"Shadow" next to cursor question

Question

"Shadow" next to cursor question

Hello.

Very basic question I'm sure but I only bought FCE as I couldn't adjust very well to the i-Movie change.....

Anyway, I was happily dragging clips into the Timeline, putting some transition effects on them, adjusting, rendering and moving to the next bit. Very basic but what I needed to do.

Now I must have changed some sort of mode as the cursor now has a small dark shadow to the right of it and I can no longer just grab a chunk on the Timeline and move it or adjust an effect in the same way as before.

Blowed if I can find what I did or even where to start in the manual.

Any help appreciated.

Many thanks.

Alastair

MBP 2.16 Dual Core, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 17, 2011 9:50 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 17, 2011 9:57 AM in response to Alastair King

honestly this hasn't happened to me before but, try going to the tool bar next to the time line and making sure that the courser is selected. If that tool pallet isn't there, go to the top, window and select tool pallet.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Jan 17, 2011 10:12 AM in response to Alastair King

Next to the cursor or the playhead? The little black mark next to the playhead is the frame indicator. You see it when you zoom into the timeline. Zoom out and it will disappear. You also might be better able to move things in the timeline.

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Answer 3

Jan 17, 2011 10:53 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Yes, the cursor is selected fine from the palette window. Selecting something else and going back to the cursor at the top makes no difference.

The cursor I'm describing is part of the Timeline:Sequence 1 on the timeline (00:46:17:15) itself - yellow triangle with a straight line going down from it. The "shadow" is to the right of the yellow triangle.

Zooming in and out only makes it proportionally bigger/smaller but it's affect is the same.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Jan 17, 2011 11:25 AM in response to Alastair King

That's the playhead. It's not a cursor. The cursor is the arrow pointer you move around on the screen. The shadow is the width of a single frame of video. It's purely a display and has nothing to do with any functionality in the application.

What are you trying to do? What exactly are you doing and what happens when you do it?

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Answer 5

Jan 17, 2011 3:43 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

When I add a transition effect such as a crossfade it only last the single frame now. Before would I double clicked on it, it appeared in the window above (and would default to about one second) and I could stretch or move it around freely before rendering. Now it seems stuck as a single frame event.

I can't just move clips around in the Timeline Sequence - I used to be able to just grab and move them when the cursor was activated. Now it comes up with a strange downward arrow.

The weird thing is this happened in the middle of a project. I've obviously accidentally pressed some keys but I have idea what or even where to look for them.

I'm an amateur groping around!

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Answer 6

Jan 17, 2011 3:56 PM in response to Alastair King

I tripped over something similar a while back. I will describe mine and see if it matches yours. I have dozens of clips scattered over a few video tracks. I can select an individual clip then click select it and the 4 way move arrow shows up. I can then drag his clip anywhere. NOW here comes the tricky part.
1 IF you choose to put this new clip on any particular track you will notice either a right arrow ( NOTE how your tracks are split into 2 parts by a long horizontal gray bar) if your cursor is above the horizontal divider the cursor showsa right arrow --OR a down arrow if your cursor is below that horizontal divider.

Right arrow means insert ie it will drop your clip right there and shove everything on every unlocked track to the right

Down arrow means superimpose - it will write over anything on the track you are dropping it onto. Nothing else gets shoved out of the way.

THe fact it showed up in the middle of a project is bogus --- it may have showed up after you added enough effects etc to have not enough space to put your clip neatly in without over writing what is under it . I jsut tried it and i always see the 2 arrows when i move things around .

In re only one frame transition i cant help you -- you can set those timers up in some place i cant find right now --
-- ALso groping around ...

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Answer 7

Jan 18, 2011 3:05 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Ok. So I've been ploughing on but finding different way to do things. It seems I can now use the handles on the Timeline to change the length of effects whereas before I was adjusting them in a separate window.

I know so little about the program (and use it only really once or twice a year) that I'm not only an amateur groping around but in a very dark place with a bindfold on! And as much of the program is fairly intuitive (a good thing) then I really don't feel the need to invest lots of time learning it thoroughly. It's only when something changes without really understanding what or why then the problems start.

But I've found a workaround and got the little project done and still have no ambition for Directorial greatness!

Thanks for all contributions to the thread.

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Jan 17, 2011 4:34 PM in response to Alastair King

This will happen if you don't have enough handles for the transition on both sides of the edit point.

http://www.fcpbook.com/Effects1.html

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