Transition effect not always applied across clips

Aresby

I often crossfade (or wipe) one clip to the following clip having removed a "Er..." or "Um..." out of my track.

However, many is the time that the effect (as indicated on the track as the small grey block at the top of the track) is only applied to the first clip - it does not get applied to the following (no gap) clip. I say 'no gap' because all I've just done is split the tracks and removed a section containing the unwanted "Er".

To resolve this I have found that if I move the second clip up (to an overlay track) and then immediately back down again it all seems to 'snap back' and the crossfade correctly spans the two clips without me having to reapply the transition.

Just a bit annoying and I'm pretty sure it did not do this in a previous releases but I can't be sure. It's annoying because if I am using that overlay track for other things it can all get a bit hairy!

Any ideas of what is happening here?

c_major_2

It is possible that there is a few ms tiny gap and they are invisible when you zoomed out. Switch to storyboard mode you can easily find out those gaps or very short clips.

It also sounds like it would be easier for you to apply crossfade in storyboard mode. It's a simplified timeline for people want to do something quick and simple.

Please note that storyboard only works for track one clips.

Best Regards,

Aresby

c_major wrote:

It is possible that there is a few ms tiny gap and they are invisible when you zoomed out.

I had come to the same conclusion but don't understand why this would be so.

Given that I have a 'main' video track that I'm chopping snippets out of, the gaps automatically close up but, as I said, sometimes (not often, but often enough to be irritating) perhaps don't fully close up to allow a video transition to span the two clips.

Sometimes I can drag the right-hand clip over the left-hand clip a bit and then drag it back again (all without releasing the mouse) and it will 'snap' together and the transition suddenly span the clips - but sometimes it doesn't.

I just tried the story board view for my latest video and whilst it's nice and big for the main track (so may be useful to correct the tiny gap, if that's where the problem lies) it's not for general use as I always have at least two, sometimes 5 video tracks on the go (but max two audio).

I beginning to think this is a bug; after all, if I'm just splitting tracks, highlight the cut clip and pressing delete but then the remaining clips do not join up exactly (with no tiny gap) then that is wrong, don't you think?

c_major_2

This is not a bug however it is a problem. I saw other users had that too.

The tiny gaps normally introduced by moving the red cursor by the mouse. When you zoomed out, one pixel on the screen can covers a few hundred milliseconds on the timeline.

When you move the red cursor to a pixel on the screen (it's one pixel width no matter how you zoomed), the program could not determine the exact position where the red cursor so it has to choose a position for you. If the same pixel covering a clip edge (start/end) the red cursor position will likely to have a tiny gap to the edge. The gap is invisible since it's covered by a single pixel. So if you cut at the cursor position it will create a very short clip.

This is why the "Go to next/previous clip edge" buttons are introduced. These buttons will put the cursor to the exact position (millisecond) where the clip edge is.

Another way to see the invisible clips/gaps is zoom in (to maximum) until each pixel covers less then 1 millisecond. Millisecond (1/1000 seconds) is the smallest time unit used in VP.

borate

Also, make sure that you're trimming/splitting incrementally - step-by-step.

As an example: here, two adjacent clips each had brief unwanted content.

First, a split was made to the earlier clip at the point where the unwanted content began.

The material between that new split and the existing start of the next clip was selected and CUT.

Then a split was made to the second clip at the point its desired content began.

The material between the end of the earlier clip and this new split was selected and CUT.

The sequence was played to verify that that there was no "garbage" or hole at the juncture of the two clips.

Finally a transition was added. It should be the final step.

<ctrl-Z> is the same as EDIT|UNDO - a quick way to redo mistakes.

Aresby

Thanks for the information.

This weekend I made very, very sure I did not zoom in / out whilst removing a section and I had no problems, so your explanation is spot on, of course.

I discovered by accident that if I drag the cursor so that part of the track is selected I have the option to delete that section. I haven't tried it yet but would that just remove the unwanted piece without making a cut? (I will try this out, I'm not just being lazy, but I was rushing to get the last video out and I didn't want any distractions!).

c_major_2

To remove the unwanted part without cutting, you can just click (select) that clip on the timeline and adjust the start/end position in Clip Preview.