If you’re looking for stunning light-based transitions for your projects, then we’ve got the plugin for you. Motion Array’s Luminous transition plugins for Premiere Pro contains five individual native transitions, each with five different styles. That’s 25 light-based transitional effects!
Before you begin working with these transitions, let’s first take a look at what the plugin effects look like!
Summary
Part 1: What are the Luminous Transitions?
The Luminous Plugin is a set of five transitions that focus on light manipulation: bokeh, flare, light leak, light streak, and light trail. Each of the transitions has five individual versions to choose from as well as a range of customization options, so you can make them your own.
1. Bokeh
Bokeh is an effect you may be familiar with as it is used in both photography and film alike. The bokeh effect is when the camera creates small flares around the out of focus light sources in an image. The bokeh transition uses beautiful, delicate light spots across the screen to take you from one scene to another.
2. Flare
Add some flair to your video projects with this remarkable flare transition! The flare effect works in a similar way to in-camera flare that occurs when a bright light source passed the camera, such as a torch or car lights. Generating from one part of the screen, the flare creates a smooth, flashy transitional effect.
3. Light Leaks
The light leaks transition creates beautiful abstract light patterns across your image. This subtle transition is excellent for enhancing the natural beauty in your shots and adding depth to your transitions.
4. Light Streak
If you want to get all J.J. Abrams with your videos, this is the effect for you. The light streak transition moves you between scenes with gorgeous streaks of lights scattered across the screen. This effect works perfectly to give a sci-fi, or high tech feel to your video projects.
5. Light Trail
The light trail transition is slightly different from the others on this list, as it is far more stylistic. This effect creates strings of dynamically animated light that move across the screen. The 3D style effect can be a powerful addition to any promo or event-based video.
Part 2: How to Get Started Using the Luminous Transitions
Once you’ve decided which transition you want to use, install and download the plugins to Premiere Pro. You’re now ready to get absorbed into the customization of your transitions.
Step 1: Adding the Transition
A cool thing about the Luminous plugins is that they are native transitions. This means that once installed, you just drag and drop your transition to your video clips.
- Once your clips edited in the timeline, go to the Effects panel.
- Use the search bar to find your chosen Luminous transition. Or, under the folder Video Transitions, find the MA Luminous folder.
- Drag and drop the transition to the beginning, end, or the point where two clips meet.
Step 2: Choosing Your Version
Once you have chosen and added your transition, you can begin to customize it. The first thing you need to decide is which version of the transition you want to use.
- Select the transition in the timeline.
- Go to the Effect Control panel and find the Versions setting.
- Use the drop-down menu to choose from one of the different versions of the transition style.
Step 3: Customizing the Transition
If twenty-five different preset options aren’t enough for you, we’ve got you covered. Below the Versions setting, you will find a bunch of other parameters that you can change to create a stylish and unique looking transition.
Blend Mode
The Blend Mode refers to how the image and your transition are blended. You have two options: Screen and Additive. Screen creates a more naturalistic look, with more opacity to the different levels of light in the transition. Additive creates a brighter style transition, with a larger area of bright white light.
Position and Scale
You can customize both the Position and the Scale of your transition, allowing you to use a portion of the effect. If you scale down the transition, you will be left with borders around the effect, so we suggest you use these settings to scale up and reposition.
Rotation
You can rotate the transition layer to change the angle of the animation. If you change this parameter along with the scale and position settings, you can create a whole new version of the transition.
Flip Direction
The Flip Direction drop-down has two options, allowing you to flip the transitional effect both horizontally and vertically. This can be helpful to match the light transition to movement in your videos.
Hue
Hue is a cool parameter to be able to change, as it allows you to customize the transition color to the look of each individual video or clip. Each light effect uses a variety of colors and shades. The Hue settings allow you to cycle through a full rainbow of color options.
Saturation
Once you’ve chosen the color of your effect, check out the Saturation settings. Here you can control how much color is in your transition, or remove the color altogether.
Lightness
The Lightness settings, as the name suggests, changes the amount of light used in the transition. This has a similar effect to Opacity settings, as you can dial the light way down for a very subtle effect, or push it up for a brighter, more light-filled transition.
Part 3: Creative Ways to Use the Luminous Transition Plugins
1. Match Motion
Luminous effects are great at adding movement to your video, but when matched with camera movement, it can create something spectacular. If your clip is panning from left to right, customize the effect in matching the action, creating a seamless transition.
2. Use with Photos
The Luminous transitions can be used with all types of media but can be especially useful when creating photo slideshow style videos. The bokeh and light leaks effects are great for creating a romantic or nostalgic feel, perfect for wedding photos or holiday snaps.
3. Use as In-Scene Effects
So far, we’ve talked about these effects being used as transitions. But you can also use them in your scenes as an effect on their own. To achieve this, just cut the clip and the point you want the effect to occur and add your transition. Since the two clips follow on from one another, the light effect appears over the clip without changing how it plays.
So that’s Motion Array’s Luminous transition plugins for Premiere Pro. We’ve shown you five extraordinary light transition effects, each with a vast range of customizations, and hopefully plenty of ideas on how you can use them in your projects. The rest is up to you, so get downloading and light up your video projects!
