Section 9.4. Still Images as Titles

9.4. Still Images as Titles

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, one of the best reasons to get to know the still-image importing feature is so that you can supplement, or replace, iMovie's builtin titling feature. By using still images as your titles, you gain the freedom to use any colors, type sizes, and positions you want.

The only disadvantage to this approach is that you sacrifice the professional-looking animation styles built into the iMovie titling feature.

Even so, imported graphic title cards don't have to be still and static by any means. For one thing, there's nothing to stop you from animating your still-image titles by applying the Ken Burns effect to themto make the title zoom in from nothing, for example, or slide from left to right. (Just remember to prepare the title as a graphic with high enough resolution for Ken Burns to work with.)

9.4.1. The Freeze-Frame Effect

If you were a fan of 1970s action shows like Emergency !, you may remember how the opening credits looked : You'd be watching one of the starring characters frantically at work in some lifesaving situation. As she looked up from her work just for a moment, the picture would freeze, catching her by lucky happenstance at her most flattering angle. At that instant, you'd see her credit flashed onto the screen: "JULIE LONDON as Dixie McCall, RN." ( Queer Eye for the Straight Guy does the same kind of thing.)

That's an easy one to simulate. Just create a freeze-frame as described in the next section, and then superimpose the text as described in Chapter 7.

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Tip: If you need more typographical flexibility, you can also export the frame as a standalone graphics file (use the File Save Frame command). Then dress it up in a graphics program like Photoshop Elementsand re-import it into iMovie by dragging its icon directly into the Movie Track or Clips pane.

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9.4.2. The Layered Effect

In many cases, the most creative use of still-image titles comes from using several of them, each building on the last. For example, you can make the main title appear, hold for a moment, and then transition into a second still graphic on which a subtitle appears.

If you have more time on your hands, you can use this trick to create simple animations. Suppose you were to create ten different title cards, all superimposed on the same background, but each with the words in a different size or position. If you were to place each title card on the screen for only half a second (15 frames ), joined by very fast crossfades, you'd create a striking visual effect. Similarly, you might consider making the color of the lettering shift over time. To do that, create two or three different title cards, each with the text in a different color. Insert them into your movie, join them with slow crossfades, and you've got a striking, color-shifting title sequence.

POWER USERS' CLINIC
The Fade-to-Black (or Fade-to-Puce) Secret

As noted in Chapter 6, it's easy to create a professional-looking fade-out at the end of your movie. Unfortunately, while iMovie does a great job at taking your film from the final footage to a black frame, it ruins the mood created by its own effectby ending the movie . Unlike professional movies, which fade to black and then hold for a moment, iMovie fades to black at the end of the movie and then stops playing, sending your viewers back to iMovie, your desktop, the football game, or whatever was on the computer or TV screen before you played the movie.

The solution is very simple, and well worth making a part of your regular iMovie repertoire . Here's the drill:

Just after the final fade-out, create a black clip. (Recap: Paste a random clip after the final shot of your movie, drag it rightward in the Timeline Viewer to make a black clip appear, Control-click or right-click the gap, choose Convert Empty Space to Clip, and then delete the random clip, leaving the freshly minted black clip behind.)

Then, instead of using the Fade Out transition described in Chapter 6, use Cross Dissolve. iMovie fades smoothly from the final footage of the clip into your black box.

Of course, whenever you use a transition, iMovie splits the clip into two piecesone that includes the transition animation, plus the unaffected half. Change the duration of the unaffected half of your black square to make the moment of blackness as long as you desire .

Nor should you be content to fade to black . In fact, you can fade out to whatever color you desirewhite, blue, gray, anything. Just change the black clip's color as explained in Section 5.8.1.