Video Transitions will only "transition" one side of my clip why?!!

Ah...you don't have enough "handles" on one clip.

Here, this explains it best:

#1 Transitions "Insufficient Content"

Shane's Stock Answer #1:

You need to make sure that your clips have enough media (called 'handles') at the beginning of the incoming clip and at the end of the outgoing clip for the transition. For example, if you have a 1 second (30 frame) dissolve, your in and out point need to be at least 15 frames from the edge of the clip.

What you are running into is that you are marking an out point at the end of a clip then adding a cross dissolve, say 20 frames in duration. Since the dissolve is centered on the cut, it will start 10 frames before the cut, and try to go 10 frames AFTER the cut...which it can't do.

What you need to do is plan how long your dissolve will be and back-time your cut so that it works.

a full 1 second crossfade reaches 15 frames into each clip. So, if you want to change a cut to a crossfade, there has to be at least 15 additional frames of each clip.

Say you're trying to crossfade from one clip into the very first frame of a second clip. FCP cannot 'create' 15 more frames of the second clip to do a crossfade. If they're not there, you're out of luck.

FCP has to extend the end of your first clip by 1/2 of your transition length, and the beginning of your second clip by 1/2 of your transition length, so those frames need to be in your system. The nature of a crossfade is mixing two clips together.

Shane

"There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!"

maybe i missed it but are you trying to do the transition with the videos on the same V1 line? my FCP defaults to only 1 video editting line... you need to creat a second and put the files on top of eachother for the transition to work right.

hold CTRL and click in the space above V1 on the left... then select add track.

hope that helped...
ciao

Jagered.
You can add transitions between clips on the same video track. Just butt the clips together and drag the transition you want to the edit point. However, as Shane says, to do this, your clips must have sufficient handles to cover the duration of the transition.

Essentially, the handles do what you are doing when you overlap two clips on separate video tracks.

rh

ok... so basically FCP automatically does the overlap for you? is that what I am gathering?

but then... how could it not be working then? FCP defaults to a 00:01:00 time length for its transitions... would extending that to a longer time fix his problem?

ciao

I've run into this before... one of your 2 clips is at the end or start. If you shorten the clip in the timeline some more, your transition will work as expected, however your clip might not start or end where you like it. If this is the case, next time you import the clip, make sure to import more before and after.

Time to crack open the manuals and do a bit of reading on the basic editing protocol of clips, handles and transitions as they work in professional editing applications.

In particular read the sections that relate to the use of the Viewer, setting clip in/out points and how that relates to the concept of handles. Once you understand that concept, you'll never have problems with transitions again.

cheers,
x

so basically FCP automatically does the overlap for you? is that what I am gathering?

No, it doesn't. This is what iMovie does. FCP doesn't do that so that you can time your show properly. If it overlapped for you your show time would get messed up.

You need to plan for the dissolves by not going all the way to the head or tail of each clip.

Shane

I understand needing handles for any transition that has both clips visible at the same time. What I don't understand is why I need handles for the "fade-out/fade-in" transition.

When dragging it to clips with no handles, it won't let me straddle the edit point. This makes sense if the transition logic indiscriminately assumes that all transitions need handles, but it is a bit annoying.

Sometimes it will let me add a one-sided fade-out or fade-in to each of the individual clips, which seems to have the desired effect. In some cases, it won't let me use a fade-in or fade-out dissolve at all, and I haven't yet figured out what would cause that to be illegal at the head or tail of any given clip. Any hints would be appreciated.

Cheers,
- (Russell) Dean Reece

In the non-linear world your dissolve or transition does not occur at the "in" point. It actually begins a given number of frames before the "in"

If you put your in point at the very beginning of your video the dissolve begins backwards from "in" point, the machine will tell you that you have insufficient video. It has nowhere to go "back" to

So for a 1 second dissolve you need 15 frames before your inpoint on your video coming in and 15 additional frames of your video going out. This is known as handles.

Clear as mud right?

Okay, here what I do to make sure I have handles if I need them. Find the in point of your video--move forward 15 frames and set the in point there. That well give you one half of the one second dissolve.

