Why aren't my video and audio transitions working in Final Cut pro?

Without more specific information about your problem, it will be hard for us to help you solve it. Exactly what’s happening wrong?

Alternatively, if you have a friend with some experience in Final Cut Pro (or maybe who’s just very tech savvy), they could help you in person.

Want to come over? . . . Emily Utter is here with me. He, he . . . she just got me hooked on this site! You should hire her for grassroots marketing. She kicks ass. Oh wait never mind . . . I want her to keep working with me.

So my problem with Final Cut . . .
When I drag and drop my video and audio transitions into my timeline, nothing happens. Also, when I select them from the drop down effects menu, they are greyed out, as if they don’t exist anymore. Also, when I try using the shortcut keys to enter the transition, it also makes the Mac error noise.

I have been reading blogs and info on final cut to see how to resolve it, but nothing works. I don’t know what to do. If you have a friend who can help, I would be happy to buy them lunch in exchange for some sound advice. Thanks!

-Amber

Oh, and . . . my friends who work in Final Cut, don’t have any idea wtf is going on.

Like Ben’s response, mine would be similar since I don’t know your level of expertise.
Is this your first time using a NLE program? If so, the underlying concepts of a transition may need to be reviewed.

That said, the obvious question may be: are you first editing the clips in the timeline window (i.e. shortening the ends of the clip)? If you don’t, then there will be no ‘overlapping’ media to create the transition between the current clip and the next clip you drag and drop into the timeline.

For instance, a dissolve between two video clips is an effect of two ovelapping clips that are transitioning between each other. The students I teach often have a hard time grasping this concept when they first take on editing. So please excuse me if that was overly obvious to you (not sure your level of expertise on editing).

If your problem still persists, there may be system-based causes; I might suggest the following steps to try:

1. Repair Disk Permissions. After quitting FCP, going to Utilities/Disk Utility and performing a ‘repair permissions’ operation on your system disk.

2. Check for software updates, especially for final cut pro and pro applications (there may be a recent update that you have not run?...

3. Make sure QuickTime is updated to the current version (software update should fix this)

4. Try using other media files and a new project file, or open a previously created project (maybe even one created on a different computer) to verify the problem still exists on the system and is not in the project file (i.e. a corrupt project file)

and if none of those work, then consider:

5. Re-install FCP from the installer, and update as described above.

Let us know if this helps at all…

I have been using final cut for about 2 years, but I am 100% self taught. I have gotten into functional habits of working with the software, but feel like I don’t know the full extent of which it is capable.
To answer your question:
1. I am shorting the ends of the clips, so there is overlapping media.
2. System-based causes may be the source of the problems . . . as this started happening after I moved my capture/scratch/render/vault files to my LaCie. But for some reason, I can’t find the source files for the transitions.
3. I will try the software updates and if it doesn’t work, I will re-install final cut.

Where do you teach editing? I would love to take some classes in advance use of After Effects and Final Cut . . . as well as avid.

Thanks!