Simple fades with VirtualDub

FadeFX 1.2

Version 1.2 posted 18 February 2004

Fade Effects for VirtualDub

FadeFX.vdf

Add simple fade-out or fade-in effects to your videos

Want to fade to black at the end of a video, or fade in from black at the start?  This filter will let you fade out at a specified location, and will black out all frames after that.  Alternatively, you can use it to black-out a series of frames at any arbitrary point within a video.

If you prefer, you can instead use an iris effect (a circle) to begin or end a video.

Note that FadeFX does not affect the soundtrack, so you could still hear sounds even after fading to total blackness.  This filter is appropriate to add a fadeout where there’s a natural break, but you should use more advanced video-editing software for more advanced effects.

New in Version 1.2

As of version 1.2, FadeFX is fully scriptable.  The new version also adds a linkage (oldnames.lib) that is apparently needed to run on “lite” installations of Windows 98.

New in Version 1.1

Version 1.1 uses a smoother, cleaner-looking edge on the circle in the iris effect.

Also, the circle shape is automatically corrected to match a 4:3 picture aspect ratio, regardless of actual frame size.  This prevents the iris from being egg-shaped during playback of SVCD files (typically 480x480 and 480x576).  Because 480x480 is usually distorted when previewed on the computer, it may look egg shaped before recording.

Using FadeFX

Locate the frames where you want a fade

Identify the exact frames where you want to fade in, or fade out, then enter them in FadeFX.  Each instance of FadeFX performs just one fade.  If you want a fade-in and a fade-out, you will need two instances of FadeFX in your filter chain.

A simple fade-in

Fading-in is the simplest effect, since you will usually want to start at frame 0 or 1.  If you want to fade in over the course of 20 frames, for example, you would choose frames 1 through 20, and set the fade parameters to ‘Fade in from black’.

Setting for fade out

Fade-out is similar, but you will need to identify the actual frame numbers at the end of your video.  Since each video is probably a different length, each video will probably require different frame numbers.  You can identify the frame range by using the location slider in VirtualDub before you invoke this filter.

The ‘Extend effect to other frames’ setting controls the following default behaviors:

• All frames after a Fade-out or Iris-out will be blacked out.
• All frames prior to Fade-in or Iris-in will be blacked out.

None of the frames within the effect range will be totally blacked out.