There Is No Such Thing as an Asymmetrical Dissolve Transition.

[Charlie Austin]

[Bret Williams] “I always assumed that an asymmetrical dissolve was one in which you reached the 50% point faster than you left it, or vice versa. IOW, it might take 10 frames for A and B to reach 50% opacity, but then 30 frames to complete their transition to 100% and 0%”

I thought so too, turns out that’s not the case with a dissolve even though the UI representation of the effect in the timeline may look like it is.. You can achieve the effect above, but you have to do more than just slap a dissolve on it. You’d need to keyframe each clips opacity /level within the dissolve, or A/B it.

[Bret Williams] “And it’s not that you wouldn’t ever want to do it. I do it all the time manually on flash to white. I dissolve to white with about 3 frames, then finish the dissolve out in 6 or 9 frames.”

I do the same thing with white flashes, but it’s 2 separate (head/tail) dissolves right?

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Charlie Austin]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “What it is, effectively, is the same as charlie’s operation where he expands audio components, sets a custom edit overlap for both clips, fiddles with fade gui handles and generally spends an eternity doing what took me one keystroke and two mouse clicks.
so, you know, in summation, X is bad and should feel bad about itself. “

lol.. no. it’s not actually. Turns out I was trying to metaphorically prove the existence of Santa Clause. What it is the same as, is if I put a centered dissolve on a cut point that lined it up where your dissolve begins and ends when you adjusted the cut point within your dissolve transition effect. What you are changing is not the center point of the dissolve.

X is very insecure from all the bullying, but doesn’t need to be. 😉

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Bill Davis]

[TImothy Auld] “Lap dissolve. Anyone?

Tim”

I, for one, have no interest in being forced to stuff folding money in any sort of in point.

Just saying’

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[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Charlie Austin] “What it is the same as, is if I put a centred dissolve on a cut point that lined it up where your dissolve begins and ends when you adjusted the cut point within your dissolve transition effect. What you are changing is not the centre point of the dissolve.”

OK – so charlie that’s flat out wrong. That cut point, lets say represents the stitch in two bars of a track, one from earlier, one from later. I want to patch it with a long dissolve to run it in, and get out with a very short dissolve because the outgoing music changes sharply after that. that’s my patch. I’m bang on my edit point and that’s the cross fade i need – a really long fade up for the incoming bar blending it in – and an extremely short fade on the exit. there isn’t any logic where that is actually a centred fade in an other form. or that a different edit point with a centred fade is the same thing. It isn’t chum.

The edit point needs to be where it is, what you are proposing shifting the edit point to allow a centred dissolve to cover the same turf does not fly.
that’s just incorrect charlie.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Aindreas Gallagher]

am I gone bonkers so? how do you mean simon?

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Charlie Austin]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “OK – so charlie that’s flat out wrong. That cut point, lets say represents the stitch in two bars of a track, one from earlier, one from later. I want to patch it with a long dissolve to run it in, and get out with a very short dissolve because the outgoing music changes sharply after that. that’s my patch”

No, it’s not wrong. You can’t do that with a standard dissolve transition. I understand the confusion, I was confused too. Thus my confusing attempts to recreate it. Again, the upper dissolve is what was heralded by you guys as “asymmetric”, but it’s not. The two dissolves below are exactly the same. Try it. do the same with your own cue. listen to each one. You are just changing the cut point, not the dissolves’ midpoint.

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Hey Charlie. Interesting challenge to our perception. I will try this in Legacy, using the transition settings to adjust in/out points of the effect, versus rolling the cut point, and ponder your concept.

Meantime, when I have something asymmetrical to make, it is usually as you describe: a layered effect, with careful key framing and bezier control so that as certain picture elements change, their opacity is addressed with custom keyframes. Sometimes you need a color that lingers to go away sooner, or you want two picture elements to arrive at a split-opacity and then linger as they move in space, and THEN both dissolve.

Yes, that kind of asymmetrical effect is trial & error key framing, not a simple “apply effect.”

Doug D

[Charlie Austin]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “Hey Charlie. Interesting challenge to our perception. I will try this in Legacy, using the transition settings to adjust in/out points of the effect, versus rolling the cut point, and ponder your concept.”

There are some transitions where adjusting the midpoint does have an effect, dip to color etc, as your inserting something between A and B. But not with a standard dissolve.

[Douglas K. Dempsey] ” it is usually as you describe: a layered effect, with careful key framing and bezier control so that as certain picture elements change, their opacity is addressed with custom keyframes. Sometimes you need a color that lingers to go away sooner, or you want two picture elements to arrive at a split-opacity and then linger as they move in space, and THEN both dissolve.
“

Yep. Same with audio transitions.

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “hat kind of asymmetrical effect is trial & error key framing, not a simple “apply effect.””

Exactly. Dissolve effects are quick and easy. And symmetric, no matter what your NLE’s UI shows you. 🙂

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Aindreas Gallagher]

but no – charlie – you do have a through edit there right? – I could right click that edit and join through edit – yes? It seems that way from the waveform. Do you have the through edit indicators turned off?
because it looks like what you’ve done there is effectively a roll edit on a through edit to get to your centred dissolve functioning in what seems the same manner.

the consequences there are nil for the roll of the edit point. you understand that right?

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Charlie Austin]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “but no – charlie – you do have a through edit there right? – I could right click that edit and join through edit – yes? It seems that way from the waveform. Do you have the through edit indicators turned off?
because it looks like what you’ve done there is effectively a roll edit on a through edit to get to your centred dissolve functioning in what seems the same manner.

the consequences there are nil for the roll of the edit point. you understand that right?”

I may have when I snapped the pic, but it doesn’t matter. I rolled it (and by that I mean slipped the outgoing clip… semantics) 3 or 4 seconds to make sure just now. It’s exactly the same.

Just try it. cut a chunk out of a clip and align the two halfs badly so you can hear a big difference. Make a copy on another track. Put your visually off-center dissolve on the top clip. put a centered dissolve in exactly the same place below it as I have. Listen to each one. They. Are. The. Same.

This has nothing to do with whatever NLE you or I choose. It’s math.

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~