Hiding Jump Cuts with Fluid Morph

Although most corrective effects are segment effects, Media Composer does have a unique transition effect that can also be used to hide problems in a sequence. Fluid Morph specifically helps solve the problem of jump cuts, where two shots of the same subject are edited back to back with only slight differences between them. It’s a jarring cut because elements within the frame suddenly pop on screen in a different place. Fluid Morph is able to warp the two images to better align with each other, so they perform a more seamless transition. For this exercise, you’ll return to the sequence from Lesson 2, “Introduction to Visual Effects,” to improve a jump cut that happens during one of the interviews.

To hide jump cuts:

1. In the RTS PT2 FX Sequences bin, double-click the RTS FX LESSON 02 sequence.

2. Choose TOOLS > MARKERS to open the Markers window if it isn’t already open.

3. In the Markers window, double-click the marker with the comment “Jump Cut.” The position indicator jumps to the marker’s location in the Timeline, as shown in Figure 3.28. This is the cut point between two interview shots. Let’s play over the two cuts to see the jump cut problem.

Figure 3.28 The marker identifies the jump cut in the sequence.

4. Make sure only the V1 track is highlighted.

5. Click the REWIND button under the Record monitor to go to the start of the first clip of the transition, as shown in Figure 3.29, and then press I to mark an IN point.

Figure 3.29 Mark an IN point at the start of the first clip of the transition.

6. Click the FAST FORWARD button twice and then click the STEP BACKWARD 1 FRAME button to go to the end of the second clip of the transition, as shown in Figure 3.30. Then press O to mark an OUT point.

7. Press 6 on the keyboard to play the jump cut that happens between the IN and OUT marks. At the end of the sentence “it’s never been done,” the man’s head pops to a different place on the screen. Everything else is exactly the same, making this a perfect candidate for a Fluid Morph. Fluid Morph works best when the majority of the image is the same and the difference in the object that moves is not too severe.

Figure 3.30 Mark an OUT point at the end of the second clip of the transition.

8. In the Effect Palette, select the ILLUSION FX category, as shown in Figure 3.31, and then drag the FLUID MORPH effect onto the highlighted jump cut transition. You may recall from Lesson 2 that the default duration for a transition is 1:00. That’s much too long for a Fluid Morph, so you’ll first change the duration to something shorter.

Figure 3.31 Fluid Morph is located in the Illusion FX category of the Effect Palette.

9. Click the EFFECT MODE button to open the Effect Editor.

10. At the bottom of the Effect Editor, type 10 into the DURATION field to create a 10-frame Fluid Morph transition, as shown in Figure 3.32.

Figure 3.32 The duration of a transition can be entered in the Effect Editor.

The Fluid Morph does not require any user input to work, although there are a few options in the Effect Editor. Before you try the options, let’s step through the effect in the Effect Preview monitor to see the default results. Since the Fluid Morph is not a real-time effect, you must click through the position bar at the bottom of the Effect Preview monitor to view the results and not drag through it.

11. Click at the start of the Effect Preview monitor’s position bar on the far left to see the first frame of the effect; then click on the hash marks going left to right in the position bar to see the various stages of the effect. Although the effect looks good when you click through the position bar, the subtlety of this effect can really be judged only by playing it, which requires rendering.

12. Click the RENDER EFFECT button at the bottom of the Effect Editor.

13. In the Render Effect dialog box, select the hard drive where you want the effect media to be stored, then click OK.

14. Since the effect is only 10 frames long, playing the transition in Effect mode will be too short to evaluate it accurately. You’ll play this effect using the IN to OUT marks in the Timeline in order to get more context surrounding the transition. In the Timeline, click the mark IN point.

15. Press the 6 key to play IN to OUT.

This morph looks really good. In cases where you might need a bit more help, there are a few options in the Effect Editor. Feature Match should be your first choice. By default, Fluid Morph warps both images based on the luminance of the images. Feature Match improves the warping by aligning feature patterns as it warps both images. In this case we didn’t need Feature Match, but you will often find better results with that option enabled. The Source menu is the next level of assistance for misaligned Fluid Morphs. By default the Fluid Morph warps each side of the transition frame by frame. This is set as Stream > Stream in the Source menu. Although this is the optimal way to get a natural result, it is also more likely to have artifacts because you have two images moving that must be aligned. Setting one side or the other of the transition at Still instead of Stream might provide fewer artifacts because the Fluid Morph will use a freeze frame in place of moving video during the morph for the side of the transition chosen.

Review/Discussion Questions

1. On a Resize effect, how can you scale a clip in the Effect Preview monitor but maintain the aspect ratio?

2. Where is the position bar and what is it used for?

3. Once a clip is stabilized, how can you compare the stabilized result with the original video?

4. Why would you choose to increase the size of the yellow search rectangle when tracking?

5. When using the Blur effect from the Image category, how do you attach a tracker to the blur shape?

6. What do the Enlarge and Reduce buttons do in the Effect Preview monitor?

7. Under what category is the Fluid Morph located in the Effect Palette?

Lesson 3 Keyboard Shortcuts