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Transition start on edit being annoying
I know there have been many questions on this and other forums about the basics of transitions (and handles), but one aspect has always annoyed me about FCP.
In my timeline, I have clip A then clip B. Clip A has many minutes of ‘handles’ after the cut point, but clip B has none. Obviously if I add a default (centred on edit) transition, it will be 1 frame long. So I change it to ‘start on edit’ so it can use the handles of the outgoing clip (clip A). But all I get is a warning sound and nothing happens. In fact there is no way at all to make a transition work at all unless BOTH clips have handles. This rather defeats the object of (one of the advantages of) the start/end/centred on edit option. So I have to roll the edit forward and add a ‘centred on edit’ transition. What a pain in the arse.
So…does anybody have a suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong? Or is it just another ‘one of those Final Cut things’ that we know and love??!!
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2 Replies
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[Paul Roper] “In fact there is no way at all to make a transition work at all unless BOTH clips have handles.”
Absolutely correct!!!
There has been about 111 years of filmmaking history that came before today, Jan. 19, 2011, and “Cutting in” on both the A and B side of a cut has been the industry’s standard method of adding a transition for all this time. Apple in it’s infinite wisdom has kept the time-honored methodology in FCP, because there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are used to doing things just this way since the beginning.
[Paul Roper] “This rather defeats the object of (one of the advantages of) the start/end/centred on edit option.”
No it doesn’t. Start/end/centered are not there so that you can avoid the proper method of working, they are there as a convenience so that you can quickly perfect the transition by having three quick versions to choose from.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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I too have battled this every day. I don’t think you are doing anything “wrong,” this is just the way FCP behaves.
A couple work arounds:
roll the edit forward a few frames, add a transition, switch the transition to “start on edit,” then roll the edit back to where you really want it to start.
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option-drag a transition from somewhere else in the timeline to your edit point. If you carefully line up your cursor, you can drop it on the edit and have it become a “start on edit” transition. (This might even work w/ dragging and dropping from the “effects” bin — I haven’t tested though).
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto
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