FFmpeg xfade Transition Reference — effect skill for transitions

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All 58 built-in xfade transitions plus custom expressions, grouped by look, with the options that matter.

What it does

Fades, wipes, slides, covers/reveals, shape opens, slices, wind, squeeze, zoom, pixelize, blur.

When: Pick a transition name for any ffmpeg join; check here before writing a custom expression.

Watch out: Expecting camera-style effects (whip, spin, shake, glitch, light leak, 3D) from xfade; those need filter chains or GL/HTML engines.

Timing: duration 0–60 s (default 1); offset in seconds from the first input's start (default 0)

Also called: xfade list, xfade transitions, xfade names, xfade custom expr

In FFmpeg

Options: transition, duration, offset, expr. Both inputs must be constant frame rate with the same resolution, pixel format, frame rate and timebase.

Fades: fade, fadefast, fadeslow, fadeblack, fadewhite, fadegrays, dissolve (dithered), distance. Wipes: wipeleft/right/up/down, wipetl/tr/bl/br, diagtl/tr/bl/br, smoothleft/right/up/down (soft edge). Moves: slideleft/right/up/down (push), coverleft/right/up/down (B over A), revealleft/right/up/down (A off B). Shapes: circleopen, circleclose, circlecrop, rectcrop, vertopen, vertclose, horzopen, horzclose, radial (clock). Slices and wind: hlslice, hrslice, vuslice, vdslice, hlwind, hrwind, vuwind, vdwind. Other: squeezeh, squeezev, zoomin, pixelize, hblur, custom.

Custom: variables X, Y, W, H, P, PLANE, A, B and a0..a3(x,y), b0..b3(x,y). P runs from 1 at the start of the transition to 0 at the end (verified), so if(gt(X/W,P),B,A) reveals B from the right:

ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]fps=30,settb=AVTB,format=yuv420p[a];[1:v]fps=30,settb=AVTB,format=yuv420p[b];\
 [a][b]xfade=transition=custom:duration=0.6:offset=4.4:expr='if(gt(mod(Y*10/H,1),P),B,A)'[v]" -map "[v]" blinds.mp4

GPU variants exist (xfade_opencl, xfade_vulkan) with a smaller set.

Where this comes from

Use when

Not for

Install

Example output

https://s3.varg.ai/how-to/previews/4040c86aea42/take-ffmpeg-xfade-reference.mp4 — circleclose between two shots, with the timeline strip of the edit. Footage: Cosmos Laundromat (2015), (CC) Blender Foundation | gooseberry.blender.org, CC BY 4.0; Big Buck Bunny (2008), (c) copyright 2008, Blender Foundation | www.bigbuckbunny.org, CC BY 3.0. (credit: Rendered by varg · Cosmos Laundromat (2015) + Big Buck Bunny (2008))

More transitions skills