Motion Blur transitions - a demo video (tutorial in progress)

Made with Shotcut
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Hi folks, I’ve been working on two techniques (Method 1 and Method 2) to achieve Motion Blur (Whip-Pan) transitions in Shotcut. Method 1 is done entirely with Shotcut, and results in a short panning distance. Method 2 uses Shotcut and GIMP, and achieves a wider panning distance.

This demo features a mixture of Method 1 and Method 2 transitions. I’m preparing a YouTube tutorial which explains how it’s done in easy stages, so watch this space :sunglasses:.

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Yay! I’d be interested to see Method 1. I typically use Method 2, but instead of GIMP I use Photoshop. I’m sitting in the first row waiting for this one.

Here’s mine using Photoshop:

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Hi @bentacular, thanks! I’m working full steam ahead with the tutorial, but just for you :smile: here’s the process in a nutshell:
Method 1:

  1. Make a “Slide-Out/Slide-in” transition of 7 frames duration. Use a 7-frame transparent clip as a guide.
    Motion blur timeline 01
    Motion blur timeline 011209×214 21.4 KB
  2. (My Eureka moment no.1!): export just the 7-frame transition as an Mp4, then re-import, place it above the transition.
    Motion blur timeline 02
    Motion blur timeline 021213×207 22.6 KB
  3. Apply a Blur:Box filter (99px width, 0px height).
    Problem: dark areas on the left and right edges.
    Motion blur timeline 03
    Motion blur timeline 03999×574 36 KB
  4. (My Eureka moment no. 2!): add a Size/Pos filter, set to distort, drag out the dark areas left and right so they disappear.
  5. (My Eureka moment no. 3): to make the transition slightly slower, apply a speed of 0.8, or maybe 0.5 to just the transition Mp4.

Ta DA, seems to work…

Method 2:

  1. Export as a frame: last frame of clip 1, and first frame of clip 2.

  2. In GIMP, make a 3840px-wide image of the images side-by-side.Export as a JPG.

    Motion blur timeline 04
    Motion blur timeline 041428×838 75.5 KB

  3. Re-import into GIMP, stretch to 10,000 pixels wide. Export.

    Motion blur timeline 05
    Motion blur timeline 051415×838 98.9 KB

  4. Import this wide image into SC. Apply a Blur:box filter. Not too much is required since the image is stretched…

  5. Apply a Siz/Pos filter, set to distort, set width at 10,000.

  6. Keyframe it from “0” to “-8,080” (10,000 - 1,920) for a duration of 14 frames. Trim this transition clip to 14 frames length.

  7. Arrange timeline : clip 1, then transition clip, then clip 2 (no overlapping).

Bingo, DONE!

I’d be interested if my Method 2 was the same or similar to yours? :sunglasses:

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Excellent! Nice strong effect, I like it.

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Thanks, @PaulusMaximus!!

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Haha Thanks! I’ll try it out!

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Mine is almost identical to yours except I tend to use rotate and scale instead of size and position so that I don’t have to come back and tweak it after editing proxies. I also don’t stretch out the image as long since I’m not actually panning. I just create an illusion of panning. If you can link me your 2 primary images, I’ll show you how I edit them.

But using Blur box might actually look better than the Gaussian Blur that I’m using.

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Great, thanks!
MOTOCROSS clip 02.zip (3.6 MB)
Motocross clip 01.zip (2.3 MB)

I analysed your demo, frame by frame by exporting each of the transition frames, then making them 1 second each (hope that was OK by you!) - interesting! Love to know how you did it! :smile:
https://streamable.com/ovmdti

https://streamable.com/ovmdti

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No worries! Check this out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15-_zQYGVbIhabLbRzeWzW1vYlHaWE4gA/view?usp=sharing

Here’s the Photoshop workflow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9aJParLTqg

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@bentacular, that is great! Ingenious, too. :+1: Nice method of stretching out the centre of the image, then using Rot/Scale and Trails filter on SC. Thank you so much.

I’m just experimenting with a very wide image in GIMP to see if I can achieve a huge pan effect.

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Oh my goodness - it appears that Shotcut can easily handle super-wide images - here’s a demo of three Method 2 whip-pan transitions, using double-frame images with width 10,000, 16,000, and 20,000 pixels!

If I can grab a bit of time later today I’ll see if SC and GIMP can cope with 30,000, 40,000 and 50,000 pixel-wide images …

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Interesting. I found that Size/Pos works OK with proxies as long as I select “distort” in the S/P filter…

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That’s awesome! You didn’t even need to blur the edge where the 2 images meet, nor add a blur

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Sometimes I resize the video mode to shrink or use for IG and the change messes up the position because it’s pixel-based not percentage-based positioning.

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Indeed. A development - GIMP handled stretching the image to 50,000 pixels wide, with just a small amount of blur! Hooray!

Here’s the result, with a duration of 1 second: :sunglasses:

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Guys, that’s great. You’ve been busy. :smiley:
I’m tempted to incorporate this into my project.
But, since you’ll probably find some more tricks along the way, I think I’ll continue with my roadmap to get that video finished (someday).

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Hey Guys, really appreciate the creativity, hopefully something i can incorporate in a future project.

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Great work! Love the Canale Grande clip! Honestly, i dont see much difference if you use 10.000 or 20.000 or even more pixels horizontaly :slight_smile:

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