Okay, so I saw these cool videos online where people are standing there, and poof, their clothes change, like instantly dressed or undressed. Looked super magic, right? Wanted to try making one myself, thought it couldn’t be that hard. Spoiler: my first tries were a disaster.
Started like everyone probably does. Just grabbed my phone. Figured I’d film myself standing still, fully dressed. Clicked record, stood like a statue for like… 10 seconds. Stopped the video. Then, quickly changed clothes – same spot, same pose, trying really hard not to move a muscle. Filmed another 10 seconds undressed (well, wearing different stuff). Easy peasy, I thought.
Opened up this free editing app everyone talks about. Imported both clips. Thought I just needed to cut and stick them together. So I chopped the first clip right where I stopped moving after being dressed. Then tried to stick the beginning of the “undressed” clip right there. Hit play.
Big mistake. It looked sooooo bad. Like, I instantly teleported into different clothes? Zero magic, all jarring jump cut. Just looked ridiculous. The backgrounds didn’t even perfectly match because holding perfectly still is impossible!
The Lightbulb Moment (Kind Of)
Felt dumb. Went back searching, realized I needed a transition bit. Saw people mention filming a “wipe” motion. So back in front of the camera. Did the dressed pose again. This time, after a few seconds, waved my arm slowly across my body, covering the view. Stopped recording.
Then, started a new recording already with my arm covering the frame in the exact same spot and pose, but undressed. Slowly moved my arm away, revealing the new clothes. Made sure my arm started and ended in the same positions. Felt a bit silly waving at nothing.
Finally Getting It (Mostly) Right
Back in the app. Imported three clips now:
- The first ‘dressed’ clip ending with my arm covering the screen.
- The second clip starting with my arm covering the screen and pulling away to show undressed.
- (I kept the separate ‘undressed’ pose clip too for the ending).
Started lining them up. The real trick was finding the exact frame where my hand filled the screen completely in the first clip. Found it. Cut the first clip right at that frame. Then, found the same frame at the start of the second clip where my hand was still covering the screen. Cut away the beginning of clip two before that point. Joined these two cut points together.
When I played it: Dressed pose > smooth hand swipe covers me > instantly it cuts to the same hand covering > hand pulls away revealing undressed me! Boom! It actually worked! The cut at the moment of total coverage masked the switch. Added the final pose clip at the end.
Was it perfect? Heck no. The lighting was slightly off between takes, my stance wasn’t exactly the same. The transition isn’t Hollywood magic. But you know what? For a beginner using just a phone and a free app, after some frustrating trial and error, it finally looked like a proper “dressed undressed” effect. Good enough for me! Main thing was learning that “wipe to cover” trick for the cut point.
