 34 / 56 / 82 of 255 | Sampled from the canvas at 7:20 |
| Scaling of each copy | Edit → Transform → Scale | Per duplicated layer |
| Layer stack | Layer 1 / Layer 1 copy / copy 2 / copy 3 / Layer 2 / Layer 0 | Layers panel |
| Export | File → Save As · PNG (*.PNG) | Save As dialog at 8:20 |
| File name | logo transition → logo-transition.png | Save dialog, then Shotcut |
| Setting | Value | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Shotcut version | 20.11.28 | Help → About Shotcut at 0:58 |
| Copyright line | 2011-2020 Meltytech, LLC | About Shotcut |
| Project video mode | HD 1080p 23.98 fps | Settings → Video Mode |
| Source clips | video01.mp4 · video02.mp4 | Playlist |
| Clip durations | 00:00:20:19 · 00:00:19:04 | Playlist |
| Track layout | V1 only, both clips on one track | Timeline |
| Preview scaling | ON at 540p | Settings → Preview Scaling |
| Second clip fitted with | Size, Position & Rotate | Filters panel, video02.mp4 |
| Size, opening value | 1920 × 1013 · Zoom 100.0 % | Size, Position & Rotate |
| Size, final value | 2112 × 1114 · Zoom 110.0 % | Size, Position & Rotate |
| Fit settings | Fill / Center / Middle · Rotation 0.0° | Size, Position & Rotate |
| Transition created by | Overlapping two clips on one track | Timeline |
| Default transition | Dissolve | Properties on the transition clip |
| Video type | Custom... | Last entry in the Properties list |
| Map file loaded | logo-transition.png | Named under Custom... |
| Softness | 20 % | Properties |
| Invert Wipe | Unchecked | Properties |
| Audio handling | Cross-fade | Properties |
| Project duration | 00:00:36:18 | Player time field |
| Map | File name on screen | Dark area → what wipes first |
|---|---|---|
| Logo punch | logo-transition.png | Centre — the small mark opens and grows outward |
| Diagonal Rain | Video Transition by JONRAY 02 DIAGONAL RAIN.png | Upper left — streaks arrive diagonally |
| Chequerboard Top Left | Video transition by JONRAY 08 CHEQUERBOARD TOP LEFT.png | Top-left corner — squares scatter left to right |
The two donated maps are credited on screen to Jonray JR, whose channel card appears at 14:10. The only property that separates them from each other, or from your own artwork, is where the dark pixels sit.
Machine transcribed from the video audio. Spoken phrasing is left as-is; only the product and proper names the transcriber mangled have been corrected. Every timestamp plays the video in the hero from that second.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use your own logo or any other images to
make your own custom transitions.
So stay tuned.
I'm just a normal person with no video editing background.
I wanted to start making YouTube videos and maybe cool transitions and effects.
I don't really plan on being a professional video editor, so I was looking for a free,
easy to learn video editing software.
Luckily, I stumbled on Shotcut, a free, open-source video editing program that can do many of the
tricks you can do on more enterprise video editors like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve,
but with a much simpler and leaner interface, thus dramatically shortening the learning curve.
It just takes using your imagination.
So let's learn together.
This tutorial will be done on Shotcut version 20.11.28.
So in this tutorial, we're actually going to start a little bit backwards.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start with the actual transition file first before
we go into Shotcut.
And in this instance, you're going to need some sort of photo editing software.
And it just happens that I have access to Photoshop, so I'm going to be doing it with
Photoshop.
And in this example, I'm going to be using my own logo, which is this one.
And so what I'm trying to do is start out with a cutout of my logo
and then for it to grow across the page
until it takes up the entire page.
It's going to make a lot more sense once I finish this.
So first, let's start out with my logo.
In order for this to work, you first need to make sure that the starting logo or whatever
shape you're going to start out with is in grayscale.
So I'm going to make this whole thing black and white.
And in Photoshop, you go image, mode, grayscale.
And I'm not going to merge.
Now, there is a logical order of how the transition kind of
merges into the next image.
And really the way it goes is whatever you make the darkest
is the first thing that becomes invisible.
And as it gets lighter, that's the next thing that becomes invisible.
Again, all of this is going to make more sense once I show you this whole thing.
First and foremost, I need to make sure that this particular logo here that I'm starting
out with, which is going to be my punch out, is 100% black.
So I'm going to go image, adjust levels.
And I'm going to go to black, make sure that that's 100% black.
And I'm going to set this part here to make sure that that whole thing
is 100% black.
Okay, again, it probably doesn't make any sense right now, but after I finish this whole thing,
it's going to make even more sense.
So the next thing I'm going to do is make a copy of it, send it behind the first one,
increase the size a little bit, like so.
Let's say that's how I want it to transition.
