Diana's Top Ten FCP7 Features

#1 Global Transitions

There's a very good reason why this new Final Cut Pro 7 feature is my #1 pick. It's because it's the one I'm going to use the most. Not only that, but it's extremely easy to use and very intuitive. What are global transitions anyway? Well, rather than apply one transition to on edit point at a time, you can now apply the default transition to all edit points in an entire sequence at one time. It's a global trans–action. Too much? Maybe just define a range and apply the default transition to that range. There are lots of options, so let's take a closer look.

Creating a Default Transition

One of the ways you can apply a transition globally is to use the keyboard shortcuts for default video and audio transitions. So let's take a moment to make sure you know how to set a default transition just in case you don't want to use the system defaults, Cross Dissolve and Cross Fade.

If you want to use the keyboard shortcuts to access default audio and video transitions, find the transition you want to use in the Effects tab of the Browser. If necessary, change the length in the Length column. You could make other changes to the transition in the Transition Editor, then save that effect as a favorite, and make the favorite a default. Once you've created the transition you want to be the default, Right–click it and choose Set Default Transition from the shortcut menu. You can also select the transition, and choose Effects > Set Default.

Setting a Default Transition

Defining the Range for Global Transitions

Next, you need to determine the range of clips you want to apply the default transition to.

All Clips:

If you want all the video clips in the sequence, you can simply press Command–A to select all the clips, then press Command–T to apply the default video transition to all the selected video clips or Command–Option–T to apply the default audio transition. You can also use the Track Selection tool to choose just one or more tracks. If you want to simply choose an option from the Effects tab, you can drag a transition, audio or video, onto the selected clips. You can also choose any transition from the Effects menu.

A2 and A3 Audio Tracks Selected

Default Transition Applied to Selected Clips

Range of Clips:

If you only want certain clips to have a transition, you can drag to select those clips and apply a transition. Or you can set an In and Out point in the Timeline to define the range of clips.

In and Out Points Setting Range

Transitions Applied to Range

Double–ended Transition:

If you want a transition to be applied to both ends of a clip at the same time, simply drag the transition to the body of the clip and release it.

Dragging to Body of Clip

I know I don't have to encourage anyone to try this new feature. It's something we've all been wanting, and here it is!

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