I'm trying to figure out a way that I can have a shot already moving when I cut to it. For example, I have a still picture that I want to do a slow zoom in on, but I want the zoom to have already started before the cut or fade into it. How do I do this?
Put the still with its animated zoom on a track below your video. Then fade out your video using the fade handle on the top right corner of the video event - exposing the already-in-motion still beneath. So you just need to use two tracks instead of simply transitioning to the still on the same track.
you can still do this on one track. With your second clip's zoom keyframed to begin at the clip's beginning.. when the fade is complete, the zoom will already be in motion. I've done this plenty of times without using two tracks. Looks fine.
True, you can do it on a single track. I was thinking you might see the effects of the keyframe curve, but as long as you set smoothness to 0 and leave the key set to "linear" the motion should appear as though it was already in motion.