How to add a transition between two clips in DepCut

When you place two clips side by side on the main track, they meet in a hard cut. A transition replaces that hard cut with a blend, a slide, a wipe or a flash. The styles live in the Transitions tab on the left. The cuts live on the timeline. This post shows three ways to connect them.

Before you start

You need at least one clip on the timeline. Until then the Transitions tab is faded out, and its tooltip reads "Add a clip to the timeline to use transitions".

Each cut between two touching clips on the main track has a small round button sitting on it. The button is hidden while either neighboring clip is selected, so click an empty part of the timeline first if you cannot see it.

Use the round button at the cut

This is the fastest route for a single cut.

1. Click the round button at the cut. Its tooltip reads Add a transition.
2. The Transitions tab opens and points at that cut.
3. Click any tile.

The transition is applied to that cut straight away and selected. It starts at half a second. The tiles preview with the footage on either side of the cut nearest your playhead, so you see your own shots blend before you commit.

Drag a tile onto the timeline

Drag a tile from the Transitions tab and hold it over the timeline near a cut. A dashed slot appears where the transition will land, with its length in seconds. The cut's round button grows to show it is the target. A drop snaps to the nearest cut within a short reach, so you do not need pixel-perfect aim.

Dropping onto a cut that already has a transition replaces it and keeps its length. A tile dropped away from any cut or clip edge does nothing.

Change the style of an existing transition

Once a cut has a transition, its round button shows the icon of the style, and the tooltip names the style. Click the button to select the transition. With it selected, clicking another tile in the Transitions tab swaps the style. The editor then plays the join on your footage, starting a moment before it and running a moment past it, so you see the new style at once.

You can also press Space to play the section yourself.

Adjust or remove it

With the transition selected, the Transitions tab shows a Duration slider and a Crossfade audio switch above the tiles. Drag the slider to make the blend shorter or longer.

To go back to a hard cut, select the transition and press Delete or Backspace. Undo with Ctrl+Z, or Cmd+Z on a Mac.

Put it to work

Open a project in DepCut, put two clips on the timeline, and click the round button between them.