Adjust a transition’s speed and other settings

You can adjust the speed of most transitions. For example, you can quickly fade between two clips or, fade a clip in over several seconds. Use the Speed slider at the top of the Transitions pane to adjust the timing, and then click the Update button. With the Push transition, you can adjust where the clip comes from.

Transitions shorten your movie

Adding a transition between two clips combines part of each clip. For example, if you add a two-second cross-dissolve, your movie will be shortened by two seconds. Make sure you add your transitions before choosing music to match the length of your movie.

Fade in and out to black

There may be times in your movie when you want to show that you’ve switched to a different location or time of day. A technique commonly used to achieve this goal is to fade your video to, or from, black. Use the Speed slider to adjust the length of the fade, and then drag the Fade In transition to the left of (or the Fade Out transition to the right of) a clip in the clip viewer.

Use transitions to make your subject magically appear

You can use a dissolve transition between clips to have your subject appear, as if by magic. For example, with your camera on a tripod, capture video of someone in a room. Then stop recording and have the person leave the room. Without moving your camera or tripod, capture more footage of the empty room. You can edit these clips together in iMovie with a dissolve to have your subject appear or disappear from the scene!

Have your subject push the transition

If you film your subject appearing to push against a wall, you can use this footage in combination with a Push effect so it appears that the subject is causing the video transition to occur in your movie.

Applying a transition to multiple clips at once

If you want to apply the same transition between many clips, hold down the Shift or Command key and then select multiple clips in the timeline. From the Transition pane, choose a transition you want to use, and then click Apply. This adds the transition to all of the selected clips.

Updating your transition settings

You can easily change the settings for transitions even after you’ve put them in your movie. Just select the transition icon in the timeline and then change any settings you want in the upper right corner of the iMovie Transitions window. When you’re ready, click Update and your transition will change.