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In this short HOWTO video, we show you how to (smoothly) fade in and out Kdenlive titles over a video clip, fading from and to transparency. The key to success is to use a Composite & Transform transition with keyframes (Affine and Composite will work too). Don’t use the Fade from/to Black effects though, as these effects remove the title transparency information.

Notes

These are the individual steps shown in this HOWTO video:

  1. Add a Composite & Transform transition to the title clip.
  2. First keyframe: set the opacity to 0%. This marks the beginning of the fade in (ramp up).
  3. Second keyframe: add a new keyframe where you want the title to be fully faded in, set the opacity to 100%. Set the type of the keyframe to Linear.
    • The rationale to set this keyframe to Linear is that otherwise Kdenlive (MLT) calculates a smooth curve fitting to the previous and following keyframe, causing the opacity value to overshoot. With a maximum possible opacity of 100% you won’t notice. However, when you use a maximum opacity of less than 100%, then this overshooting may become visible.
    • Ensure that the first keyframe is Smooth. You can only adjust the type of the first keyframes after you’ve added a second keyframe.
  4. Third keyframe: add another keyframe near the end where you want to start fading out the title. Leave the opacity at 100%. Set the keyframe type to Smooth.
  5. Fourth keyframe: add a final keyframe, where you set the opacity to 0%.

Done.

In case you are scratching your head now, why this mixture of smooth and linear interpolated keyframes? Then head over to our new article on the smooth interpolation.