Tuesday Tips: Adding Transitions

Here’s a few ways to add a transition to an edit in FCP:

1. The Standard Way
   Select the cut point on the timeline* and choose Effects > Video Transitions > AnyTransitionYouWant.
2. The Quick ‘n’ Dirty Way
   Right or control-click on the cut point and choose ‘Add Transition’ from the shortcut menu. This will add the default transition. You can change what the default transition is by selecting a new transition in the Effects tab of the Browser and then choosing Effects > Set Default. More customised defaults can also be made, saved and set as the default.
3. The Other Quick ‘n’ Dirty Way
   Select the cut point* and press Command-T (for video) or Command-Option-T (for audio). Again, this adds the default transition, but can be customised.
4. The Copy/Paste Method
   Right or control-click on a transition you like on the timeline and choose Copy from the shortcut menu. Right or control-click on another cut point and choose Paste.
5. The Copy/Drag Method
   Double-click a transition that you like, to load it into the viewer. Grab the little hand at the top right of the viewer and drag it to your cut point. This is good for custom transitions that you don’t want to be bothered rebuilding all the time.
6. The Option-Drag Method
   On Macs, holding the Option key while dragging something will almost always result in a duplication, and this is my current favourite. Select a transition on the timeline that you like, hold Option and drag the copied transition to the cut point.

The right-click menu on a transition in the timeline also has a bunch of other helpful functions such as duration adjustment and transition alignment.

* If you don’t have a cut point selected, FCP will add the transition to the lowest-numbered track that has its auto select buttons enabled. This works for both video and audio tracks.