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You can add transitions such as dissolves or wipes to an edit to indicate a change of topic, a change of location, or the passage of time. You can also add a Smooth Cut transition to patch unwanted cuts in interview clips or other situations where there’s not a significant change in the position of the subject or background in the frame. Three buttons, at the bottom right of the Media Pool, make it easy to add and remove dissolves and Smooth Cut transitions.
The Cut, Dissolve, and Smooth Cut buttons
Adding Dissolves
Dissolves are the most standard and ubiquitous type of transition, and so they’re the easiest to create. Place the playhead on or near an edit you want to turn into a dissolve, and click the Dissolve button at the bottom left of the Media Pool. A one second Cross Dissolve will be added to the edit point that’s nearest to the edit point.
(Left) Moving a playhead near an edit point, (Right) Adding a dissolve
Adding Dissolve Using Keyboard Shortcuts
You can also add a dissolve by selecting one or more edit points (or moving the playhead near an edit you want to select and pressing V to select the nearest edit point), then pressing Command-T to add a dissolve, which is the standard transition.
A selected edit point
You can also add a transition that’s aligned with the beginning, middle, or end of the edit point using the keyboard. To do so, select an edit point, press the U key repeatedly to cycle among selecting the start, center, or end of the edit, then press Command-T to add the standard transition. The standard transition will be added with its alignment based on the edit selection you made; selecting the start of the edit places a transition that ends on the edit; selecting the end of the edit places a transition that starts on the edit, and choosing the center of the edit places a transition that is similarly centered.
