Transitions outside of storyline?

[Chris Kenny]

[Jonathan White] “Is it true that clips must be in a storyline before I can apply a dissolve or other transition? I find it won’t work unless I press apple-G to make selected clips in a storyline? (for example if I want to fade in a pic in pic)….
Lots to learn :-)”

Yes, this is the case. This makes sense when you understand that the things that look like tracks in FCP X aren’t really tracks. Those clips on “track 2” are actually just clips connected to the media in your primary storyline), and each one is connected independently at a specific point (indicated by that little line that connects it to “track 1”. Operations on the underlying media can thus cause them to change position relative to each other.

To see how this works, take a single long clip, and drop two short over it. Now, shorten the long clip so it ends at a point before when the second of the short clips is connected to it. You’ll see the Magnetic Timeline moves that second short clip up to “track 3”, so that it maintains its sync relationship (as much as possible) with the clip on the primary storyline, but doesn’t bump into the other connected clip. Clearly if there were a transition between the two connected clips, that wouldn’t work.

Now, drag the underlying clip back to its original length, and group the two connected clips into their own Storyline. You’ll notice that now that whole storyline only has one point of connection to the underlying clips. This means the clips contained it do have a fixed relationship to each other, so it makes sense to add transitions.

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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

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[Jonathan White]

Thanks for the help, big learning curve but I’m starting to quite like this programme… think I’ll really like it in a years time 🙂
Johnny

Seanchas Productions, Galway, Ireland