G4 Dual Processor Mac OS X (10.4.1)

G4 Dual Processor Mac OS X (10.4.1)

There are a number of elements in a FadeIn/FadeOut that can be altered which would display parts of the second file - hence the requirement by FCP for sufficent handles.

If you get in the habit when you are shooting to pre and post roll each shot, having sufficent footage for handles isn't an issue. If you are doing a run and gun home travel video, then learn to use straight cuts.

As they say regarding storytelling in the editing biz, "if you can't solve it, dissolve it."

have fun.
x

it won't let me straddle the edit point

If you don't have handles, then the fade in/out can't straddle the edit point. If you have a 30 frame dissolve, you need 15 frames before and after the edit point.

Sometimes it will let me add a one-sided fade-out or fade-in to each of the individual clips

Yes, because when you don't have handles, it can only start the dissolve at the head of the clip, or end when the clip ends.

Shane

it won't let me straddle the edit point

If you don't have handles, then the fade in/out can't
straddle the edit point. If you have a 30 frame
dissolve, you need 15 frames before and after the
edit point.

The behavior I desire is for the outgoing clip to fade to black in 15 frames and the incoming clip to fade up from black in 15 frames. The handles will not be used at all when compositing that, so requiring them is the thing I find annoying. I understand and accept that this requires 15 frame handles, even though I'm not using any of the content from those handles.

The technique I've used it to not straddle the edit point with a fo/fi transition, but instead put a fade-out at the end of the outgoing clip and a fade-in at the head of the incoming clip.

Sometimes it will let me add a one-sided fade-out
or fade-in to each of the individual clips

Yes, because when you don't have handles, it can only
start the dissolve at the head of the clip, or end
when the clip ends.

But that is exactly what I want. If I'm puting a fade-out at the end of a clip, why does it care at all about handles? Why does it care what comes after the clip? What I'm seeing is that it won't let me drop a fade-out at the end of a clip and this confuses me.

Cheers,
- Dean

Dean,

Perhaps you did not understand my previous post. If you open up the FI/FO transition in the Viewer after it has been applied to the edit, you will see there are a number of elements that can be altered which will require sufficent content on either side of the cut to work properly.

So, even though in the one situation of a straight fi/fo centered over the cut does not USE the handles, all the possible permutations MIGHT - so FCP requires the handles.

As you have discovered, simply keyframing opacity works in those cases where you want to fade to black and do not have handles.

cheers.
x

"Sometimes it will let me add a one-sided fade-out or fade-in to each of the individual clips, which seems to have the desired effect. In some cases, it won't let me use a fade-in or fade-out dissolve at all"

Not so...

If it is imperative that you dissolve to black, then from black back up to video and you have no handles available, just do this...(NOTE: you will need at least on frame seperating the two clips...this is likely why you've not been able to do this consistently)

-apply cross dissolve at end of clip 1
-apply cross dissolve at head of clip 2
-If your effect totals one second, then do 15frame dissolves on each clip
-then with your playhead at end of clip one, press control-g to close gaps.

K

or of course you can keyframe the opacity

Dean,

Perhaps you did not understand my previous post. If
you open up the FI/FO transition in the Viewer after
it has been applied to the edit, you will see there
are a number of elements that can be altered which
will require sufficent content on either side of the
cut to work properly.

No - I really understand this. Really. Its annoying because the default setting (and the ones i happen to use) have the black point exactly centered on the edit, thus the required handles are not really used. Even if it wasn't exactly centered on the edit, it is unlikely that it would need the full duration of the handles.

As I said - it is annoying because it is requiring content that never gets displayed (the way I am using it). It is nothing more than an annoyance, and I accept that it is the way the software works, and I even understand why.

The actual problem/question that I have has to do with using the FI or FO transition at the end or beginning of a clip, not across an edit point. Why does it require handles when placed at the end or begining of a clip? I cannot place an FI transition at the start of a clip with no lead-in handle, and I cannot place an FO transition at the end of a clip with no lead-out handle. The transitions in these cases do not cross an edit. The (missing) handles should never come into play regardless of the transition settings, since the FI starts after the lead-in handle and the FO ends before the lead-out handle.

The only way I've found to handle (no pun intended) this case is key-framing.

Cheers,
- Dean