default effect or transition length less than 1 second?

transmigration2003 · Post by **transmigration2003** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:36 am

i would like for all my crossfades to be .15
and can't find an easy way to make that happen.
i see the default in the preferences is 1 second and...
right now when i bring up the cross fade effect and double click it,
the clock defaults to 1.00. if i manually change it to .15 it only stays
on .15 for one edit, then defaults back to 1.00.
this is also true if i select "apply current effect to video track".
all the rest of the transitions default to 1.00.

i wonder if I have a bum copy of the program and how to get it mailed to me.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:55 am

The only place you can set the default transition effect time is in File > Preferences. However, the minimum there is one second... So I guess the answer is that you can't make it any lower as a default.

But I can't stop myself asking why you are even bothering with a crossfade which is one fifteenth of a second long -- or about two frames worth? Why not just leave it as a straight cut?

transmigration2003 · Post by **transmigration2003** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:56 am

Ken Berry wrote:The only place you can set the default transition effect time is in File > Preferences. However, the minimum there is one second... So I guess the answer is that you can't make it any lower as a default.

But I can't stop myself asking why you are even bothering with a crossfade which is one fifteenth of a second long -- or about two frames worth? Why not just leave it as a straight cut?

hmmmm... i use cross fades and dissolves that are under .29 all the time, imovie you can go down to .01 (lol).

transmigration2003 · Post by **transmigration2003** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:00 am

my work around was to set the default transition to cross fade
and just do each transition by hand on the timeline.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:04 am

I am sure you can do it, and that other programs go very low. But my main point is why you would want such an incredibly brief transition. Quite literally, it would be blink, and you'd miss it, even if you could detect it in the first place...

I am not being critical -- just very interested in the reasoning behind it...

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:54 am

I'm interested in the reasoning behind it too... it seems way to short to even bother.

As a solution..and I don't know if this will work. Can you click and drag a previous transition and drop it in?

An alternative (VS2X only) is to go to preferences and select crossfade as default transition.... do your work in the overlay tracks where you can slide the clips so they overlap and you have instant crossfade at any duration you want

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:22 am

Good thought about the overlay tracks, Clevo. Hadn't thought of that. And of course you are right. With the video expanded to frame-by-frame view, it would be a simple matter of overlapping just two frames and thus getting the .15 transition effect. But of course, this would still have to be done manually...

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:23 am

Just an add-on to Clevo's suggestion, with VS 12, you can manually drag clips to overlap in the Main video track too. It's not limited to the overlay tracks.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:05 pm

Quite literally, it would be blink, and you'd miss it, even if you could detect it in the first place...

Exactly why I've used them in the past! A half second crossfade gives a nice little effect that is hardly noticeable when a straight cut is just a bit to "harsh".

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:42 pm

Yes -- I can accept that. But a half second at least is 15 frames, which gives your eye the chance to register something, even if only subliminally. The OP's transition would only be 2 frames...

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:43 am

I have used some transitions that were less than a second - Where appropriate - in other words where they just took the edge of the straight cut.

HOWEVER - those were the exception not the rule and so I also would be interested to know why the original poster wants a default transition that is so short.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:28 am

Ken Berry wrote:Yes -- I can accept that. But a half second at least is 15 frames, which gives your eye the chance to register something, even if only subliminally. The OP's transition would only be 2 frames...

I thought the OP's reference to .15 was that of 15 frames, not .15 of a second. I guess a little clarity would help.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:50 am

Since the duration of transitions seems to be in seconds ("1 .... 999"), I saw it only as being .15 of a second... If he had said 0:0:0:15 I would have assumed frames...

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:03 pm

But VS displays the timecode as 0:0:0.0, not 0:0:0:0. That's what led me to believe it was frames.

Whatever!

mitchell65 · Post by **mitchell65** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:16 pm

VS 12 shows the timecode as not 0:0:0:0 but the last colon and 0 show in a smaller size! Well my copy shows this!