Adding transitions to text?

[raphclassic]

Hey guys, I'm stumped on this one: in FCP 7 I frequently add dissolves, blur-crosses, etc. to text to get in and out of them. When I add them this way in the old FCP they hang off the text track in the timeline. So now I'm in FCPX and trying to do the same, but no dice. In fact, I can't seem to add transitions to the other "tracks" in any way.

In general, I'm sure I could adjust the keyframes within the inspector to achieve the same effect, but sometimes it's easier to just let the transition do the work. Wondering if anyone has any ideas.

[noam]

Hi raphclassic - I'm not in front of my FCP X right now, but I believe before you can add transitions you need to make the text (or anything else on second layer or above) a new storyline. You can do this very easily by just clicking on the clip/text and hitting command & G. Or click clip > new storyline. This extra step will make your life a lot simpler - storylines are one of the most innovative features of the FCP X once you get used to them.

[raphclassic]

A-ha! Thanks for the answer Noam, I hadn't even thought to try that but now seems to be working well. I think the storyline concept will take just a bit of getting used to. Only downside I can see so far is that a blur transition applied to that second storyline (text) seems to blur the entire screen and not just the text itself. I'll continue playing around with it to see if I can localize the effect upon the text only; maybe through compositing settings. Thanks again for the speedy reply!

[noam]

No problem at all! I just jumped on FCP X for you to test things out. The best way to accomplish what you're doing is to add the title, then make it a storyline (command g), add your transition and THEN > make it a compound clip. So select the title AND the transition on your second video layer, and click file > new compound clip (or option/click on the selected title and transition and click new compound clip). Now the transition will only apply to the text and not the video below. It's very intelligent that they've set it up this way so in some cases you have the option of allowing the transition to affect the video below! Hope this helps.

[raphclassic]

Nicely done. Just tried it and works perfectly. Seems like a bit of extra effort, but guessing that once we adjust to this style of cutting it'll be worth it in the end. Another interesting thing I've learned in the last few days is that it's MUCH easier to cut a VO driven piece if you make that audio your primary storyline.