Transition

Specify a cinematic transition between frames or shots for connected AI video generation nodes.

Overview

The Transition parameter node defines a transition effect to apply within AI-generated video clips — how the visual handoff between a start frame and an end frame should play out. Examples: cross-dissolve, fast-forward day-to-night, dissolve to mist, zoom into eye, smash-cut + white-flash. The transition is described as natural-language prompt text and injected into the consumer video node’s generation prompt via the standard cinematography pipeline.

Unlike the transition field on the Combine Videos node (which is an FFmpeg post-process operation between two finished clips), the Transition parameter node is diegetic — it instructs the AI video model to actually generate the transition frame-by-frame inside a single shot.

Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
Transition	multi-select	`"auto"`	Catalog entry id, or array of 1-2 ids for compound transitions (e.g., `["smash-cut","white-flash"]`).
Position	select	`"auto"`	Where in the clip the transition occurs: `auto` / `start` / `middle` / `end` / `full`.
Duration	select	`"auto"`	How long the transition lasts: `auto` / `instant` / `short` (~1s) / `medium` (~2s) / `long` (~3s).
Intensity	select	`"auto"`	Energy/character of the transition: `auto` / `subtle` / `natural` / `dynamic` / `crazy`.
Pre Text	text	empty	Free-form text prepended to the composed hint.
Post Text	text	empty	Free-form text appended to the composed hint.

All four enum fields default to auto, which contributes no prompt text. Setting them to non-auto values appends descriptive clauses to the composed hint.

Catalog (76 entries across 8 categories)

Category	Examples	Theme
Standard (11)	cross-dissolve, fade-to-black, match-cut, smash-cut, iris, wipe, roll, seamless-match	Classical editing transitions described frame-by-frame for AI rendering
Time & Temporal (8)	fast-forward (day→night, night→day), seasonal-shift, aging, rewind, weather-shift, flashback	Compressed-time shifts; same scene at different times
Element & Teleport (14)	dissolve-to-mist, water-splash, sand-storm, fire-burnup, smoke-puff, lightning-flash, ink-splash, sakura-petals, aurora-sweep, magic-sparkles, paint-splash, powder-burst, garden-bloom	Subject dissolves into a natural element and reforms
Morph & Shape-shift (9)	liquid-morph, pixelate-reform, shatter-glass, origami-fold, vortex-swirl, dream-ripple, wireframe-morph, polygon-shatter, melt-down	Continuous deformation of subject A into subject B
Portal & Inside (10)	zoom-into-eye, zoom-into-mirror, zoom-into-screen, zoom-into-book, walk-through-door, fall-into-hole, pull-out-reveal, zoom-into-mouth, push-through-glass, soul-jump	Camera pushes into a feature of the subject and emerges in a new world
Physics & Force (9)	explosion-blast, shockwave, punch-into-camera, debris-shower, gravity-flip, building-explosion, vehicle-explosion, jump-match, hand-swipe	Impact-driven scene changes
Light & Flash (8)	white-flash, lens-flare-swipe, light-streak, color-invert, sun-glare, lens-crack, dirty-lens-wipe, eye-light-burst	Flash and lens FX
Glitch & Digital (7)	digital-glitch, vhs-rewind, datamosh, channel-flip, hologram-flicker, display-wipe, double-exposure	Digital corruption transitions

Two defaults round out the catalog: auto (let the model choose) and none (hard cut).

Multi-pick

Up to 2 transitions can be selected and compounded (action-fx parity). The composer joins their prompt hints with ", and ". Examples:

["smash-cut", "white-flash"] — a jarring smash cut blended with a camera-flash bloom.
["fast-forward-day-night", "color-invert"] — time accelerates with a color-flip moment.

A + badge in the picker UI promotes a single selection into multi-pick mode; clicking the numbered badge demotes back.

Graph-aware composition: `startState` / `endState` handles

The node has two input handles that accept any upstream parameter picker (Tone, Framing, Lighting, Camera Motion, Color Look, etc.):

startState — describes the start frame’s look/state. The composer folds it into the prompt as "starting from <hints>".
endState — describes the end frame’s look/state. Composes as "ending at <hints>".

Worked example with fast-forward-day-night, position=end, duration=medium, intensity=dynamic, startState wired to [Tone: "warm golden morning light"], endState wired to [Tone: "deep blue moonlit night"]:

“fast-forward time-lapse transition: the sun visibly arcs across the sky, shadows sweep, clouds streak, sky shifts from daylight blue through golden hour to deep night, stars emerge, all while the framing and camera position remain locked on the same scene, the transition occurs at the end of the clip, lasting approximately 2 seconds, with dynamic energy and assertive flourish, starting from warm golden morning light, ending at deep blue moonlit night”

Inputs & Outputs

Inputs:

in — optional upstream parameter input (rarely used).
startState — optional, accepts a single parameter node (or chain) describing the start frame.
endState — optional, same as startState for the end frame.

Outputs:

out — composed prompt-hint clause, consumed by downstream AI video nodes (Image-to-Video, Text-to-Video, Video-to-Video, Motion Transfer, etc.) via their cinematography handle.

Supported Providers

Not applicable. The Transition node has no provider call of its own — it emits prompt text that the downstream AI video generation provider interprets. Compatibility varies by provider:

Provider	Compatibility
VEO 3 / VEO 3.1	Excellent — best long-form coherence on morph and time transitions
Kling 2.1 / Kling Turbo	Very good on standard, light, glitch categories
Hailuo Standard / 2.3	Good for standard + element transitions; morph quality varies
MiniMax	Limited — sticks closely to user prompt, may ignore exotic transitions
Seedance / Bytedance Lite	Hit-or-miss on morph and portal transitions

Best Practices

Use auto (the default) when you want the model to choose a sensible transition based on the prompt context.
Set position and duration together when you want the transition to occupy a specific portion of the clip — e.g., position: end, duration: short for a quick exit transition.
Wire upstream Tone or Color Look nodes to startState / endState to give the model concrete visual targets for the transition’s beginning and end states.
Multi-pick (1-2 transitions) for stacking complementary effects: smash-cut + white-flash, match-cut + light-streak, freeze-frame + color-invert.
The Transition node is automatically suppressed for still-image consumers (Edit Image, Image-to-Image, Generate Image) — a still cannot host a transition.

Common Use Cases

Adding intentional cinematic transitions to AI-generated reels and shorts.
Building time-shift sequences (day-to-night, seasonal, aging) within a single video clip.
Creating compounded transition effects (e.g., smash-cut + white-flash) for music videos and montages.
Specifying transition timing and intensity for beat-aligned music-video edits.

Tips

The composer rewrites the prompt only when the transition id is non-auto. Leaving the default produces no change to downstream prompts.
For 3+ compound effects, wire two Transition nodes in parallel into the consumer’s cinematography handle — both contribute independently.
The “Composed hint” preview in the config panel shows exactly what gets injected into the downstream prompt at execution time.
Camera motion during the transition is handled by wiring a Camera Motion node into startState or endState — no dedicated camera field on the Transition node itself.