changing duration

gmes29 wrote on 9/4/2006, 6:34 AM
again sorry for the deluge..
i'm trying to change the duration of a transition but right now the only way i know how to do it is via clicking the mouse button on the edge and dragging it either left or right. this is very awkward in this case because the transition is now 2 seconds and 4 frames long when i want it to be exactly 2 seconds. but trying to move it 4 frames via dragging the mouse is very difficult. is there a simpler way to do this?? the properties box that pops up when you click on the X doesn't help since there is no duration to change..

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 9/4/2006, 6:57 AM
Well, i was stuck in the "exactly 2 seconds" mode for a long time. Then it finally dawned on me that exactly 2 seconds is an artificial and arbitrary thing. Why exactly 2 seconds? Are you sure that exactly 64 frames isn't right? Watch your transition play back and adjust it so it looks right instead of adjusting it to exactly some arbitrary number of seconds. I doubt you could even tell the difference between 2 seconds and 2 seconds 4 frames just by watching.

That all being said, i find it very easy to use the + key to zoom in a few steps then drag with the mouse to the exact position i want. Another option i use often is to Alt-left/right arrow to move the cursor to the exact position, then drag the event's edge to snap it to the cursor.

A third option is to change the duration or end points in the three little timecode windows that show up just below the right corner of the timeline. Double-click inside your transition to select it and you'll see start, stop, and duration appear in those windows. Double-click on of the windows to edit it. You can type in any values you want. I find this method to be far more cumbersome than the first two, but it's useful if you are making large changes or working with long transitions.

Do consider my first comments first though. You could find them to be very liberating!
gmes29 wrote on 9/4/2006, 10:07 AM
i know it seems like nitpicking but i've always used 2 seconds and there's a second title/transition thing later on that's very similar and exactly 2 seconds. just wanted to be consistent. but the zoom thing should do it..

question.. i tried the double-click to get the 3 time codes at the bottom but by doing so, i get an entire gray strip (selection area) that goes down the height of all the tracks and is bordered by these 2 yellow arrows at the top. when i put the mouse over that area between the yellow arrows, i get a balloon that says 'Loop Region'. that doesn't sound like something i want to keep there but the only way to get rid of it is to slide one arrow towards the other so that both are in the same place.
so what is a loop region??
Chienworks wrote on 9/4/2006, 10:25 AM
A loop region is basically a selection on the timeline. If you have looping turned on then playing this section will repeat endlessly, hence "loop". It's a small section of the timeline, hence "region". The only times it should matter are if you have looping turned on during playback or if you check "render loop region only" when rendering. Otherwise, you can ignore it.