Cross Dissolve Woes

Greetings,
I'm having trouble with Cross Dissolves. I can't get them to work if I add them to my razored clips using a single track in my timeline. If I add them by overlapping clips using two tracks in the timeline, then they work just fine. I'm using FCP 5.1.1. Everything about FCP is good, no problems or glitches, am using Safe RT, Dynamic, etc.
Thanks for any suggestions!

Thank you everyone for responding to my post so quickly. I couldn't keep an eye on it last night but checked this morning and read your answers.
I see the point, and will research the "handles" situation. The reason I posted is I think how I'm editing in FCP is the wrong way (though it seems to work) and the reason I think this is when I see screen captures of other peoples' timelines, they have one track of video in their timeline and I use two, or more. I came from Premiere, and since buying FCP to replace Premiere I guessed FCP worked in the same way I was taught to use Premiere.
Here's what I do: Once my footage is captured with my XL1s and XL2 cams, (I produce :30 spots for a local bank which are aired by Comcast), I bring it into the timeline and start cutting the junk out, leaving just good clips for rough editing. I always shoot much more footage than required so I have plenty of room on either side of the clip-content we end up using. I then insert the pro-voiceover, any music we're using, and begin the routine of putting the whole thing together. For dissolved transitions, I use two tracks in the timeline and overlap the clips, then add the cross dissolve to cover the overlapped portion. All works well and the dissolves are beautiful. I also do this with audio if required using the audio transitions. Once the spot is edited and my client is happy, I add bars and tone, a slate, then tweak everything for tone, color, sound levels and whatever NTSC "legal" filtering is needed, then output my final file to my JVC deck. My service bureau takes my DV tape and transfers the file to Beta for Comcast to air. I've also bypassed the final DV tape and outputted to a QT file and just given them that file on a data-CD for the transfer. Everyone at my service bureau and at Comcast says what I'm doing is working fine, and to keep doing what I'm doing the way I'm doing it.
Well, okay....but I guess my thoughts with this whole situation is if I'm doing this wrong, I'd tell the world and see if I can learn to do it right. I have a stack of FCP books and some DVD training stuff, but just don't have the time to read/watch everything there is to read/watch while still running a business. I've been a commercial photog for 30+ years, and like most commercial photogs I've had to expand into other digital realms besides stills to keep making a living. Video is relatively new to me, and though it appears as a giant rat's nest of terminology and gear I'm getting more attuned to it all the time, and have a load of fun doing it. Shooting video is a nice break from my still-camera work, and offers many parallels to it.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. I will now cower in the corner awaiting many slaps on the wrist or kicks in the butt. I'm in my 50's, so be gentle.

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Very strange...and not discounting your proficiency with FCP.
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Tried that and went back and got the original transition and made sure everything was set how it should be. I thought for sure it owuld be the prefs, but no such luck.
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Are any of these clips nested?
Nope.
Thanks for trying though.

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Additional notes:
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In PP CC (not 2014) this was simple:
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https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&loc=en
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+I've tried some suggestions online, but most suggest that the problem is with available media--I don't think that's my problem. Any suggestions?+
You don't have enough media.
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Hello all ...
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So: How do I apply the transition to both sides of the edit? Is it even possible?
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Tom, I figured it out. The audio for the video clip was overlapping the edit (i.e. it extended to the left, so that the video clip's audio ran under the still pic). When I got rid of the (easily replaced) audio, the regular cross-dissolve worked.
Now I just need to figure out how to make the transition last longer than 13 frames!
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Merry Christmas!

Background disappears after adding a cross dissolve to a keyed clip.

I have a clip that has a Keying filter (as well as being cropped and scaled down) on it over a white background. After adding a Cross Dissolve to the keyed clip, the white background disappears for the duration of the Cross Dissolve, leaving a black background behind the keyed clip. This black background is present both in preview and after rendering.
Any advice?

not positive this will help, but try this:
remove the transition
right-click and sselect "make compound clip" (or Option G)
within the compound clip, drop a white solid under the keyed clip; do not place any transitions at either end of the compound clip.
return to your storyline / sequence
place your transition again and see if it's fixed
if you still do not have a clean dissolve, remove the transition and then click once on the compound clip and go to around 8 or 12 frames before the end and in the inspector, go to the opacity and add a keyframe and then arrow right to the frame before the last frame and add another keyframe and drag the opacity value to zero.

