Dissolve / Cross-Fade

Dissolve / Cross-fade

Watch as an animation →

In plain words

Two scenes overlap as they change, giving a sense of passing time, a flashback or a soft mood.

When to use it

Time jumps such as cloudy to clear, the ending of an emotional ad.

Example videos

Ultimate Guide to Scene Transitions – Every Editing Transition Explained (The Shot List, Ep 9) — Explainer: See an example of a dissolve where two scenes overlap as time passes.
The Film Dissolve: The Hardest Cut — Explainer: See in film scenes when a dissolve works well.
ALL Types of Cuts in AI Filmmaking | Full Showcase and Tutorial — AI: See an example of two AI scenes overlapped with a dissolve.

In AI video, like this

If you put several scenes in one prompt, the model fills the gaps with dissolves on its own, so always make dissolves in the edit. Use xfade=transition=fade:duration=0.5:offset=… together with acrossfade.

One-click prompt

Dissolves inside one AI generation come out as random melting, so generate each scene separately, then join two 4-second clips with a 0.8-second cross-fade for picture and sound: ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v]xfade=transition=fade:duration=0.8:offset=3.2[v];[0:a][1:a]acrossfade=d=0.8[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" out.mp4

See it in real films and ads

This Guy Edits — The Film Dissolve: The Hardest Cut

AI-made examples

Dom the AI Tutor — Dissolve chapter

Recommended for scenes like these

Beauty & Cosmetics AdGolden Hour SilhouetteTaxi Driver — "You Talkin' to Me?" Mirror Monologue

Techniques that pair well

Close-Up (CU)Medium Close-Up (MCU)Slow MotionExtreme Wide Shot (EWS)Macro
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