Fade to Black in FCP

[John C. Plunkett]

I recently shot a movie that was edited on iMovie. I wasn't present for the editing process, but their is a fade to black transition that is far greater than anything available in FCP. Like I said, I wasn't there so I don't know if he was using a special plug-in transition or if that is just a standard transition in iMovie.

Does anyone know of a good plug-in package that includes a fade to black that is more like film? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Mike Barber]

Originally Posted by John C. Plunkett

a fade to black that is more like film?

Can you quantify what you mean by "more like film"?

Other ways of fading to black than with a plug-in is to add keyframes to the video track's opacity and use bezier handles to create a logarithmic curve for a smoother fade, rather than a straight linear fade.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Mike Barber

Other ways of fading to black than with a plug-in is to add keyframes to the video track's opacity and use bezier handles to create a logarithmic curve for a smoother fade, rather than a straight linear fade.

That's the only way I ever do fades to black or dissolves in FCP, and it seems to provide a lot of flexibility.

[Frank Simpson]

I'll echo that as well. About 95% of the time I'll just key-frame it.

[John C. Plunkett]

I guess the best way to describe it would be to say there were different curves set to different gamma thresholds, anything dark or semi-lit would fade smoother over time while the brighter or well-lit areas wouldn't be affected till the very last few frames. The standard fade to black seems to fade both the high and low lit areas the exact same way.

[Mike Barber]

Originally Posted by John C. Plunkett

I guess the best way to describe it would be to say there were different curves set to different gamma thresholds, anything dark or semi-lit would fade smoother over time while the brighter or well-lit areas wouldn't be affected till the very last few frames. The standard fade to black seems to fade both the high and low lit areas the exact same way.

I think the Non-Additive Dissolve will give you something more akin to that.

[Richard Alvarez]

I don't know how it works, but in AVID there is a different effect for 'fade to black' for film and video. But yeah, it does exactly what you describe.

[Scott Anderson]

How about Graeme Nattress' G Film Dissolve, part of his wonderful $100 Film Effects plugins:

http://www.nattress.com/Products/fil...m_Dissolve.htm

I have the set myself, and apart from some rather slow render times, I can't recommend it highly enough - overall, a great value for the money.

And the G Film Dissolve pretty much lets you dial in the dissolve to your taste.

[Abdessamad Idrissi]

it seems a little bit an old post, but may help other people :
------------
by Dave LaRonde on Jan 25, 2010 at 11:13:25 pm

Put a black slug on the track below the footage in the timeline.
Set the footage to ADD blending mode.
Bring the opacity up from 0 to 100.
--------
Other Articles you can mix with the above technique:
http://www.lacquer.fi/blog/?p=8
http://www.lacquer.fi/blog/?p=5

[Robert Lane]

100% spot-on; one of the complaints many Avid-to-FCP users have is the most simple of things: The basic dissolve to black. The default drop-in isn't filmic and very dull. I couldn't get some of the links that A.I. posted but the concept Scott and others posted is solid: if you want a more organic or filmic appearance to FTB transitions from Final Cut then adopting another plug-in or using manual additive dissolves will do the trick.