Automatically fade in/out a series of clips

chewbonkay wrote on 8/5/2003, 7:16 AM

I have two video tracks. Track 2 is an hour long continuous that will be used for the majority of the video. Track 1 is a series of shots that I want to insert. I set it up this way to save myself some editing time. Rather than using 1 track and utilizing auto-cross fade, I want to cheat by getting the same result (an auto cross fade) but using 2 separate tracks. Am I making sense? Track 1 is a bunch of snippets that I want to cross fade in and out. Currently if rendered, the file will obviously just cut from Track 2 to Track 1 whenenver there is an event in track 1. I want the media to fade in and out but I don't want to have to go to each little snippet and drag the opacity.

Is there a way to auto attribute a 1 second fade on either side of a series of clips?

Thanks.

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Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 8/7/2003, 4:20 PM

Jsnkc,

It is clear that our fellow participants WANT to hear about tools that will help them, so where appropriate, go ahead and tell us about it. Hell, you've piqued MY curiosity.

As for your example of multi-camera editing: Sure you can do it manually any number of ways, no add-ons needed. How long would it take you though, to use this technique on a 4-cam, two-hour shoot with HUNDREDS of edits? I did an Ice Show last month, that was like that. Two performances...about 1300 edits. Multi-cam Wizard in Excalibur assembled it in about 64 seconds. It would have taken me at least 4 or 5 hours to do that manually.

The point is, if you are just dinkin' around, Excalibur can be a fun luxury. If you are doing this for a living, the time (translation = money) saved is many times the cost of the software.

Thank you all who expressed support, both on the board and privately who confirmed that mentions here of both Excalibur and my Instructional DVDs are placed in an appropriate context.

Gary Kleiner

BillyBoy wrote on 8/7/2003, 5:19 PM

Since Gary can't leave the thread die, I'll restate my objection.

My point was I don't want to see the forum spamed up and get turned into something resembling some cheesy newsgroup where there are all kinds of off topic posts. Since you have such a thin skin you thought INCORRECTLY I was attacking you which I wasn't. Its the principle. I did say you were pushing which you have been. Again, not really the main point. For now what's advertised, and try to be honest and admit you are advertsing... is quality stuff. So is what SPOT is offering. The danger is as time goes by others will see you injecting a plug over and over for what you're trying to sell and think what's good for the goose is good for the gander. That opens up the flood gates. You're way past announcing what you developed which is tolerable.

Announcing you develped something many will find useful is one thing. Plugging it, to generate sales over and over is something totally different and something only you are doing. The one dinkin around is you.

Jsnkc wrote on 8/7/2003, 8:36 PM

No thanks, I choose not to advertise on these messageboards. I know that if anyone wants what I have to offer a simple search on Google will lead them right to my site. I don't need sales that badly. Maybe SoFo will make a Classifieds section like there is on the Cow Forums, I post on there all the time since that is what it is for, selling stuff.