Gradient Wipes

[Maxine370]

Ron,

You might want to move the gradients in my shared album to the Free Stuff album. I tried but the option wasn't there for me.

Thanks,

Beth

[Bob]

Thought I would join the fun and contribute some gradients also.

http://www.muvipix.com/cpg/displayi ... ?pos=-1040

[William Tranter]

Beth, I've just encountered this post about gradient wipes, and I can't work out how I'm supposed to download your three examples (which are excellent, BTW!).
I've downloaded the free ones from the Complimentary section on the Main page of Muvipix, and they work perfectly, but I'd like to add lots more if possible.
Perhaps I'm a bit thick, but could you give me a clue about actually HOW I download your ones, please?
All the best,
Bill

[William Tranter]

Oops, sorry Beth, I've worked it out!
I have to "Save Target As" after I right-click on your gradient, and then I can save it to my Gradient Wipe folder!
I'm very impressed with all of the ones I've seen so far!
What I'm really looking for is a gradient wipe transition which looks like rain falling, or lots of little ripples in a puddle, if you can understand what I mean! I've tried making my own transition using Photoshop Elements 3, but it hasn't been very successful.
We have LOTS of rain in England, so a transition which includes the 'problem' would be, I think, a very useful transition indeed in this country!
Anyway, hey-ho, I'd better get back to the editing of my latest holiday video. My wife and I go off on another little holiday of two and a half weeks next Wednesday - to Hertford north of London. It's nowhere very special, but an area which is somewhere I've often driven past but never explored, so we're taking the time to have a look around, visit all the museums and stately homes, etc. before closing up our caravan for the winter season.
I know, it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!
All the very best,
Bill

[RJ Johnston]

Last year I had some rain made using the noise effect and the fast blur effect with vertical blurring and the extract effect and the chromakey effect. I'll see if I can find it. I posted the instructions on the Adobe PE forum, but they are probably archived over on that other web site by now.

It's easier though if you have the WAX plug-in, that has some rain and snow as I recall.

I don't have anything for rain drops in puddles.

[William Tranter]

Thanks for the tip, RJ! Unfortunately I don't (yet!) have the Wax plug-in, but one day I'll get it no doubt.

I've been playing around in Photoshop and Xara X (a drawing package from those very clever people down at St Albans in the UK) and thinking about what I said in my post above, I think I've worked out how to make them -- I've worked out that the DARKNESS of the grey equals TIME of the transition, with White being one image and Black being the other image, but any grey scale shapes will appear as the second (or first if 'reversed') image, the darker ones first and the lighter ones next.

Using this theory (and I've probably explained it all terribly!), I've made two gradient wipes. The first one gives lots of raindrops (falling in a puddle?) (124Kb) and the second one is just one raindrop falling in a puddle (or whatever) (45Kb).

If someone could give me a clue how to upload them to Muvipix I would be pleased, because I've had lots of help from everyone there, and now I'd like to give something back. I have never 'zipped' any files and haven't got a clue how to even go about something as technical as that, and the gradient wipe images are 720x576, so I'm not sure whether I'd have to make each image smaller. Any advice would be very welcome, but please remember that I am NOT at all confident of doing technical stuff like this, so any instructions would have to be written for a newbie like me.

All the best,
Bill

[William Tranter]

RJ, Further to your comments regarding Wax plug-in:

I do have a VERY good rain and/or snow and/or water ripples program called "Sqirlz". Have a look for it on Google, it's free and it is very good, but it is designed for still photographs, although I believe it can (instructions are sketchy to say the least!) be applied to video footage. Although it is a 'standalone' program, the finished results are DV footage which can be adjusted for speed within PrEl.

There's also some radiating ripples available as add-ons to PrEl. Effects at the Burger transitions website. I've downloaded all of them and used some of them in my videos. I found the 'fire' ones quite useful for a title effect about a holiday when it was VERY hot, where the video title goes up in flames, which then fades to black ash lettering.

I'm always on the look-out for free add-ons!

Have a look at my latest creation on the Gallery page. The effect is something like what I'm trying to achieve, though I may make some of the multi-raindrop gradient wipe drops different sizes to give a bit more variety.

All the best, and thanx for the help,
Bill

[momoffduty]

Bob, thanks for sharing!

[RJ Johnston]

Bill,

To upload the .PSD files, Zip them up first using Winzip or the built-in zip feature of Windows XP, then upload the Zip file just like you would a video.

Rob

[RJ Johnston]

Bill,

I'll swap you your rain gradiant for mine.

This is the PSD file:
http://www.muvipix.com/cpg/displayi ... ?pos=-1043

This is the video:
http://www.muvipix.com/cpg/displayi ... ?pos=-1045

Rob

[William Tranter]

RJ: Thank you for your raindrops gradient wipe - it is VERY different to mine, and very effective at showing something not actually seen!

I have uploaded my two efforts to my gallery site, though I'm not sure how you will access them (I have said previously that I am simply a computer USER, not an expert like Steve Grisetti or Chuck Engels!).

You can find them at

muvipix.com users > William Tranter > Gradient Wipes

(you will have to click on the Zipped file) - I just hope I've got it right as I've never zipped a file before!

I hope all of our fellow muvipix members can use them,

All the best,
Bill

[RJ Johnston]

I like yours much better, Bill. It's more interesting.

[William Tranter]

[Jayell]

OK, so I've downloaded and played with some of the gradient wipes (some great stuff!). Found one I really like for a specific project I'm working on. Is there a way to save it into favorites .. without having to choose the photo and softness each time I want to use it?

[William Tranter]

Err, don't know! Steve Grisetti or Chuck Engels might know!
All the best,
Bill