[Resolved] Image Cross-Fade Frustration

[PhilRogers]

I'm having some difficulty getting a still image to cross-fade to a second still image.
I've taken over the job of sound and projected backdrops for a stage school and I am completely new to SCS.

What I want to do is display image1 and then on a manual cue, dissolve it into Image2 over a period of about 20 seconds.
I've tried every combination of Fade In, Fade Out, Cross-fade etc., but all I can get is for Image1 to fade to black and Image 2 to fade in from black, or I get an immediate transition from one to the other.
What I'm looking for is Image1 to fade out and Image2 to fade in simultaneously.
The pictures are 3D rendered images of a farm scene, but Image1 has a sunny, blue sky and image2 has a stormy, cloudy sky, so I want to transition over a period of time from sunny to stormy.

This is what I tried:
Add an Image Cue and choose Image1.
Set the Transition to Next File to Cross Fade and Transition time to 20.
Add an Image Cue and choose Image2.
Set Activation to Auto Start.

It seems to ignore the Cross Fade Transition and switches straight to Image2.

I also tried setting Fade Out and Fade In times on the two cues, but that just makes them fade to black and from black as expected.

I'm sure it can be done, but it's beaten me so far.
The Help doesn't enlighten me.
What am I doing wrong?

Sorry if this has been answered before - I did try searching the forum for it, but didn't find an answer.

[PhilRogers]

I finally worked it out.

Add Image Cue (Q1), selecting Image1.
Set Q1 to Continuous.
Add Image Cue (Q2), selecting Image2.
Set Q2 to Continuous.
Set Q2 to start (say) 30 seconds after the Start of Q1.
Set Q2 to Fade In over 10 seconds.

When run, Image1 will show. After 20 seconds, Image2 will start to fade in with Image1 still on screen, and will take 10 seconds to complete the transition.
Job done.

It also works if Q2 is set to Manual (instead of 30 seconds after Start of Q1).



The key setting seems to be making Q1 Continuous. The Cross Fade Transition is irrelevant.

[Mike Daniell]

Glad you managed to work it out, Phil. Sorry for the confusion regarding the transition properties. The transition properties have caused some confusion to a number of users, so for 11.5.2 I've now added the following information in the Help file:

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Transition properties are used between items within the current Video/Image Sub-Cue only. They are NOT used to control the transition from the current cue or sub-cue to the next cue or sub-cue.
If you want to cross-fade the last image in this cue or sub-cue to the first image in the next cue or sub-cue then you need to use the Sub-Cue Fade In Time of that next cue or sub-cue. Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1: Q1 displays an image, and after 30 seconds you want a 2-second cross-fade to the image in Q2.
·Set up Q1 with a display duration of 32 seconds.
·Set up Q2 to auto-start 2 seconds before the end of Q1, and set Q2's fade in time to 2 seconds.

Example 2: Q3 displays an image to be displayed continuously until Q4 (another image cue) is manually started. Q3 is then to cross-fade to Q4 over 5 seconds.
·Set up Q3 with the 'continuous' checkbox selected.
·Set up Q4 (manual start) with a sub-cue fade in time of 5 seconds.