Video transitions (ffmpeg xfade)

Join two clips with a deliberate, visible transition. This is plain ffmpeg xfade — no CLI command wraps it (it's a one-liner; only unique-code operations get commands). Use the recipe below directly.

Decide which tool first:

• Visible transition between two shots (wipe, dissolve, pixelize…) → this skill, xfade.
• A cut that feels abrupt but shouldn't have a visible effect → you want a split edit, not a transition: stagger the sound and picture with audio_lead in the EDL. Reaching for a dissolve to soften a choppy dialogue cut is the classic wrong fix — see cutting-rhythm.
• Seamless join, no visible effect (hide a hard cut) → the existing splice command (uv run video-agent splice a.mp4 b.mp4 -o out.mp4) — a fixed 0.04s crossfade.
• Effect on the footage itself (smoke, recolor, restyle) → grok-video-edit skill.

Recipe