Skip to main content
D
DanielFrick
Participant
September 1, 2011
Question

Cross Dissolve NOT Smooth

  • September 1, 2011
  • 9 replies
  • 51005 views

I've been having this issue since I first started with Premiere Pro (cs5) and it has kept me from using any dissolve transitions or the program altogether:

Dissolve transitions (specifically Cross Dissolve) will not end smoothly - there is always a jump at the last, seemingly, 10% or so of the transition. In other words, the dissolve goes from 100% opacity to 10% opacity of the previous clip. This is not a result of me having set those parameters in the effects controls. As well, it is not a playback quality/speed issue as you can advance frame by frame and see the problem. It also shows up in all timeline renders and final exports.

I've been hard pressed to find an answer anywhere. I had come across an OLD Creative Cow post with what I thought was my identical problem. In that thread it mentioned manually adjusting opacity keyframes with bezier controls. That was not the solution and the thread was left answer-less. It is a very noticeable difference in dissolve smoothness compared to After Effects or Final Cut and is not professional-looking.

Extending the length of the dissolve is no fix either. The problem persists in both Hardware Accelerated Mercury Extreme playback AND Software-Only settings. However, I have found intermittent success with Software-Only. BUT, that's kind of useless as editing without the Hardware Acceleration is a much larger step backward (absolutely a must when working with RED footage, DSLR or higher bitrate/resolution material).

I pray someone has had this issue too and can shed some light on a solution.

Some of my specs:

8 Core 2.8Ghz Xeon Mac Pro (early 2008 - 3,1)

12GB Ram

Geforce GTX 285 Mac Edition

RAID for video (there is no bottle neck here)

OSX 10.6.8

Premiere Pro CS5

Thanks for your time!

      9 replies

      J
      JasonL_OHA
      Participant
      December 15, 2022

      Yeah...11 years later, this is still an issue.

      I found this thread by Googling "Adobe Premiere crossfade SUCKS" & this was the first hit.

      I downloaded the whole Film Impact plugin pack, but cross-dissolve was NOT included for some reason. Did they discontinue it? I emailed them my concern & am awaiting to hear back

      https://www.filmimpact.com/cross-dissolve-premiere-pro/

      But also, turning off "Composite in linear color" in sequence settings & using the Film Dissolve seemed to have helped. Still not buttery smooth but it could be the shots I'm trying to fade.

      Averdahl
      Community Expert
      AverdahlCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 15, 2022
      quote

      I downloaded the whole Film Impact plugin pack, but cross-dissolve was NOT included for some reason.


      By @JasonL_OHA

       

      Look for Impact Dissolve.

       

       

      J
      JasonL_OHA
      Participant
      December 15, 2022

      Thanks for the reply! But as u can see, the rest of the Film Impact plugins installed properly, but not the Impact Dissolve. Maybe bcz Im on latest Premiere 2023? THANKS AGAIN!

       

      R
      Rob217717683hsl
      Inspiring
      June 14, 2022

      I often find Cross Disolve quite ugly. I think the easing isn't smooth enough, especially at the very start or end, like the fade needs to come in slower.

       

      I much prefer the Film Disolve effect.

        B
        billythemusical2
        Participant
        December 7, 2022

        One issue I haven't seen discussed here is the difference between using Cross Dissolve to fade out a clip which is on a track above a clip below, as opposed to fading a clip into another on the same track.  Fading clips on different tracks exhibits the steeper dropoff in the last 10% where as fading clips on the same track looks smoother. Not sure why...

         

        This difference was discovered when I was cutting footage that had already been through a hardware switching device which seemed much smoother than the defualt Premiere Cross Dissolve. 

         

        Also Film Dissolve seemed to be smoother when fading out of a clip that is on another track than the one beneath.

        MyerPj
        Community Expert
        MyerPjCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        December 7, 2022

        You can always create keyframes with ctrl-click on the opacity in the timeline and do fades that way on clips on a different track.

        MyerPj
        Community Expert
        MyerPjCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        August 10, 2020

        Start using the free "Impact Dissolve" from FilmImpact.com

        I set mine as the default transition. Here's some good info on it:

        https://www.filmimpact.com/help-center/tutorials/dissolve-impacts/

         

        L
        Liambm
        Known Participant
        March 22, 2022

        Can anyone explain to me why this is still a thing in 2021 (11 years after this post). Why is premieres transition so bad, and why do we have to pay for a plugin to get a curve transition? I'm pretty sure DaVinci and final cut pro don't have this issue? Let me know if i'm missing something. 

        MyerPj
        Community Expert
        MyerPjCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        March 22, 2022

        I believe it's free. Glad you could stop by the forum.

         

        M
        marcfratto
        Participant
        August 9, 2020

        i've had the same problem with adobe for years.  my workaround has been doing the dissolves using the opacity controls and keyframing them and stretching out the dissolve on the last few frames.  It sucks but it is what it is, I guess. 

