Hi guys! Today I'm going to teach you how to make swing transitions.
What is a Swing Transition?
A swing transition is a transition that "swings" in the opposite direction before completing the transition.
There are two swing transitions in this gif: a swing rotation and a swing horizontal slide. I'm not the best at explanations, so bear with me. I figured a visual would make my words easier to understand.
These transitions remind me of pull-back car toys.
You can also look at it as "charging up" the transition. It's like drawing a bow and arrow. I think you guys get the point. Now it's time to learn how to make swing transitions.
How To Make a Swing Transition
The first thing you'll want to do is place two key frames. I've seen a lot of tutorials that use three, but my method only requires two.
I'm doing a regular rotation to the right, but you can do whatever transition you want (zooms, slides, rotations, etc.) also, it doesn't matter what method you are using to make your transitions. You can use 'S_blurmocurves', 'Transform', Null Objects, and more. Just make your transition as you normally would.
Here's what the transition looks like using this graph:
As you can see, there is no swing. I wanted to provide an example of a transition with and without a swing to better illustrate the difference between the two.
Here's what the transition looks like using this graph:
Voila! Just copy that graph and you're done. I have a few tips to help you guys tailor the graph to your liking, so stick around to learn a thing or two.
How Did the Graph Change?
Identifying how a clip responds to changes in the graph allows you to really personalize your transitions.
Let's identify the changes:
1. The bottom handle was pulled to the left
Pulling the handle to the left makes the transition slower and smoother. The farther to the left you pull it, the slower the transition will be. Pulling the handle further to the right makes the transition faster. It takes longer for the swing to start, and the final transition is a lot more aggressive.
2. The right handle was pulled below the x-axis
If you didn't know, the line the bottom handle naturally rests on is the x-axis. The graphs pictured above are essentially exponential functions, but there's no need to get into that. Who would've thought highschool algebra would actually be useful outside of the classroom?
The first graph represents exponential growth. Simply put, the rotation value never dips below zero, it just grows until it reaches +90. The second graph represents neither exponential growth nor decay. It decays momentarily before growing to its peak.
Key Takeaways
If the curve dips below the x-axis, then the transition will swing
The farther you pull the right handle down, the bigger the swing
Highschool algebra is actually kind of useful in the real world
I hope you guys found this helpful! Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you have :)