In my latest HD100 project I'm trying to do one of those magic dissolves. In certain films there are these long disolves where the blacks dissolve first and then the brighter parts linger and then finally fade...how is this sort of thing achieved what is that kind of dissolve called? How do you dissolve some parts of the frame and not others? I'm used to doing dissolves with the opacity ramp, this is low end now? How then do they achieve this effect?

In my latest HD100 project I'm trying to do one of those magic dissolves. In certain films there are these long disolves where the blacks dissolve first and then the brighter parts linger and then finally fade...how is this sort of thing achieved what is that kind of dissolve called? How do you dissolve some parts of the frame and not others? I'm used to doing dissolves with the opacity ramp, this is low end now? How then do they achieve this effect?
If you have AVID, the effect is simply called a film fade or film dissolve. Adobe After Effects is even better.

In certain films there are these long disolves where the blacks dissolve first and then the brighter parts linger and then finally fade...how is this sort of thing achieved what is that kind of dissolve called?
What you have described is an optical dissolve performed in lab between an A and B roll of negative. That is just the way optical dissolves look.
To emulate it in FCP, try the "additive dissolve" instead of "cross-dissolve."

To emulate it in FCP, try the "additive dissolve" instead of "cross-dissolve."

And just for reference, it's also an "additive dissolve" for AE and Premiere Pro.

Hi Bruce,

I've heard the closest replication of this can be achieved with the Magic Bullet software. If you go to the Red Giant website you can download a fully working demo that has a watermarked output. This should give you a good enough idea as to whether this is what you are looking for.


Greg