Any way to apply cross-dissolve using keyboard? at DVinfo.net

Jose Milan · August 14th, 2009, 06:28 AM

Hello,

A simple question (I hope):

I always seem to be applying cross-dissolve (or other video effect) to a lot of SINGLE clips in premiere, expecially text (made in Photoshop and imported to Premiere), to both ends (beggining and end) and using the mouse is tiring and time consuming.

Is there a way to speed things up using keystrokes??? Like selecting the clip and using a combination of keys. I already searched in "Keyboard Custimization" and didn't find anything helpful, I did find "Apply video transition" or "Apply default video transition to Selection" but they don't work, since I want to apply the video transition to single clips, not between two clips as normal.

Other thing that bothers me is that I can't select a bunch of single clips and apply the transition to all (at once) of them using the mouse, that's why I loose a lot of time having to go one by one.

Any help please?

Thanks in advance.

Jon Shohet · August 15th, 2009, 02:01 PM

"I did find "Apply video transition" or "Apply default video transition to Selection" but they don't work, since I want to apply the video transition to single clips, not between two clips as normal."

Ctrl+D.

Yes, if you apply it between two clips it will do a cross dissolve between two clips.
However, if you apply it to begining/end of a clip that has no clips around it on the same video layer, it will do what you're looking for.
So - select all the clips you want, drag them up to an empty video layer. target that layer (and ONLY that layer). swiftly use PgUp/PgDn/Ctrl+D to apply "cross dissolve fade in"/"cross dissolve fade out".
If you want, you can drag the clips back to the original video layer after you finished.

OR : If you want fade in/fade out rather than cross dissolve for two consecutive clips , you can also change the default transition (Ctrl+D) to "dip to black", then you can apply it between two clips on the same layer.

I hope my explanation is clear... can't think off the top of my head of a simpler way...

Rich Perry · August 16th, 2009, 10:53 AM

With Vegas, you can drag 1 clip into another automaticaly creating a cross desolve or transition, I wish Premier had this function also.

Jose Milan · August 17th, 2009, 01:01 AM

Hello Jon,

Thanks for the answer, that would speed things a little. The real speed would come if I could apply the video effect to a whole selection of individual clips at once. And also when I select those clips from the project window and drag them to the timeline window they would stack one on top of the other, rather than one in front of the other as in a queue, would be good to be able to decide between the two. But at list to apply video transition to a lot of clips at once...but at least now I have to speed things a little by keyboard.

Thanks again!

Peter D. Parker · August 17th, 2009, 03:22 AM

Jose, if you use "CTRL" and left click on the opacity (yellow line) settings of your clip and place a keyframe at the beginning at o% and another one at 100%, you will have a "fade from black". The easiest way is to apply two keyframes anywhere on the opacity line and then just slide them along to where you want them.

If you then right click on the clip and select "copy".

Select all the clips you want to have a "fade from black" transition by drawing a box round them with the left mouse button. Right click on one of the clips and select "paste attributes" and this will put a fade from black, or whatever transition you want, onto the selected clips.

Unfortunately this will only work if you manual adjust the fade in for the first clip, it doesn't work if you use Ctrl D.

Peter

Jose Milan · August 17th, 2009, 04:55 AM

Hello Peter,

We are getting closer, it works great, you have to do it manually at first but it works, the final thing will be able to select many clips from the project menu and when you put them in the timeline the would stack in top of eachother (as many tracks as clips) then I would apply "paste attributes" once and does it! Now I can go faster than before, but now I have to put each clip by hand as a stack and then do the pasting, but if premiere would let me have this last option it would be great!

Thanks for the replies!

Jose Milan · August 17th, 2009, 06:14 AM

Hello again,

I was wrong Peter..."paste attributes" doesn't work all the way through...it only works for the beginning of the clip, not the end, the thing is if I paste the attributes (from the beginning and the end) from the clip I use as master and then I change the length of any of the clips, the end attribute will stick to the time reference from the original clip, so thats way I can't use since the duration of the clips vary a lot (the clips are text made in Photoshop and the duration is different all the time).

Any ideas to solve this?

Thanks.

Peter D. Parker · August 17th, 2009, 08:26 AM

Jose, go to an empty timeline track and enable it. Then go to the Project window and sleect your clips, select first clip and then hold down SHIFT and select the last clip ( they should all be consecutive) or CTRL + left mouse for individual selection. Go to Project title on tool bar above project window and select "Automate to timeline". this will put all your selected clips on to one track, in consecutive order. Make sure you select 0 frames for overlap, otherwise you'll have disolves between them.