        R
        RyanGV
        Participant
        September 24, 2013

        For reference here are stills of the last frame of the cross dissolve with each MPE option (white text on black background):

        Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration

        http://imgur.com/GBtte8q

        Mercury Playback Engine software only

        http://imgur.com/KOjK7q0

        R
        RyanGV
        Participant
        September 24, 2013

        Looks like this is still an issue in Premiere Pro CC (over 2 years after the intial post).  I don't notice it when using a cross dissolve between 2 clips, but it's very noticeable if I try to fade out a title.  For example if there's footage on track V1, title text on V2 and a cross dissolve transition dropped on the end of the title, it doesn't fade out completely. Looks like it jumps from 10% to 0%.  This happens both with the default transition and if I try to keyframe the opacity from 100 to 0.  The fix mentioned by another poster about switching mercury playback engine to software only works for me, but It's pretty annoying to have to keep turning it off and on.

        E
        excited_Genie16B8
        Legend
        September 24, 2013

        It's not an issue, it's by design.

        One new feature of Premiere Pro CC is that you can turn off Linear Color in the sequence settings, without disabling GPU acceleration altogether.

          D
          Danielpremiere
          Participant
          September 24, 2013

          Hi. I have simply left the hardware MPE GPU Acceleration (CUDA) disabled and purely used the MPE software only.

          It is unfortunate as everything has to be rendered, but it least it has the desired effect. Given that the two states (MPE hardware on or off) give different results, I don't understand why it is by design, rather than an issue.

          I find it difficult to believe what I am seeing with the MPE hardware on is really what Adobe intended - and why did the look change from CS3, when there was no "option" but the dissolve looked like it does now with the MPE hardware off.

          I will try and find the time to post a video with both types so you can see the difference.

          D
          DMH79
          Inspiring
          October 15, 2012

          DanielFrick wrote:

          I've been having this issue since I first started with Premiere Pro (cs5) and it has kept me from using any dissolve transitions or the program altogether:

          Dissolve transitions (specifically Cross Dissolve) will not end smoothly - there is always a jump at the last, seemingly, 10% or so of the transition.

          Okay so I realize this thread is old, but I can't stand how normal cross dissolves (I tend to keyframe all opacity changes) have this unsmooth/abrupt start/finish.

          His video in the original post is exactly what I was experiencing all weekend. Coming from FCP, the same basic cross dissolve is smooth with no jumps. I ended up going into every single one of the disolves and selecting EASE IN and EASE OUT for each and every opacity keyframe. With a huge project and tons of dissolves this took over an hour.

          Is there anyway around having to do this manually one by one to every keyframe? Like is there a way to set it to always default as EASE IN or EASE OUT? I realize the above work around was to turn off maximum render quality during export. Not sure if that helps, but I don't like the idea of sacrificing export quality for simply having smooth transitions. Plus, its a year later and maybe CS6 has a better way now to handle cross dissolves so they don't come out so crappy. (I'm on a 2011 27" i7 iMac with 16gb ram and the AMD 6970M card)

          shooternz
          shooternz
          Legend
          October 15, 2012

          Are you saying that you are not using the Cross Dissolve Effect ?

          ie. you are creating all your cross dissolves manually using opacity keyframes?

          D
          DMH79
          Inspiring
          October 15, 2012

          shooternz wrote:

          Are you saying that you are not using the Cross Dissolve Effect ?

          ie. you are creating all your cross dissolves manually using opacity keyframes?

          Yes.

          the_wine_snob
          the_wine_snob
          Inspiring
          September 1, 2011

          Just to rule this out, am I correct, that you have adequate Handles for the Dissolves? The only reason that I ask, is that depending on what the first Frames of the next scene, can appear, if the Handles are not quite long enough. This is NOT an Opacity issue, which is what your sounds like, but lack of Handles can cause a little glitch, right at the end of a Dissolve. Again, this is just to rule that out as a possibility.

          Good luck,

          Hunt

          PS - there was an Opacity Bug (was that CS 3, or CS 4?), where just adding an Opacity Keyframe (though not making any change - just adding that Keyframe) fixed the issue. Had not heard of that in CS 5 / 5.5.

          S
          SFL46
          Known Participant
          September 1, 2011

          Have you tried rendering a agement to see if the problem carries over to the export?  The preview monitor is not the best way to judge.

          D
          DanielFrickAuthor
          Participant
          September 1, 2011

          Hi,

          @SFL46:

          Thanks for your response. Yes, this issue appears in final renders. Here is a link for an old video where you can see the un-smoothness at work. The jumps in the last 10%ish of dissolves are not a streaming issue (just FYI) - they are in my un-web-compressed versions too. I'll try getting a more recent clip up on my server for anyone to have a gander at.

          http://vimeo.com/14536285

          @Bill Hunt

          Thanks for hoping in on this thread! Yes, I have adequate handles on clips with the dissolve. You can see on the video above that it even happens when fading text.

          Thanks!

          Colin Brougham
          Colin Brougham
          Participating Frequently
          September 1, 2011

          The only solution is to not use hardware MPE (GPU acceleration), and while rendering/exporting with software mode, be sure you don't use Maximum Render Quality. Both scenarios enable 32-bit linear color, which results in the stepwise dissolves (along with other issues) that you're seeing.

            Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
            Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices