We humans seem to have similarities to birds. Newly hatched birds are said to associate the first moving object they see with "mother". I know I have a similar feeling when I see an editing tip or technique for the first time. I tend to believe that that is the one and only way to achieve the desired result. Coming from Liquid, I used the same technique of adding a "fade-in/Fade-out" dissolve to my title clips in MC. First today (Yes, today the 4th. of January, 2009!) I found another way to do the same thing. Hope this inspires you to look for altenative mothers?

Regards,
Douglas

Hi Douglas,

drbgaijin:

I found another way to do the same thing.

Not only an alternative, but a more efficient alternative that uses fewer effects, so your render times will be shorter, and there will be fewer precomputes for the system to keep track of.*  Nice find.

good luck,
Carl

*This might not seem important on a clip with one title, but I've done sports shows using hundreds of imported graphics to show scoring information.  If you have 300 graphics, you'd have to add 600 dissolves to fade them up and down.

Beware though, that on Meridien systems, this feature was damaged in the 2D effects realm. You needed to have the 3D option and promote titles to 3D for the fade-effect to do a proper fade in/fade out. But that's an ancient problem by now, of course.

Douglas,

Excellent work as usual!  One question, are handles necessary using this method as the fade is occurring within the title?

Regards,

Brad

Don't forget, you can add many dissolves all at once by putting an in and and out point on the timeline and then checking quick effect, add effects in to out.  Of course, they would all be the same duration and type of dissolve but, it is a great time saver.

Nancy

rbradleyc:

are handles necessary using this method as the fade is occurring within the title?

Handles are not necessary when using Fade Effect.  It's the same principle if you add a keyframe to an effect say 20 frames from the end and then change the opacity of the last keyframe to 0.  It's just a quick shortcut to add the keyframes and set the opacity automatically.

The quickest way I found to add a title fade is to use the 'head fade' or 'tail fade'.  I have the fades as keyboard shortcuts, and after locating the place to fade the title (or clip), it's a one button keystroke.