When it comes to polishing your videos, we’ve spoken at length about how editing brings it all together. Even the simplest of edits can bring much needed clarity, or humor to your videos. One of these important techniques is the transition. You may not think much about them, but most times it's the transitions on TikTok videos that really sell the idea. If you've been neglecting them, or if you just need some new ideas, we've got you covered.

While there are many creative ways to add transitions to your TikTok videos, they fall into three general groups:

1. In-App Transitions

TikTok has a bevy of transitions that anyone can simply use in the editor after recording or uploading a video. After you have your clips in place, transitions can be found in the “effects” tab.

You’ll see a list of transitions with tiny previews of the effect. Just above that you’ll see a mini timeline of your clip. From here, you can either play your video and tap the transition you’d like when the moment occurs, or manually scrub through the timeline to the exact moment for more precision. 

When you’ve added a new transition, you’ll see a colored vertical line to indicate where it’s been placed.

2. Practical Transitions

These types of transitions on TikTok are achieved by using real world techniques, i.e. covering the lens with your hand, focusing on the sky then back at your subject. The possibilities are endless.

To explain a bit further, using simple elements in your environment can lead to very natural transitions. If you’re shooting outdoors, simply ending one clip by tilting your camera to the sky, then start the next clip by tilting down from the (ideally identical looking) sky to continue.

This next tip is widely used by YouTube vloggers that are speaking to a camera with a larger lens, but should definitely be added to your list of transitions on TikTok. The only tool you need is your hand (or any object for that matter). When you want to end your clip, you simply cover the camera lens with your hand. You can then continue the next clip by starting with your hand uncovering the lens. Simple yet effective!

3. Using a Full Editing Program

If you are tech savvy enough to take things one step further, you can use editing programs like After Effects or Final Cut Pro to add your personal editing style for an advantage over those who stick to the basics.

While this way is much more involved and requires a good amount of extra work and skill, the final product will be of a much higher quality than other videos.