Cross Dissolve Malfunction in FCP5

R

rambo

Member
Dear Computer Wizards,

I am new with Apples and FCP, but a very experienced PC and Premiere editor. My problem is that cross fades aren't registering. No matter how they are placed in the timeline, they will not work when timeline is played back. I am working on a 23.98 timeline with footage that I captured with my DVX100a in the 24Pa mode with the Advanced Pulldown setting. Every other fade works in real time but it simply ignores the simple cross dissolves. Audio cross dissolves do not work either!!!!!!!! Also, how do you delete a cross fade from the timeline without erasing the clips below it??????

Strange stuff biting from the Apple in the dystopia of FCP Eden.

Thanks. Dan
 
You probably don't have enough leader/follower footage. You've got to trim the clips so that there is enough space before and after the clips so that theres something to disolve. Long story short - add in more "padding" before and after your clips. To do this you can shorten the clips on the timeline by clicking and dragging the start and beginning. It takes some pratice.

If you don't have enough footage you'll have to freeze the last frame and fade from that. I couldn't walk you through it because I haven't run into this problem in about 5 years and I don't really remember how.

Oh and I read your quote again, and perhaps this isn't your problem - but if any footage in the 23.98 timeline isn't 23.98 then it will require rendering. Personally, I use 29.97 framerates for footage captured in 24pa. Double check the clip attributes to check on the actual frame rate of the clips. If it doesn't match the framerate of the timeline you're working in then you won't be able to use the R/T FX. Actually, if ANY footage you drop into a 23.98 timeline isn't 23.98 then you'll have to render everything. I think its kind of retarted too, and I've had the same problem in FCP 4.5, but you learn to press Command-R, and you get used to it. It usually renders in real-time, if thats any consolation ;/... you just get a bunch of renderfiles over the course of a project that can accumulate quite quickly.

to delete the fade you'll need to take care and only select the fade and not the entire clip. The easiest way to do this is to zoom in on the transition to where it is clickable, and click, press delete. If its already selected (the clip) when you do this, deselect it by clicking in the grey area in the timeline somewhere and then select the clip.
 
Also - another bug that really peeves me about FCP is that sometimes it will remove the pulldown, and sometimes it won't.. I usually run into this problem when I use "capture now."

It seems like every other clip is captured in 23.98, while others are captured in 29.97.

Talk about a PITA.
 
RedCap,
I have plenty of clippage to the right and left of the transition...that wasn't the problem. Tech Support had me trash my preferences and start everything in a new project. Now the cross dissolves work, but the big problem is that the part of the clip that is beneath any transitions is trimmed if I delete the transitions...not the whole clip...what's stranger is that it only happens to the clip to the right, and it is chopped off the clip at the tail, and the interlocked audio remains unscathed and still synched...confused, me too. The Tech Support people were baffled and they told me to reinstall. ANy IDEAS? THANKS for the reply. Dan
 
Deleting Transition Deletes the Overlapped Clip Below

Deleting Transition Deletes the Overlapped Clip Below

RedCap,
I have plenty of clippage to the right and left of the transition...that wasn't the problem. Tech Support had me trash my preferences and start everything in a new project. Now the cross dissolves work, but the big problem is that the part of the clip that is beneath any transitions is trimmed if I delete the transitions...not the whole clip...what's stranger is that it only happens to the clip to the right, and it is chopped off the clip at the tail, and the interlocked audio remains unscathed and still synched...confused, me too. The Tech Support people were baffled and they told me to reinstall. ANy IDEAS? THANKS for the reply. Dan
 
I'm not really sure what you are doing here.

In Premiere, I believe you worked transitions between two video tracks. In FCP -- don't.

But the tracks end to end in the same video track and drop the transition down on the edit point. This will seem odd at first until you get used to it.

See if that doesn't do what you want.

CaptM
 
As far as the frame rate capture issue is concerned, there are two areas in which I have had issues with the same dilemma--wrong capture preset or long frames.

You might want to double check your capture settings first to make compleetely sure you have the right 2:3:3:2 pulldown set. But you probably do if it works sometimes and not others.

The long frame issue is probably the trouble. Go through your footage, especially start and stop points. If a clip has a long frame in it, the pulldown cadence gets screwed up and FCPHD will just leave the clip as 29.97. Go through, find the long frame, delete it, and then highlight the clip, selecting "remove pulldown." The clip will then convert to 23.98. I had a project that nearly half of the clips had a long frame in them, usually at the beginning or end. This is how I fixed it. Pretty easy, so long as you can find the long frame (they're ususally ugle eyesores anyway and not hard to locate).
 
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