Please, need desperate help! Editing issue.

Question

Hi there,
I'm new to the forums and I've recently started using Premier Pro CS3 for a project I've been assigned with. A small problem I have though is, for example, I may have an image, video, or something visual on the screen with the 'Dip to Black' effect. Problem is, I often have this on multiple timelines as there are seperate elements that I want to fade out together.
Right now I have Video 1,2 and 3 with dip to black, but in the beginning it actually fades in for half a second, then fades out to black, then fades in to the material again. This often happens to the end of the video cilp as well. What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to have multiple 'Dip to black' effects or am I supposed to do it another way?
Thanks in advanced, and a fast reply would be appreciated as I have a time constraint for this project :).

Answer 1

Don't use Dip to Black for what you're attempting to create. Dip to Black is a "two-sided" transition, meaning that it requires an outgoing video clip immediately adjacent to an incoming video clip. Dip to Black goes from 100% Transparent to 100% Black to 100% Transparent, no matter how you align the transition.
Instead, as another poster has suggested, use a regular dissolve transition from (or to) black video. The best way to do this, I find, is to add a black clip that matches the duration of your transition on a video track above all your other video tracks. So, if you have three tracks of video at the beginning of your sequence, and you want a transition of 30 frames, you'd add 30 frames of black aligned with the beginning of the sequence on V4. Position your CTI at the END of that short black clip, and add a dissolve there; the alignment for the transition should be "End at Cut". Adjust your transition duration (again, in this example, to 30 frames), and repeat as necessary.
Not only is this fewer transitions to tweak, but it is a far preferable method to adding multiple alpha-modifying transitions. If you add dissolves at the beginning of each of those three clips, for instance, the alpha channels of each of those clips will be changing individually, instead of as a complete composite. You can see this "effect" quite often in shoddy local commercial production, where a logo, for example, fades in with the background video at the beginning of the sequence, but you can see the background video through the logo--this is NG. Fade up ALL tracks from black for a much cleaner look.