Why does transition on connected clip affect primary storyline clip too?

[Andreas Kiel]

Depending on the kind of clip it’s normal behavior.
try to put those clips into a secondary storyline.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

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[John Rofrano]

[Jeff Feaz] “I’m trying to use a push transition on a still image that’s in the timeline as a connected clip. This is just a single item that I want to push in and out as a PIP element. “

By definition, a Push moves both videos because one “pushes” the other on/off of the screen. That is why the primary storyline is affected.

I believe you want to use a Slide transition which will slide one over as the other stays in place.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Jeff Feaz]

Very helpful responses – thank you.

Any idea why the “Create Storyline” option is grayed out?

[John Rofrano]

[Jeff Feaz] “Any idea why the “Create Storyline” option is grayed out?”

Yea, I believe it’s because it is already a Secondary Storyline. Connected clips cannot have transitions all by themselves. When you drop a transition on a connected clip, FCP X creates a secondary storyline and adds the transition to that. So you already created a secondary storyline by adding the transition which is why creating secondary storyline is greyed out.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Bill Davis]

Jeff,

One of the subtle indicators that it’s important to learn to notice in X is “the shelf” – the gray bar that indicates a secondary storyline.

Quite a few actions ( such as adding a transition) results in that clip becoming a secondary storyline automatically.

The Shelf is practical as well, since selecting and dragging it moves the entire secondary assembly as a unit.

Lots to learn in X. Keep going!

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[Jeff Feaz]

Thanks!

In my case, I used John’s suggestion above and changed it to a slide transition, which met my needs.

The connected clip indeed was already converted to a secondary storyline like you said, but that didn’t resolve the issue of the push transition also affecting the primary storyline. I guess it’s a question for another day.

Thanks everyone for your help!

[John Rofrano]

[Jeff Feaz] “In my case, I used John’s suggestion above and changed it to a slide transition, which met my needs.”

Glad that worked for you.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Tony West]

I have had others ask me about this and I actually made a little video about it.

What I do is select the transition and the clip that I want to move and turn that into a compound clip. Then it will not effect the clip under it.

It’s a way I use all the time to avoid using keyframes.

If I want to say……….push a picture onto the screen without key framing it.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Jeff Feaz] “that didn’t resolve the issue of the push transition also affecting the primary storyline.”

I’m not seeing that with the “Push” transition here, nor should anyone for that matter. What am I missing? Or are you applying it to a title?

EDIT:
oh wait… a push of just ONE clip/image on the secondary, not between two? Okay. Yeah, the only way to avoid that would be to compound… OR, which I think will usually be more preferable to a compound, push between another clip/image whose opacity is set to 0 as a somewhat silly workaround. Oddly it doesn’t work with gap clips, which it should.

– RK

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[Jeff Feaz]

Sounds like Robin and Tony use the same strategy (compounding). Makes sense. Tony, yeah, the nice thing about the built-in transitions is that they let you avoid keyframing. I do understand that manually animating the transition would be another way around this issue.

Bill – good point about the gray bar. I remember learning about that in a YouTube video. Also good to know that we’re talking about “a” secondary storyline, not “the” secondary storyline. It’s a nice way to avoid having to compound to affect subsequences as a single unit like you would have to do in Premiere (nesting). Too bad it doesn’t protect the primary storyline from transitions though.

Summary: if you’re having the exact same problem as me, use a slide transition instead. But lots of good info in this thread about the workings of X, especially if you’re used to track-based NLEs.

Thanks everyone!

Jeff