cross dissolve fail, multi-cam edit

B

Bruce Watson

Veteran
I've done something I shouldn't have, apparently, to cause a cross dissolve to fail. Hopefully someone can identify where I went wrong and tell me how to correct it.

Context: PPro CS6, a two camera (both AVCHD) edit. Pulled both camera feeds into a source sequence, then nested this into a multi-cam edit sequence (using the multi-camera monitor to pick camera angles). Then I nested the multi-cam edit sequence into a target sequence. The target sequence is where I've got trouble. Client wanted me to edit out every "um", pause, and distraction, so the target sequence has had about 15 minutes of footage removed and it's down to almost exactly an hour. Client is happy. I'm doing the finishing now, cleaning up the color corrections, sweetening the sound a tad, adding some video transitions, etc.

I'd like to use some cross dissolves for those edits that end and start on the same camera angle. To "smooth over" the the obvious continuity disruptions that couldn't be solved by using different camera angles. Most of these work just fine, and look great. But a couple failed, and the images below show one of the failed cross dissolves.

The first image shows the first half of the transition. The error is that it's using the post-roll from the other, not chosen, camera angle. The second image is from the second half of the transition which is using the correct pre-roll. So the first half of the transition fails, but the second half works just fine.

Now, I don't *have* to use a cross dissolve here. But I'm trying to learn what the limitations are so I can get better at multi-camera jobs. So... why did PPro pick up the wrong footage for the first half of the transition? How do I correct this one? How do I set myself up so that future ones will work like they should?
 

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Jim Simon said:
Most likely the 'edit' is close enough to a cut point that the transition goes back into the other camera angle.
Click to expand...

Not enough tail frames?

If you open the "Trim Monitor", that allows you to clearly see the before & after transition video, and adjust frame by frame where the cut/transition takes place.
 
But a cut in PPro doesn't actually cut anything -- the head/tail footage is still there in the source clips. And the Effects Control panel shows me this. No crossed out boxes showing a lack of tail/head. I should have included that in the images I posted. Sorry.

And perhaps I'm being dense (not the first time), but I can't see the relationship to proximity to a cut point and camera angle. It would seem like it would take extra coding to build in a change of camera angle into a transition. So I must be missing your point. Can you elaborate on that point please?
 
Bruce Watson said:
I can't see the relationship to proximity to a cut point and camera angle.?
Click to expand...

Then place your CTI at the edit point move back one frame. Then hit CTRL+SHIFT+F to open to the same frame in the multicam sequence. You'll see the change to a new camera angle is less than 15 frames away.
 
Jim Simon said:
Then place your CTI at the edit point move back one frame. Then hit CTRL+SHIFT+F to open to the same frame in the multicam sequence. You'll see the change to a new camera angle is less than 15 frames away.
Click to expand...

Now that is a handy keyboard shortcut. I'll try to remember that one! Unfortunately Ctrl-Shift-F gives me some odd behavior too. On the left side of the cut, Ctrl-Shift-F takes me up two levels in the nesting. On the right side of the cut it takes me up one level.

So... doing this quasi-manually, what I find is that on the right side of my cut (the side that is giving the error), one level up (and indeed, two levels up) shows well more than 15 frames in either direction.

But... on the left side of the cut (the side where the transition is working correctly), I am indeed sitting on top of a change of camera angles in the multi-cam edit sequence.

So you are absolutely correct, there's a problem with a change of camera angles being close to the cut.

I now see what's going on. But I still don't understand why it's going on. Changing a camera angle doesn't mean that the heads and tails around the edit point are lost. So why doesn't the transition use them?
 
It is using them. The problem is that the head contains a switch to a different camera angle. That's what you're seeing.
 
Jim Simon said:
It is using them. The problem is that the head contains a switch to a different camera angle. That's what you're seeing.
Click to expand...

Ummm... that's one way of looking at it I suppose. What I'm seeing is that the transition is pulling footage from a source file that isn't involved in the transition. Which makes it a bug in my book. So I reported it and Adobe can decide whether or not they think it's a bug. Even if they think it is I don't expect to see a fix any time soon, so I best learn to live with it.

Anyway, thanks to you I now know what's going on, so I can avoid it in the future. And I really appreciate that!
 
There's no bug here. The software is performing as designed, as any other NLE would perform. The transition is pulling frames from a section of video that contains a switch to another angle. It can't do anything BUT look the way it does.

The only solutions here are to move the cut away from the angle switch, or move the angle switch back so it's doesn't get seen by the transition handles.
 
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