Transition FX — Documentation

A Blender add-on for building sci-fi and fantasy transitions between two models: model A dissolves, an effect carries the moment, model B arrives.

Blender 5.1 · EEVEE and Cycles · 50 preset transitions · 115 single effects

Installation

1. Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install…
2. Pick transition_fx_addon.zip
3. Tick Transition FX in the list
4. Open the 3D viewport sidebar with N and choose the Transition FX tab

The panel needs a reasonably wide sidebar. If you cannot see it, drag the sidebar edge or switch to a workspace with a wider viewport.

Quick start

1. Put model A and model B in the same place in your scene. They can overlap — the add-on hides and reveals them for you.
2. In 1 – Models, pick A and B. The eyedropper takes the selected object.
3. Open 2 – Transition Library and click a preview to choose a transition.
4. Set Start and Duration in 3 – Timing.
5. Press Build Transition.

Scrub the timeline and it plays. Clear Transition removes everything the add-on made and leaves your models untouched.

The two tabs

Preset

Fifty finished transitions, each one a complete shot: model break-up, scene effects, lighting and timing already balanced against each other.

The library is paged nine at a time. The large preview at the top is itself a button — click the picture and a grid of every transition opens; click any picture there to choose it. The grid underneath does the same thing from the names.

Preset Settings shows only what the chosen transition actually uses. Holy Radiance has no dome, so no dome settings appear; Ember Forge has a crystal surface, so those settings do. Each transition also has its own block of settings at the bottom — between 3 and 61 of them depending on the transition.

Everything updates live while Live is on. Turn it off and use Rebuild when you want to change several things before rebuilding.

Single Effect

The same fifty transitions taken apart into 115 pieces you can combine yourself. A floor sigil from one, orbiting rings from another, a cage from a third.

The pieces are filed by what they are in the scene rather than which transition they came from:

How to use it

1. Choose a shelf from the dropdown.
2. Pick an effect — click the large preview, or a name in the grid.
3. Press Add Effect. It goes on the stack and builds straight away.
4. Add more. They combine.

3 – Layers lists what is on the stack. Each layer has a checkbox to switch it off without removing it, arrows to reorder, and buttons to remove or clear. The settings box below follows whichever layer is selected in the list.

An effect already on the stack is marked with * in the grid, and its Add button is greyed out.

Settings that apply everywhere

Scale — the first block in Preset Settings. How large the whole effect sits around the model. It works on the built effect without rebuilding, so you can drag it and watch.

Colours — Color A is the outgoing side, Color B the incoming side, Color Mid an optional third colour in between. Hologram sets the tint of the holographic pass where a transition uses one.

Model Break-up — how the models themselves come apart: hologram strength, rim glow, edge glow and width, dissolve scale, scanline density. Only the ones the chosen transition uses are shown.

Timing — Start is the first frame, Duration the length in frames. Set Scene Frame Range matches the scene range to the transition.

Render panel — bloom and glare for the whole shot: strength, threshold, size, and streak blades. These drive compositor nodes and update live.

Rendering

Both EEVEE and Cycles work. The effects are emissive, so they carry the shot themselves; scene lighting only needs to show your models.

For a clip with room either side, set the transition to start at frame 25 rather than frame 1 and render from frame 1. Blender will not go below frame 0, so a transition starting at frame 1 leaves no run-up.

Lighting your models without washing out the effect — light linking keeps the two apart. Put your models in a collection, set that collection as the receiver on your key lights, and they will light the models and nothing else. A separate light with the floor as its receiver and the models as its blocker lights the set and still lets the models cast a shadow onto it.

Volumetrics — transitions that use fog set the scene's volumetric settings when they build. If frames are slow, the volumetric sample count and tile size are where the time goes.