Is there a better Cross Dissolve method and associated problem?

I have been using Cross Dissolve for some time now. I have searched and reviewed cross dissolve help in the forum without so far finding better information or a solution.
My method:
- razor at the point to be dissolved
- drag the Cross Dissolve to the razor point
- click the dissolve to select the length required
- razor each end of the dissolve length
- right click each razored section with a ripple delete
- reapply the cross dissolve and reselect the length
I find this works for me but could be simpler. I ripple delete the razored sections because if I do not, the cross dissolves overlap previous sections prior and after the selected clips in the whole video sequence such that the effect appears not to work. Ripple deleting ensures that the previous sections are within the selected clips. There has to be a faster way.
My problem:
This happens after many successful cross dissolves in a Project as though I have run out of allowable times it can be used. When I try to ripple delete the razored sections, the ripple delete does not work no matter what I do.
What can I do better or correctly to cross dissolve and how can I deal with untimely failed ripple deletes?

I was not implying anything about your "experience" or otherwise although your method did actualy indicate a lack of editing experience..
It was you that asked for a more simpler, faster way to do one of the most fundamental editing functions. A cross dissolve.
I find this works for me but could be simpler. I ripple delete the razored sections because if I do not, the cross dissolves overlap previous sections prior and after the selected clips in the whole video sequence such that the effect appears not to work. Ripple deleting ensures that the previous sections are within the selected clips. There has to be a faster way.
I do not know how or why you developed the method you described...
My method:
- razor at the point to be dissolved
- drag the Cross Dissolve to the razor point
- click the dissolve to select the length required
- razor each end of the dissolve length
- right click each razored section with a ripple delete
- reapply the cross dissolve and reselect the length
but it certainly is unique ....if somewhat cumbersome and time consuming.
I only offered the advice that lead you to a "simpler , faster " way of doing a very simple function.
Your post number 4. Yes you have misinterpreted that setting.
Stephen kind of unintentionally mislead you by using the term Pre and Post roll when he should have said " handles". (ie edit the clip knowing you have additional frames either end to create a fade from.

Secret for using Cross Dissolve transitions

Based on my limited experience, the most useful transition is the cross dissolve. It is pretty much the only one I use since it is doesn't draw attention to itself and bears repeated deployment for smooth scene changes. But it has a problem: If you simply make a clip split and put the transition in, it won't work. And it appears even high level people at Apple technical support don't understand what is going on. Based on the apparently incorrect background information they gave me, I have always been extremely careful about making the split precisely where the scene changes and then chopping off a small number of frames in order to make the transition work. But recently I discovered that cross dissolve transitions will always work (regardless of whether the frames on both sides of the cut are similar or even identical) if you delete precisely one frame, and it can be from either side of the split. When you do that the edges of the clip go from squared (right angles) to rounded. The cross dissolve transitions will never work between two clips that have squared edges. They will always work when the edges are rounded. And all it takes to get the edges to be rounded is the deletion one frame. The edges get rounded and cross dissolve transitions work and if you remove more than one frame, and/or do if from both sides of the split. The point is that it will work with as little as one frame. But if you don't sacrifice at least one frame, cross dissolve transitions will never work.
Of course, I am assuming that my experience with iMovie '09 and '11 is not idiosyncratic. Also: I would be interested in knowing if anybody else knew this "secret"--and whether it is widespread knowledge or in any of the books on iMovie.

