Changing the Background

To dramatically alter a theme's appearance, swap the existing background image with your own photo or movie.

To use a photo or movie as the background with no drop zones:

• Drag a photo or movie from the Media pane or the Finder and drop it onto the Background well in the Menu pane (Figure 21.16). (Drag the photo onto the Menu button to switch to the pane without releasing the mouse button.)
  
  

  Figure 21.16. Adding a photo or movie to the Background well makes it the theme's background image.

  

  
  

Or

1.	From the File menu, go to the Import submenu and choose Background Video.
2.	Locate a movie on your hard disk, and click Import.

To use a photo or movie as the background and keep the drop zones:

• Drag a photo from the Media pane or the Finder and drop it onto the current theme's background. The advantage of this approach is that you can keep the theme's drop zone (if it has one). If you drag the photo to the Background well, the drop zone is no longer available.
  
  

Or

1.	Drag a photo or movie file from the Media pane or the Finder to the menu, but don't release the mouse button.
2.	Press the Command or Option key to bring up a contextual menu with choices (Figure 21.17). Figure 21.17. Press Command or Option before releasing the mouse button to choose an action.
3.	Choose Replace background to use your movie file as the background but keep the drop zones; or, to use just the movie file, choose Replace background and drop zones.

To set the beginning and ending of a background video:

1.	With a video set as the background, switch to the Menu pane.
2.	Click the small triangle above the Loop Duration slider to display the Background Movie Start/End control (Figure 21.18). The triangle appears only when a video is used as the background. Figure 21.18. Use the almost-secret control in the Loop Duration slider to set the start and end of your background video.
3.	Drag the ends of the control to set the start and end of the video.

To remove your background photo or movie:

1.	Switch to the Menu pane.
2.	Drag the photo or movie out of the Background well (Figure 21.19). The theme's default background reappears. Figure 21.19. Drag a photo or movie file out of the Background well to revert to the theme's original background image. The image disappears in a poof of smoke.

Tips

• For best image quality, export your background movie from iMovie at the Full Quality DV setting (see Chapter 16).

• If the movie is meant as a visual item only, export it from iMovie with the sound disabled, or set at a low volume.

• If you switch to a different theme, your background image or movie is deleted from the project; you'll need to re-import it under the new theme.

• Remember that you won't see your movie in action unless Motion is enabled.

• If you remove a video from the background well, be sure to also remove the audio that the video may have added (see the next page).

• Import video files you shot with a digital still camera by locating them in the Media pane's Photos list.