How Do I Begin Black Screen and Fade in

[mkochsch]

I want to start my movie with just 10 seconds of black with audio and then slowly dissolve in. "Fade" work when two clip are joined, but how do I do this at the beginning of the project? Should I just record 10 seconds of nothing and use this to pad the beginning? thx.
~m

[Ron P.]

Drop a black color clip into the timeline, make the duration 10 seconds. Then use a cross-fade transition between the color clip and your first video clip. You can then add your audio, and have it aligned with the black color clip.

[mkochsch]

Sweet. thx.

~m

[Ken Berry]

You don't say which version of VS you are using, but in VS10, the colour mattes are found up in the top centre of the screen. Just below the main program tabs (Capture, Edit, Effects etc), in the very centre is a small window which by default says 'Video'. But if you click on the downwards arrow, a drop-down menu appears. Select Color. Then just drag and drop the black panel to the timeline.

And to change the time of it, either use the little clock, or else click on the right hand end of the clip (should be a heavy yellow bar) and drag it to the right to however long you want it.

[sjj1805]

Please view:
Video Studio How to fade into the first video Clip or out of the last video clip