I don't see where it is a keyframeable envelope as Jayson said so I may be missing something but I can think of a way to accomplish this.

Insert a video track above the one the clip is on that you want to affect. Use SOLID COLOR from the media generators pool to create a black (or any color) background that you want to fade to and from. When you fade IN the generated color you will be fading OUT the image BELOW it and when you fade OUT the generated color you will be fading IN the image below.

Blues

I actually use a track composite level envelope(becasue you can add points and it is keyframable), but i was hoping there was a quick way to reverse the clip opacity fades at each end of the clip.

"I actually use a track composite level envelope(becasue you can add points and it is keyframable), "

Ahhhhhh, cool ! Track compositing is still somewhat in the realm of voodoo for me... I'm never sure when I should try to experiment with it if I can think of some other way to do the job. I guess I will play with it when I run out of other options.

Blues

Either one can work. Track compositing is an envelope that spans the entire track and controls the amount of impact that an event adds to the composition. If the color behind it is black, it can be used to fade to black. Or, even easier, you can insert a "Fade to Color" track envelope, which has no effect at the midline, but will fade to white as you raise the envelope up and fade to black and you lower the envelope down. Even the colors, black and white, can be changed somewhere in the preferences.

Opacity envelopes are event-only, not track. So if you just need to affect one event, or you need one event to fade out relative to another on the same track, then this is the way to do. An opacity envelope can be "grabbed" by moving the mouse to the tope of the event(video only, of course). It will change to a hand. If you drag down, you will pull an opacity envelope into the event. Opacity is considered to be 100% by default. Be careful not too add opacity envelopes to events that don't need them because they may cause undesired video effects and they slow down rendering.

-Jayson

You could also create a fade-in, drop a dissolve (or any other transition) on the fade-in, and insert a transition progress envelope. You can then add keyframes to that envelope including fading it out.

Isn't it amazing how Vegas has so many ways to do the same thing? :)

-Jayson

I wish that VV5 would let you keyframe the video event, instead of having to adjust the complete event by dragging down the envelope. I Would like a simple way of keyframing opacity in the event not having to use compositing. Maybe I am missing something, but I think I could do it in earlier versions of Vegas.

dave

Vegas 5 has the same method for adjusting opacity as Vegas 4 and 3 - insert a composite envelope to the track.

However, you might be able to use the transition envelope to do a similar thing if you really want it to stay at the event level.