Conversation

filmmakers/vfx coders - i came across a *very* subtle dissolve effect in a game that i've very rarely seen used in games, and i can't figure out what it is, and how it's done.

the first 5 seconds show the game's dissolve effect.

the second 5 seconds shows a dissolve to black using a standard cross-dissolve algorithm that any film editing program would use

look at them very closely, frame by frame. they dissolve *very* differently. the game seems to dissolve the thinnest parts of the font first, and dissolves only the thickest parts toward the end.

the standard cross-dissolve dissolves all pixels simultaneously, which doesn't look very interesting.

update: thank you demosceners and film nerds! you nailed it - it's a "film dissolve" - and it is produced by dissolving in linear RGB color space with gamma 1.0

can anyone recognize the algorithm or industry name for the effect used in the first one?