When one splits clips, don't split close to what will be the beginning or the end of a shot.That's why you should always start the camera BEFORE the action begins and run AFTER the action ends. It only needs to be a 1/2 second to 1 second. Now before you add a cut or a transition you will automatically trim the end and the beginning of the two clips.
I start with a two-hour clip that includes hundreds of scenes, some ending abruptly, some not. If scene one suddenly ends and scene two begins, the natural place to make the cut is where the scene changes. If it happens that there is stuff immediately on each side of the cut that is of value, you would might prefer not to lose even one frame. Usually on one of the two sides the loss of one frame is not so bad. And if you sacrifice that frame you have almost everything you want. But it turns out that the situation is better than that. Since you can also add frames (I now realize), you can end without losing any frames at all. Of course, if you happen to be in a situation where there is plenty of useless stuff on both sides of a cut, the problem the solution is trying to solve does not come up. But I wouldn't change my filming habits just to avoid this problem of adding cross dissolves, since once you know what to handle it, it's not much of a problem. As to whether it is good practice to aim to have extra footage on both sides of a shot, sure. That seems like a good rule of thumb to me. But there are many situations where you don't have that opportunity. Say you were filming John Kennedy in Dallas or life among the Taliban or your kid falling off a horse. Life may not give you the chance to put useless footage at the end or beginning of your shot. In my case, I have hours of amateur home movies that stop at all sorts of odd places. I can't go back and reshoot it.
I suspect Apple simply expected you to do this. This will inherently eliminate what may be a tiny bug that you overcome by trimming 1 frame.
Most transition types don't require the removal or addition of a frame. When I called Apple technical support about this, the person I talked to was surprised by this feature too. And he found it happening with at least one other transition, I think. He handed me over to a specialist. That specialist gave me a complicated theory for why this was happening. He said that the frames on both sides of the cut had to look fairly different for the transition to work. And sometimes when we think we have made the cut exactly where the scene changes, we haven't in fact. So we need to cut away until both sides are definitely different. And you will notice that often the thumbnail for one side will be an image from the other side. This lead me to think that I was required to make sure that on either side of the cut there was definitely a significant change of image. But all you have to do is get the edges of the clip to become rounded. And you can do this by adding or subtracting a frame at any location. Of course, if you are going to be chopping off multiple frames for any reason, you will also solve or avoid this problem. So, if Apple was thinking what you suggest, they haven't given any guidance about it in print. And the tech support people don't seem to know it.
Message was edited by: Paul Bullen

Cross dissolve problem - only works as fade in with graphics clips

I inserted three graphics clips with transitions (cross dissolve default) at the beginning of a sequence. The transitions only seem to work as fade-ins I have plenty of extra frames beyond the edit section of the clips. I tried to adjust the transitions in the transition editor - it shows the transition aligned to start at the edit, but won't allow mw to choose to center it on the edit or end on the edit.
Thanks for any help you can provide

Thank you - no, there seems to be a handle only on the left side of the edit (to the left of the transition - which sits only to the right of the edit). On the right side,(in the zone of hte transition) the cursor shows the symbol for the roll tool - r. Excuse my limited understanding of the interface and tools - I am just beginning to learn FCE.
I will be away from the workstation until tomorrow morning.

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Weeeell, the darn thing won't let me add an editable transition. I place the two perspective clips side by side (so they continued with each other), right clicked the part where they met and added the cross dissolve. It only added a one frame effect to the later (AE) clip. I've tried even going through the menus and doing the cross dissolve, but it still does the same thing. Is there something that I must have missed or something extra I'm not doing? All I want to do is have my two halves of a clips edited together with a dissolve. Can anyone help me?

Basically, a handle is media that extends beyond what exists in the timeline. You can use the search feature of this forum for hours of amusing and informative reading.
When you exported out of fcp to ae, you effective lost any possible handle, because you started at what you wanted to be the middle of the dissolve.

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Using Final Cut Pro 5.1.4, Tiger 10.4.9

Enough handles?
#1 Transitions "Insufficient Content"
Shane's Stock Answer #1:
You need to make sure that your clips have enough media (called 'handles') at the beginning of the incoming clip and at the end of the outgoing clip for the transition. For example, if you have a 1 second (30 frame) dissolve, your in and out point need to be at least 15 frames from the edge of the clip.
What you are running into is that you are marking an out point at the end of a clip then adding a cross dissolve, say 20 frames in duration. Since the dissolve is centered on the cut, it will start 10 frames before the cut, and try to go 10 frames AFTER the cut...which it can't do.
What you need to do is plan how long your dissolve will be and back-time your cut so that it works.
a full 1 second crossfade reaches 15 frames into each clip. So, if you want to change a cut to a crossfade, there has to be at least 15 additional frames of each clip.
Say you're trying to crossfade from one clip into the very first frame of a second clip. FCP cannot 'create' 15 more frames of the second clip to do a crossfade. If they're not there, you're out of luck.
FCP has to extend the end of your first clip by 1/2 of your transition length, and the beginning of your second clip by 1/2 of your transition length, so those frames need to be in your system. The nature of a crossfade is mixing two clips together.
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