I'm editing a child's tv show audition tape. I start the sequence with a dissolve effect fading up a title with the child's name.

However, I'd like the title to faintly show at the very beginning of the sequence. I don't want to start with complete black because I want the viewer to know whose audition it is from the very first frame.

I thought the Foreground value for the dissovle effect would adjust the starting opacity of the title, but I'm getting some odd results: Setting Foreground to a value other than 0 does change the starting opacity, but it also elminates any fading up--the title's opacity stays the same level for the length of the entire dissolve.

And when I set Foreground back to 0, the title goes completely blank during the dissolve. To get the title dissolve to behave normally I have to Undo the changes to Opacity.

Any thoughts are much apprecaited. Thanks.

 You need to adjust the foreground level on the title clip itself, not the dissolve effect. You will need to add at least one additional keyframe and adjust foreground level to a different value than the first keyframe to see a change. The distance between keyframes determines the speed of the fade. To move keyframes left or right, ALT drag.

 larry's right.  you need to use keyframes to fade-in your title instead of a dissolve.  that way you can hold the "foregroung" level where you want it for as long as you want it before "fading up" to 100%.  if you are not familear with adding & editing key frames, just ask here & someone will likely chime in fairly quickly.

shane

For a quick and dirty way to "dissolve" Titles, use Fade Effect, then to change the params, just go into the Effect Editor and adjust the Foreground as described above.

I think I got it working. What was causing me problems was not having the cursor on the first keyframe when adjusting the Foreground value.

You guys ROCK!

 Glad to hear it.