iMovie Cross-Dissolve greyed out?

Question

iMovie Cross-Dissolve greyed out?

I'm working on a new Project in iMovie.

I have imported two 'timelines' into the Project editing area, one of a motion background, and one of myself speaking backed by green-screen. No problem selecting Green/Blue screen and combining them, working fine.

The 12-second motion background needed several copy/pastes to make it long enough to continue through the full speaking timeline, and I added cross-dissolves to make each loop less jumpy. Done, no problem.

The speaking timeline was also split into several sections for 're-dos,' and now I'm trying to add cross-dissolves in between those sections also...but Add Cross Dissolve is greyed out, not selectable. This even if I separate the two timelines back into Cutaway instead of combined into Green/Blue Screen.

Why? And how to enable cross dissolve on the upper timeline?

Posted on Nov 2, 2022 1:38 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Rich839

Level 8

47,688 points

Nov 2, 2022 3:22 PM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Unlike the lower timeline, the clips in the upper timeline can be moved about freely, leaving spaces between them. Just guessing, but that may be why transitions cannot be added.

If you prefer the cross-dissolve transition rather than the fade, you can do a workaround. Create a separate project. Then place the clips into it in the lower timeline that you intend to place in the upper timeline of your initial project. Add whatever transitions that you want. Then share it as a movie file to your desktop. Drag the shared movie into your initial project and place it in the upper timeline. It will now play with the transitions that you added. You can do a Modify/Split clip at different points to create segments that you can freely move move around.

Agreed that it is a bit awkward, but it will work.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,688 points

Nov 2, 2022 2:50 PM in response to Rhythm Earthsong

Hi,

Transitions cannot be added in the upper timeline. However, when you move your cursor over a clip in the upper timeline you will see slider fade handles appear in the upper left and right corners of the clip. Slide them back and forth to create fade-outs and fade-ins that pretty closely simulate the cross-dissolve transition. When you move one slider, the slider at the opposite corner also will engage. To operate the sliders independently of one another, hold down the Option key while moving the slider.

Edit/Add Cross Dissolve will be grayed out when the playhead is place past the last clip in the lower timeline. Instead of using the Edit/Add Cross Dissolve feature, click on the transitions button above the media browser pane and drag the transition into the timeline.

-- Rich

--- Rich

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2022 3:07 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks Rich. I already defaulted to 'fade handles,' in lieu of "Transitions cannot be added in the upper timeline." I find that to be an absurd non-ergonomic feature. Very random. Of course, I find so much in iMovie that's non-ergonomic, yet like many, I'm not interested in replacing it with some dense 3rd-party movie editor, so we're left with just wishing Apple would re-scrutinize this program and make it more intuitive. Alas...:-)

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