How to Add Transitions in Premiere Pro (+ 4 Main Types to Use)

In this guide, we’ll go through several options to add transitions in Premiere Pro – from the default one to more complex transitions.

The right transition between your clips can make the whole video look different and emphasize the particular style, action, or feeling the editor wants to share. 

The number of transitions you add shouldn’t be enormous – the more transitions you add, the heavier your video will look.

Each transition should be reasonable and logical and look organic.

All the best video editing software allows you to add transitions to your footage, but we’re going to look at how to do add transitions with Premiere Pro.

How do you add transitions in Premiere Pro?

First, add clips to your timeline and select where you’d like to apply the transition.

Apply Default Transition

The easiest way is to right-click between your cuts and select Apply Default Transitions – this will apply a default cross dissolve transition to your video.

Also, it will automatically apply a constant gain to your audio – if you don’t need such a transition, you can simply select your audio clip and delete the transition from it – it won’t affect your video clip.

You can also easily change the duration of your transition – stretch the transition longer or shorter to apply the changes.

You should note that if you don’t trim the video clips before applying transitions, you’ll get the error “Insufficient media. This transition will contain repeated frames”. 

It means that Premiere Pro needs extra frames of your footage to make the transitions work smoothly.

You can quickly fix it – trim the end of your first video and the beginning of your second video and apply the transition again.

Or, you can click OK and continue your work, but keep in mind that your transition may not be as smooth as it could be with extra frames.

(You could also use transition plugins such as these.)

Apply Transitions from the Effects panel

You have many other options to use – not just dissolve transitions.

Go to the Effects panel. If you can see the Effects panel in your work area, simply click Window>Effects, and the menu will appear.

In the Effects menu, select Video Transitions and drag the transition you like onto the cut between your clips.

You can right-click on the list of transitions and set any of them as a default – the chosen transition will be applied automatically each time you select Apply Default Transitions on your timeline.

In case you dragged the transition, and it automatically applied to one of your clips instead of both, you can go to the Effect Controls and select Alignment>Center at Cut.

Apply Advanced Transitions

You can apply advanced settings to your transition – right-click on the transition on your timeline and go up to the Effects Controls.

In the preview window above, you can change the direction of your transition – click on one of the arrows in the corners to apply the changes.

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What are the main types of transitions in Premiere Pro?

First of all, transitions can be separated into several main categories and subcategories. We’ll take a look at the main types of transitions:

Cut transition

This is a simple type of transition when one shot transitions to the next with abrupt changes. Also known as Hard Cut since there are no effects applied, and one shot just switches to another. 

No transition is also a transition: if you place clips one after another without applying transitions, it will be a Hard Cut. 

Another type of cut is a Match Cut – a creative transition between two shots when the focus is kept on the visual similarities between them. For example, the first shot will finish with the same object that will appear in the second shot.

It makes the transition connected and seamless, even though no effects are applied.

Dissolve transition

One of the most commonly applied types of transition – dissolves are gradual editing transitions that make the effect move from one shot to the next, so the shot is always on the screen. 

The most used dissolve transition is a cross dissolve when one shot fades out as the next one fades in.

Fade transition

Another commonly applied type of transition is a cinematic fade. 

Fades are close to dissolves but leave space for a dark screen. The scene either starts with a black screen and gets brighter till the shot appears(fade-in) or it decreases till it’s a dark screen(fade-out). 

Wipe transition

The wipe transition is used to replace the shot by wiping it from one side of the frame to another. 

Wipe is also a cinematic transition that can greatly contribute to your video, though it looks quite specific and drags much attention.

Final Words

In this guide, we created basic Premiere Pro transitions that are used for editing and post-production around the world. 

Sometimes when you need to add more creativity, you can apply more specific transitions, like shape, zoom, gradient, slide, glitch, or other transitions, which greatly differ from each other. 

You can find most of these transitions in the Video Transitions menu, but with quick research, you can also discover and install many good ones from the internet. 

The Easy Edit YouTube Bundle contains custom transitions for Premiere Pro, along with 1000+ video templates for YouTube. 

With this pack of templates, you can create the whole video from the beginning to the end – openers & intros, subscribes, lower thirds, infobars, titles, next episodes, transitions, color luts, backgrounds and other elements for your editing.

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