Hey, thanks for your reply.

Having checked I can say that my version of Magix Movie Edit Pro Premium (2018) definitely does not have any effect called Blurry: Zoom or any others you mentioned, radial, etc - I'm guessing you made your video in a different version which perhaps included this effect? I also can't find anything in the store.

You are right that the transition goes by fast - this, coupled with an accelerating zoom, is to trick the eye into thinking you've zoomed right through the shot into the next clip - the motion/radial blur is a really important part of this.

I find it frustrating that this effect has been used on a promotional 'look what you can make with our programme' video, yet the effect is absent in the actual programme. What the hell. I saw that promo video, slowed it right down to check and thought 'yes, this is exactly what I'm looking for' and bought it. Now, hours invested into a project I can't get the advertised result. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

So now I'm supposed to buy a plugin from a third party to achieve this basic blur effect?

Okay, rant over.

As for the first part of my original question, I've been able to achieve a smooth zoom using lots of keyframes and manually positioning them to make a parabolic type curve which is actually made up of short straight lines. I didn't think this would look any good but it actually works just fine (although it's a lot more work than if you had full control of effects curves). You can copy and past the curve to other clips so that helps.

Still hoping to be made to look foolish and I've just missed where all the blur effects are - perhaps someone knows something?

In the meantime, off to give Pixelan some money...

Hi.

See the image below:

This is in MEP Premium version 17.0.2.159.

HTH

Jeff

EDIT: The first red box should be around "Templates" and not "Effects". My apologies!

Hi Fraser,

Did you download and install everything under Help, Install extra content? If not, then you are missing most of the program.

John CB

Hi

I have had a look at this transition from the demo video and I do not think this is one of the Blur-zoom effects - all these effects indicated by John CB have some linear movement left, right, up or down or radially - the sample video, AFAICS, has none of this movement.

However I can recreate the effect using the Hitfilm Zoom-Blur effect added separately to 2 objects and key-framed into the last 12 frames in the first object and first 12 frames of the second with a very short x-fade as shown below - I chose 12 frames so it is more clear, in the sample video above I think ~ 6 frames on each side has been used.

the result is

HTH

John EB

Hi all, firstly thanks so much for your replies - it's really great to see there's a strong and active user community behind MEP.

Jeff and John CB - you were both right, when I installed the programme it came with all the transitions EXCEPT the category 'Effect Transitions' which included the 'Blurry: zoom from top to bottom' etc transitions you mentioned. Once I followed the steps help>install extra content>fade effects, I was able to apply these transitions. So this is great! I do indeed look foolish!

These give me kind of the effect I'm after but as far as I can tell no way to customise them besides change the transition length - If possible, I'd love to have more control, so...

John EB, the Hitfilm effect 'Hitfilm Zoom blur' looks like it's exactly what I'm looking for. My install features 20 effects under the category 'Hitfilm Movie Essentials Pack' and 'Hitfilm Retouch Pack' including the likes of witness protection, grain removal, etc, but no Zoom blur! I'm wondering if there is something I have to do to get this separately? Do you happen to know?

Getting close, thanks again guys!

PS. If you're interested, this is the type of effect I'm looking to achieve - an accelerating zoom coupled with a motion blur (hoping zoom blur will be a satisfactory substitute to motion blur). This tutorial uses Premiere Pro and After Effects (obviously a lot more fully featured (and expensive) software than MEP, but I'm hoping to get something close).

Hi

. . . . . My install features 20 effects under the category 'Hitfilm Movie Essentials Pack' and 'Hitfilm Retouch Pack' including the likes of witness protection . . . .

I have the HitFilm Toolkit installed which has the following effects:

IIRC this came with MEP 2017.

If you have the HitFilm Radial blur you can add the zoom using Effects, View/Animation, Size/position.

HTH

John EB

Hi,

Looking at the current special offering from Magix for MEP Premium, I see that it comes with:

• NewBlue Elements Overlay
• NewBlue ColorFast 2
• iZotope RX Elements
• HitFilm Essentials
• NewBlueFX Stylizers 5 Imagine
• HitFilm Retouch

but no HitFilm Toolkit. Still, that is a very good offering and I would like to get ColorFast.

There must be some way to do the radial blur effect with what you have. The ones that I mentioned have a zoom connected, but you can try them.

You should be able to reproduce the effect, not exactly, but close. I would have to go through the video again, but it looks like there is a zoom-pan in on video A, zoom in-pan from a zoom out on video B. You can do the mirroring on video B and add in a mosaic behind B using B and NB Elements 3 Overlay - Grid, correction, HitFilm Essentials - Tile, I believe, or make your own, and you can blur the mosaic with the built-in tools. The last element is the radial blur for which you need the Hitfilm Radial Blur or something else, like Pixelan BlurBender Pro. You will need to understand keyframing to do most of these.

Hitfilm Toolkit is not offered in the Store, unfortunately. Maybe you could ask Magix to sell you a copy.

BTW, some of the current offerings are available separately from the Store, and you can view the associated videos to see what they do. You should already have them, but it is nice to see what can be done with the different tools.

John CB

Hi

Interesting one this!

It appears this Directional Blur transition (Fade) effect has been hobbled in the latest MEP2018 version and I guess this is somewhat explained by its' description - Basic Effect Transitions. It is now a group of transition templates with no way to customise parameters other than duration, but prior to this in MEP2016 it was similar in a full range of adjustments, to VPX.

The odd thing is though that even in 2016 it is missing adjustment sliders in the Effects tab under the Sharpness heading for Directional (Zoom) blur, as in VPX. You can however apply the "Fades> Transition effect" template and then open video effects tab and see and adjust all the parameters and keyframes in conjunction with the arranger, after making the individual parameters effects curves visible by clicking the eye symbol adjacent to the individual parameter.

In 2018 there is no possibility to alter anything except the transition length but in MEP2016, 2017?, VPX7 - 9 there are:-

Intensity (or Level), Quality, Angle, Alignment, Center X, Center Y, Type (Zoom, Radial, etc.) adjustments.

In all versions except MEP2018, dropping the Templates onto overlapping clips actually applies all the above effects onto both clips and KFrames them in and out in the area of the overlap. This however, makes it rather tricky to change the fade duration and may be why Magix decided to change the Directional / Zoom Blur to act like a standard transition. Pity because with a bit of customisation these effects can look quite cool.

Peter

Update: I have cut my losses and bought Premiere Pro.

Thanks again to everyone who had a go at helping me out!

Hi Fraser,

I hope that you didn't buy it just to do this effect. It was done with AfterEffects, not Premier. With VPX you can do the same effect, but without the steep learning curve. There is still a learning curve with MEP/VPX.

Good luck!

John CB

I guess I switched to PP because it lets me do any effect I want, including this one (which can be done in PP in a similar fashion to After Effects) - I can be a bit of a perfectionist and don't like having to compromise and find work-arounds. Also I don't want to make the big upfront investment to VPX. I don't mean this as a critique towards MEP - it was great software to use and excellent value as others have pointed out. . You're right there is perhaps a slightly steeper learning curve but I'm fine with that, this is my hobby and I enjoy spending the time developing my skills.