You can then do the above regarding the fade up. The length of the clip has to be the same as your "copied" clip, which can be a pain in the butt, but if you go to the end of each clip you can adjust them by moving the keyframe. It's still better than doing each clip individually.

You can also just do a fade up from black for the beginning of each clip (using a master clip) and then use CTRL +D to put a fade to black at the end.

Petrt

Jon Shohet · August 17th, 2009, 11:12 AM

Jose, completely forgot :

select the clips you want in the project panel.
select "Automate to Sequence" from the "Project" menu (or from the little whatyoumacallit shortcut button/dropdown menu in the top right corner of the project panel)

you now how several options to insert/overlay all the selected clips into the timeline with the default video transition automatically applied to all of them. You can input the amount of overlap, in frames or seconds.

again - if you change default transition to "dip to black" you'll get fade in/fade out instead of cross dissolve between clips

honestly it's still not the be all end all solution you're looking for but it's another option that helps

cheers

Jose Milan · August 18th, 2009, 01:47 AM

Hello guys,

Thanks for your answers and your time...I've try both suggestions and are good, but not quite there...about "Automate to sequence", I use it for storyboard editing and it works great, the thing is that for text I can't still put the clips as as stack, is always as a queue, life would be easier if this was possible!

But while trying your ideas I came with a litle workaround. Normally I make a document in photoshop with a bunch of layers of text, with the idea of each layer to appear at the right moment (and the right length) in the video, I found out that you can import the psd as a sequence (instead of flatting all layers, thus making me do as many documents as layers of text, not anymore) in Premiere, then I have each layer in a bin (Premiere does this auto), but the great thing is that it also creates a sequence (with the name of the psd document) which I can go into and all my layers are put as a stack!!! Bingo! Then (I came with this idea too) I can select the video tracks...for example imagine I have 8 layers, I select the 8 video tracks and then I can use Ctrl+D in the beginning and at the end of the layers at once!!! finally! So instead of Ctr+D 8x2 times, now it only takes 2 times! Later I just can copy my layers and go to my edit timeline and place them as I wish.

I think is not the total solution but thanks to you guys I've had speed up things a notch!

Again thanks a lot guys!

August 14th, 2009, 06:28 AM	#1
Jose Milan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Spain Posts: 185	Any way to apply cross-dissolve using keyboard? Hello, A simple question (I hope): I always seem to be applying cross-dissolve (or other video effect) to a lot of SINGLE clips in premiere, expecially text (made in Photoshop and imported to Premiere), to both ends (beggining and end) and using the mouse is tiring and time consuming. Is there a way to speed things up using keystrokes??? Like selecting the clip and using a combination of keys. I already searched in "Keyboard Custimization" and didn't find anything helpful, I did find "Apply video transition" or "Apply default video transition to Selection" but they don't work, since I want to apply the video transition to single clips, not between two clips as normal. Other thing that bothers me is that I can't select a bunch of single clips and apply the transition to all (at once) of them using the mouse, that's why I loose a lot of time having to go one by one. Any help please? Thanks in advance.

August 15th, 2009, 02:01 PM	#2
Jon Shohet Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 277	"I did find "Apply video transition" or "Apply default video transition to Selection" but they don't work, since I want to apply the video transition to single clips, not between two clips as normal." Ctrl+D. Yes, if you apply it between two clips it will do a cross dissolve between two clips. However, if you apply it to begining/end of a clip that has no clips around it on the same video layer, it will do what you're looking for. So - select all the clips you want, drag them up to an empty video layer. target that layer (and ONLY that layer). swiftly use PgUp/PgDn/Ctrl+D to apply "cross dissolve fade in"/"cross dissolve fade out". If you want, you can drag the clips back to the original video layer after you finished. OR : If you want fade in/fade out rather than cross dissolve for two consecutive clips , you can also change the default transition (Ctrl+D) to "dip to black", then you can apply it between two clips on the same layer. I hope my explanation is clear... can't think off the top of my head of a simpler way...

August 16th, 2009, 10:53 AM	#3
Rich Perry Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Nashua NH Posts: 278	With Vegas, you can drag 1 clip into another automaticaly creating a cross desolve or transition, I wish Premier had this function also.

August 17th, 2009, 01:01 AM	#4
Jose Milan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Spain Posts: 185	Hello Jon, Thanks for the answer, that would speed things a little. The real speed would come if I could apply the video effect to a whole selection of individual clips at once. And also when I select those clips from the project window and drag them to the timeline window they would stack one on top of the other, rather than one in front of the other as in a queue, would be good to be able to decide between the two. But at list to apply video transition to a lot of clips at once...but at least now I have to speed things a little by keyboard. Thanks again!