And then I'm going to kind of center it.
And so this bigger BE logo is actually behind the smaller one.
But again, I want to control the order of how the transition comes in.
So this next one here, I'm once again going to go image, adjust levels.
We're going to make it 80% black, right?
Select that make it 80% black.
And then I'm going to make a copy of that again.
And then I'm going to make that bigger.
Let's say like that.
And then I'm going to change this color to an even lighter color.
So again, I'm going to go to image, adjust levels.
And I select the black dropper.
I set it 80 last time.
I'm going to do, let's do 60.
So 20, 20% increments.
Okay.
And then last but not least,
I'm going to make another copy, scale.
And this is the one that's pretty much going to
take up the whole screen almost.
Let's say like that.
And then I'm going to go image, adjust levels, select the black.
What do I do 180, 60?
So this one's going to be 40.
So now that's even lighter.
I need to make sure that's at the very bottom.
And then finally, I'm just going to go and add another layer at the bottom.
And I'm just going to go and
add 40.
So let's say 20.
I'm just going to black out
the background just like that.
And so once again, the inner BE is the darkest, followed by the next smallest one,
followed by the next one after that.
And then the biggest BE is the lightest one at 40% black.
And then the whole background is 20% black.
So that's going to be the order of how the transition happened.
So it doesn't matter how you want the transition to go,
as long as the first step is always going to be the darkest black
and the last step is always going to be the lightest black.
So make sure that the desktop or the file that you're working with
is the same size as the video that you're going to use it for.
In terms of transition.
So I'm just going to show you image size.
So this one I have set to 1920 at 1080.
And so I'm going to be able to use this transition for any video
that's at 1920 by 1080.
So now I need to save it.
So file, save as, let's just call it.
Logo, transition, and make sure that it's a PNG file.
Actually, it's, even if you save it as a JPEG, it's okay.
But for all intensive purposes, let's just save it as a PNG file.
So now we're going to save that.
So we have just created a transition file.
So now I can exit Photoshop and we can go back into Shotcut.
And I'm going to show you how we use something like this.
So stay tuned.
Okay, so we're back in Shotcut.
And hopefully once I demonstrate how the transition works,
it's going to make a lot more sense to you.
And so I downloaded two random videos.
So this is the first one.
This is the video of leaves.
And then this is the second one.
Okay, so let's look at what my settings are.
So under video mode, I have it set for 1080p,
meaning that it is 1920 by 1080.
This particular video, the second video,
happens to have a different aspect ratio.
So I'm going to have to resize that a little bit.
So let's drag the first video onto the timeline.
So that's the first video, right?
And it doesn't really matter what video it is.
And I'm going to drag the second video.
I'm going to play it.
And just for consistency sake, I'm going to increase the size
of this second video to make sure these black bars disappear.
And so while that is selected,
I'm going to go to filters.
And I'm going to choose size, position, and rotate.
And I'm just going to use actually the scroll mouse,
the scroller, just to bump it up a little bit, just like that.
And we should be good to go.
So before we add a transition, this is how it cuts.
It's like that.
But what I want to do is I want to use a custom transition.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab this second video.
And all I'm going to do is drag it right into the first video.
And I'm assuming that this is how long I want the transition to last.
So at this point, when I do this,
I'm actually going to drop the preview scaling a little bit.
Let's say let's drop it to 540.
Okay.
At this, at this moment, the minute you drag one video into the other,
it defaults to the transition called dissolve.
And this is what dissolve looks like, right?
Simple enough.
But while you have this transition section chosen,
which is this box with an X in the middle,
you can go to properties right here.
And as you can see, it defaults to dissolve.
You can actually drop down all the way down to custom,
meaning you can add your own custom transition.
And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to select the custom
transition that we just created in Photoshop.
And I happen to call that logo transition.
And so I'm going to open that.
And all of a sudden, this is what the transition looks like.
You notice that you see that it started out with the B E,
a small B E in the middle.
And then all of a sudden it got bigger and bigger and bigger
and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And the transition was a little long,
so we can actually grab this overlap and shrink it.
And let's now speed up.
You see that?
So that's what I was talking about when I was making the file.
So the order of how the transition blends in
is based on how dark the image is.
So we started out having the smallest B E as the darkest.
And then the next smallest was the next darkest.
And then the third, which I believe was at by this time we were at 60%
why there we were at 80% and then it covered up the screen.
And in this case, all I'm doing, all I was doing was
using my own logo as a basically punch transition.
I'm punching right into the previous video into the next video.
See that?
Now I happen to have started in the middle.
And so I made the file in the middle darkest and then
as it grew, I made it lighter.
But you don't necessarily need to start in the middle.
And so first and foremost, I don't want to take credit for this particular
transition or this particular tutorial because I actually learned this tutorial from a fellow
Shotcut member by the name of Jonray JR.
