Crossfade vs. Dissolve - What's The Difference?

Lou van Wijhe wrote on 12/20/2010, 3:39 AM
To the eye they look the same but in Vegas they are treated as different processes. I have scrutinised the Internet looking for an explanation but that only made my confusion greater.

If I needed a gradual transition between scenes, I always used the Dissolve transition. Recently I tried a Crossfade and for some reason it looked better without knowing why.

Could somebody fill me in?

TIA,
Lou

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/20/2010, 4:19 AM
Crossfade is basedon a curve (curves you can change to get different results) & dissolve isn't?
Lou van Wijhe wrote on 12/20/2010, 4:26 AM
Crossfade is basedon a curve (curves you can change to get different results) & dissolve isn't?

Aren't they both?
Chienworks wrote on 12/20/2010, 4:42 AM
Crossfade is merely a varying proportion of the two clips mixed together. At 1/3 of the way through the result is 66.67% of the first and 33.33% of the second added together. Halfway it's 50% of each.

I'm not sure what formula is used for dissolve, but it appears to favor highlights over shadows. At the midpoint the result seems a little brighter than either clip separately.

Generally i like crossfade better but there are some cases where dissolve gives a nice artistic glimmer.
Lou van Wijhe wrote on 12/20/2010, 4:44 AM
If I needed a gradual transition between scenes, I always used the Dissolve transition.
I was completely wrong, the standard transition is a Crossfade, not a Dissolve. So, I don't have a problem, do I?

Lou
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/20/2010, 4:52 AM

This article (in PDF format) is far too technical for me. Others here may find it helpful.

farss wrote on 12/20/2010, 5:09 AM
A crossfade is a video transition, a dissolve is a film transition. One is electronic the other optical. Certainly the dissolves that Vegas creates don't look very 'filmic' to me.

A quick Google finds a post on COW that suggests if you want a good film dissolve to invest in GenArts Sapphire plugin.

Bob.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/20/2010, 5:35 AM

Or you can download this free Vegas plug-in SMLuminance. It works with Vegas 9 and Windows 7, so I presume it will work with Vegas 10. Not sure about 64-bit, though.

You can see an example here.


farss wrote on 12/20/2010, 5:57 AM
Downloaded that one ages ago, it's better but still not quite the real deal. I like the look when the incoming highlights bleed into the outgoing. An additive dissolve kind of gets there, I think CSI uses them.

Bob.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/20/2010, 6:12 AM

"I like the look when the incoming highlights bleed into the outgoing."

That is available in SMLuninance.

P.S. Bob, are you using the GenArts Sapphire plug-in?


farss wrote on 12/20/2010, 6:34 AM
"That is available in SMLuninance"

I know, futzed around with it for a while ages ago, couldn't get what I wanted though but probably expecting too much.

I just took a quick look at the Sapphire transitions, very nice but way out of my league.

Bob.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/20/2010, 6:39 AM

Certainly, I didn't see that GA's film-style dissolve was $1,700 better than SML's.

farss wrote on 12/20/2010, 6:54 AM
As I see it, it's all relative.
At the moment if I had a spare $1,700 it'd go on the tripod I've lusted after for years and it'd be used all the time. A film dissolve no matter how good it looked I'd use once or twice in a blue moon.

On the other hand if I was doing high end post....


bob.
craftech wrote on 12/20/2010, 7:35 AM
I'd love to see a contest in which average TV watchers are asked to tell amongst 10 examples of both if they notice a difference.

John
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/20/2010, 8:36 AM

I'm with you, John.

farss wrote on 12/20/2010, 2:28 PM
I'd be amazed if 99% of the population could tell the difference. They probably couldn't tell what was causing them a pain in the gut either. I'm sure most of us have seen people drive a car for miles with a flat tyre. One person I flagged down said "Yeah, I was wondering what that noise was but I just turned the radio up and I couldn't hear it".

Bob.