Adjustment layers for Final Cut Pro

If you want to dissolve from one clip to the next, you should add the transitions to the clips.

There is no efficiency to be gained from adjustment layers in this regard.

Just apply the transitions where you need them and don't worry. Adjustment layers are a great tool, but not for this purpose.

A cross dissolve is a transition. You need an edit point to apply a transition.

1) If you have two adjacent clips with a single adjustment layer above them:

you can try applying the transition to the clips themselves, and that should work ok.

2) If you have two adjacent clips with different adjustment layers (presumably with different er... adjustments):

then it is a little more tricky.

If you apply the dissolve to the adjustment layers, it will gradually change the adjustments but cut the image from one to another.

You can try applying a transition to the clips, as well as to the adjustment layers; it may work, but may look odd.

If you need to do this, probably should make two compound clips; but you need to manually create handles for them, by extending the tail end of A and the head of B, making compounds, and then trimming the compounds before adding the transition. Doable, but makes me wonder if that is really necessary.