And so he happened to show me that you can use your own images for transitions.
In fact, he's donated a bunch of transitions.
And so I'll show you a couple of them.
So in this instance, he created one called diagonal rain, right?
And as you can see, he doesn't start the darkest part doesn't start in the middle,
which means that these dark parts up here
will be the start of the punch out.
And then you have the gray areas here.
And then last but not least would be this area right there, right?
Do you notice the gradation in terms of darkest to lightest?
Now this is called diagonal rain.
And so we're going to go back and instead of using my logo transition under custom, right?
We're going to use diagonal rain.
Let me just give me a second to find it.
Going to transitions and he called it diagonal rain.
All right.
And so this is what that looks like.
So if you notice, because the darkest areas were at the very top up here,
let's go back to Photoshop up here, you can assume that when the blend begins,
it's going to it's going to start from here.
So I'm going to just move the arrow keys one by one.
So you can see how the transition begins to blend like that.
And so that's what Jonray JR calls diagonal rain.
Let's look at another transition that he created.
So let's close this one out.
And so he called this one checkerboard top left.
So this is checkerboard.
And if you notice again, the darkest areas happen to be on the top left.
And then as you move, you notice it gets lighter and lighter.
So we're going to assume that when we use this transition,
it kind of swipes from left to right with a checkerboard pattern.
So let's go back here.
So again, while the transition area is selected, we're going to go to custom.
And we're now going to choose.
Find it again.
Checkerboard top left.
And so again, I'm going to move it frame by frame so you can see.
How the transition occurs, right?
So again, going back to any of the photo editing software that you have,
all you have to do is make sure that whatever you want to start with,
whatever the first punch out is going to be, that needs to be the darkest area.
And so there's a lot of different opportunities and a lot of creative ways that you can implement
a transition, including the way I did it, which is using my own logo to do it.
It could be a bat signal.
It could be an Autobot symbol, whatever, right?
And so if you have an existing logo, it's a great way for you to use that as a transition
point instead of kind of just using any of the other default transitions out there.
And so the implications, the utilization is endless.
And so again, let me go back and use my logo.
Go in here.
So now I'm going to be using my logo.
And that happens to be really quick.
Oh, because we sped it up.
So I could actually pull it back a little bit just to make it a little bit more gradual.
See that?
So pretty simple.
Nothing really technical, at least on the Shotcut side.
The one caveat is you do need to have some sort of photo editing software.
I happen to use Photoshop, which is something that you have to pay a subscription for.
But there are other freeware out there.
There are other open source software that you can use.
And the one that seems to be the favorite among the Shotcut users is one called GIMP.
Now, I am not an expert on GIMP.
And so I wish I can show you the way you can do it on GIMP.
But I'm sure one of the other Shotcut members will be able to donate their time and kind of
come up with a GIMP version of what I did on Photoshop.
But worst case scenario, and I'm going to put this out there.
Let's say you're in a pinch and you have your own logo
and you don't have access to any of these photo editing softwares.
What you can do is you can comment me on this video.
And maybe I can create a specific logo transition for you.
It is going to take me some time.
So maybe, I don't know, I'll charge you maybe five bucks.
I don't know.
Is that fair?
I'll charge you five bucks.
Some your logo and I will create a custom transition just like I did for my own logo.
Does that sound fair?
In any case, I hope this was helpful.
It's pretty simple, but you need a transition file.
The other thing, I want to share the love.
And so Jonray JR was kind enough to share his folder of custom transitions that he's already created.
And I am also willing to share that with you guys.
So, you know the drill.
All you have to do is like this video, subscribe to my channel and comment.
I want Jonray JR's transition and that's it.
Again, just like how I share my luts with you, I'm going to reach out to you.
I'm going to ask you for your email address and then I will share that file with you.
Don't try to get to that file without asking for it first, because it is password protected.
So, just follow those steps.
Like the video, subscribe to my channel, comment.
I want Jonray JR's transitions and I will share Jonray JR's transitions with you.
I hope this one is helpful.
And again, if you're in a pinch and you need someone to create a specific
logo transition for you, I'll help you out, but I got to charge you.
So, let's say five bucks is the price.
In any case, I'll see you next time.
I just wanted to remind you that if you haven't yet, go visit my channel.
I'm sure you'll find tons of Shotcut related videos.
And don't forget to subscribe so that you know when I drop a new Shotcut related tutorial.
Every video on my channel was done on Shotcut.
So, aside from examples of what Shotcut can do, you can also visit my playlist of tips
and tutorials, all geared toward the beginner.
Visit my Shotcut tips and tricks playlist and learn all the tips and tricks I've
learned during my journey toward video editing.
So, once again, please subscribe and I'll see you next time.
