Choose transitions for a step-by-step tutorial

Viewers of a tutorial watch for the next thing to do. A transition can tell them a new step has started. Too many, or too loud, and they stop reading the screen and start watching the effect.

Mark steps with transitions and keep cuts inside a step plain

Inside a step, the same screen carries on, and a plain cut keeps the viewer oriented. A transition at every trim in a step scatters their attention. Put the transition on the boundary between steps, where the viewer needs a moment to reset.

Pick one calm style

Information sits on screen in a tutorial, so choose a style that keeps the picture readable for as much of the overlap as it can.

• Cross fade is the safe default. Both screens stay visible while the new one takes over.
• Wipe left or Wipe right reads as "next". The old screen holds still while a hard edge uncovers the new one.
• Push left slides the old screen away like a turned page, and it suits a numbered series.
• Dip to black marks a bigger break, such as the switch from setup to the main task, or the end.

Skip the Flash and Glitch groups, and Zoom blur. They cover the screen with white, color shifts or heavy blur for a moment, and a tutorial wants the screen visible. Choose one style from the list above and use it at every step boundary.

Hold the finished result before the cut

The overlap shows both steps at once. If the last frames of a step show the result the viewer was waiting for, such as a menu closing or a value changing, a transition can blend that result away. Trim the end of the outgoing clip so the result stays on screen for a beat before the overlap begins, and leave the first moment of the incoming clip quiet, since the new screen is half hidden until the blend ends.

Add the transitions, then place the voice-over

Transitions move footage. Every cut that carries one overlaps its two clips, so the clips and everything timed to them shift earlier by the Duration. A voice-over moves by its start alone. A narration clip that begins before a transition stays where it is, while the footage after that cut arrives earlier. By the end of a long narration, the voice can run behind the screen by the sum of the overlaps.

1. Cut the recording into one clip per step and trim each end to a held result.
2. Add a transition at each step boundary and set the Duration.
3. Place or record the voice-over on the finished timeline, one clip per step if you can.
4. Add chapter titles last, at the first frame of each new step.

If the narration already exists, play across each transition and check that the words still match the screen. Move the narration clip when they drift.

Check the length of the overlap

The Duration slider runs from 0.1 to 2 seconds. A step transition can stay short, since the viewer only needs a signal. A short blend also protects the first words of the next step. With Crossfade audio off, the incoming clip's own sound stays silent until the overlap ends, and a recording with a spoken line right at its start loses those first words.

Start with one boundary

Open DepCut, pick the boundary between your first and second step and give it a Cross fade. Play across it and make sure the result of step one stays visible before the blend begins.