August 17th, 2009, 03:22 AM	#5
Peter D. Parker Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Preston England Posts: 147	Jose, if you use "CTRL" and left click on the opacity (yellow line) settings of your clip and place a keyframe at the beginning at o% and another one at 100%, you will have a "fade from black". The easiest way is to apply two keyframes anywhere on the opacity line and then just slide them along to where you want them. If you then right click on the clip and select "copy". Select all the clips you want to have a "fade from black" transition by drawing a box round them with the left mouse button. Right click on one of the clips and select "paste attributes" and this will put a fade from black, or whatever transition you want, onto the selected clips. Unfortunately this will only work if you manual adjust the fade in for the first clip, it doesn't work if you use Ctrl D. Peter

August 17th, 2009, 04:55 AM	#6
Jose Milan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Spain Posts: 185	Hello Peter, We are getting closer, it works great, you have to do it manually at first but it works, the final thing will be able to select many clips from the project menu and when you put them in the timeline the would stack in top of eachother (as many tracks as clips) then I would apply "paste attributes" once and does it! Now I can go faster than before, but now I have to put each clip by hand as a stack and then do the pasting, but if premiere would let me have this last option it would be great! Thanks for the replies!

August 17th, 2009, 06:14 AM	#7
Jose Milan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Spain Posts: 185	Hello again, I was wrong Peter..."paste attributes" doesn't work all the way through...it only works for the beginning of the clip, not the end, the thing is if I paste the attributes (from the beginning and the end) from the clip I use as master and then I change the length of any of the clips, the end attribute will stick to the time reference from the original clip, so thats way I can't use since the duration of the clips vary a lot (the clips are text made in Photoshop and the duration is different all the time). Any ideas to solve this? Thanks.

August 17th, 2009, 08:26 AM	#8
Peter D. Parker Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Preston England Posts: 147	Jose, go to an empty timeline track and enable it. Then go to the Project window and sleect your clips, select first clip and then hold down SHIFT and select the last clip ( they should all be consecutive) or CTRL + left mouse for individual selection. Go to Project title on tool bar above project window and select "Automate to timeline". this will put all your selected clips on to one track, in consecutive order. Make sure you select 0 frames for overlap, otherwise you'll have disolves between them. You can then do the above regarding the fade up. The length of the clip has to be the same as your "copied" clip, which can be a pain in the butt, but if you go to the end of each clip you can adjust them by moving the keyframe. It's still better than doing each clip individually. You can also just do a fade up from black for the beginning of each clip (using a master clip) and then use CTRL +D to put a fade to black at the end. Petrt

August 17th, 2009, 11:12 AM	#9
Jon Shohet Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 277	Jose, completely forgot : select the clips you want in the project panel. select "Automate to Sequence" from the "Project" menu (or from the little whatyoumacallit shortcut button/dropdown menu in the top right corner of the project panel) you now how several options to insert/overlay all the selected clips into the timeline with the default video transition automatically applied to all of them. You can input the amount of overlap, in frames or seconds. again - if you change default transition to "dip to black" you'll get fade in/fade out instead of cross dissolve between clips honestly it's still not the be all end all solution you're looking for but it's another option that helps cheers

August 18th, 2009, 01:47 AM	#10
Jose Milan Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Spain Posts: 185	Hello guys, Thanks for your answers and your time...I've try both suggestions and are good, but not quite there...about "Automate to sequence", I use it for storyboard editing and it works great, the thing is that for text I can't still put the clips as as stack, is always as a queue, life would be easier if this was possible! But while trying your ideas I came with a litle workaround. Normally I make a document in photoshop with a bunch of layers of text, with the idea of each layer to appear at the right moment (and the right length) in the video, I found out that you can import the psd as a sequence (instead of flatting all layers, thus making me do as many documents as layers of text, not anymore) in Premiere, then I have each layer in a bin (Premiere does this auto), but the great thing is that it also creates a sequence (with the name of the psd document) which I can go into and all my layers are put as a stack!!! Bingo! Then (I came with this idea too) I can select the video tracks...for example imagine I have 8 layers, I select the 8 video tracks and then I can use Ctrl+D in the beginning and at the end of the layers at once!!! finally! So instead of Ctr+D 8x2 times, now it only takes 2 times! Later I just can copy my layers and go to my edit timeline and place them as I wish. I think is not the total solution but thanks to you guys I've had speed up things a notch! Again thanks a lot guys!