You can create amazing transitional movie effects by using the techniques described in this tutorial. Gradually increase the intensity of special effects filters over a number of movie frames.

Click here to open a sample image.

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Convert the sample image into a movie and add several frames to it.

  1. Click Movie menu, Create From Document.
  2. Click Movie menu, Insert Frame.
  3. In the Insert Frames dialog box, type 9 in the Insert box.
  4. Click the After button, and type 1 in the Frame box.
  5. Click the Copy Current Frame button, and click OK.

Note

Your image has now been converted into a movie with 10 frames (the 9 frames you added plus the original frame).

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Apply the Swirl filter to each frame of the movie, gradually increasing the intensity of the swirling effect.

  1. Click Effects menu, 2D Effects, Swirl.
  2. In the Swirl dialog box, click the Clockwise button.
  3. Move the Whole Rotations slider to 0.
  4. Move the Additional Degrees slider to 90, and click OK.

Note

You can use any filter that allows you to gradually increase its intensity. Other filters you may want to try besides the Swirl filter are the Displace filter, the Wet Paint filter, and the Zig Zag filter.

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Apply the Swirl filter in increasing intensity.

  1. Click Movie menu, Control, Step Forward One Frame.
  2. Click Effects menu, 2D Effects, Swirl.
  3. In the Swirl dialog box, leave the Whole Rotations slider at 0, move the Additional Degrees slider to 180, and click OK.

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Step forward through the movie one frame at a time, and apply the Swirl filter at a slightly higher intensity.

In the Swirl dialog box, increase the Additional Degrees slider by 90, until the value reaches 359. Then move the Whole Rotations slider to 1 and the Additional Degrees slider back to 90 and apply the filter again.

Continue increasing the value of the Additional Degrees slider by 90 on each application of the effect. When the Additional Degrees slider reaches 359 again, move the Whole Rotations slider to 2, the Additional degrees slider back to 90 again, and continue.

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Now you have learned how to apply gradual movie transitions to your image.

When you are done, save your image to one of the file formats that supports movie animation, e.g., .AVI (Video For Windows).

To play the movie, click Movie menu, Control, Play Movie. Click Movie menu, Control, Stop Movie to stop the movie.

Note

If you want to save your file as a .GIF animation, you must first convert your image to 8-bit paletted color mode.

Click here for more cool effects.