Adding Motion with the Ken Burns Effect

Who says still photos must remain still? A common effect used by documentary filmmakers is pan and zoom, where the camera moves across a still image, zooms in on (or out of) a portion of the image, or performs a combination of the two.

To apply the Ken Burns Effect:

  1. Select an image in the iPhoto preview area.

  2. Click the Ken Burns Effect checkbox at the top of the Photos pane.

  3. Set a duration for the effect using the Duration slider or field.

  4. Click the Start button to set the appearance at the first frame of the sequence.

  5. Specify a zoom setting using the Zoom slider or field (Figure 9.8). A setting of 1.0 displays the entire image on screen.

    Figure 9.8. Click the Start button and set up the opening frame of the effect. Here, we're starting off with a zoomed-in close-up shot of a flower.

    graphics/09fig08.gif

  6. Click the image in the preview window and drag it to define the portion of the picture that initially appears. (If you're not zoomed-in at all, you probably don't need to do this.)

  7. Click the Finish radio button, then perform steps 5 and 6 to set the appearance of the last frame in the sequence (Figure 9.9).

    Figure 9.9. Now we're setting up the last frame of the effect zoomed out and shifted to the right by dragging in the preview window.

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  8. Click the Preview button to watch the effect in the preview window.

  9. When the effect is set up to your liking, do one of the following to add it to your movie:

    • Click the Apply button; iMovie adds the clip to the end of your movie.

    • Drag the photo from the iPhoto preview area to a location in the Timeline.

Ken Who?

Ever one to capitalize on name recognition, Apple named this feature after Ken Burns, a documentary filmmaker who frequently employs the effect in his popular documentaries. Examples include The Civil War, JAZZ, and Baseball. For more information, see www.pbs.org/kenburns/.

graphics/tick.gif Tips

  • iMovie automatically plays the effect in the preview window; if the Finish button is highlighted, it means the preview has ended. Clicking the Start or the Finish buttons interrupts the preview.

  • The Ken Burns Effect can only be applied to clips that are on the Timeline. Clicking the Apply button with a photo selected in the Photos preview area adds the picture to the Timeline.

  • If you decide you want your effect to run backwards from the way you set it, click the Reverse button to swap the Start and Finish settings (Figure 9.10).

    Figure 9.10. Click the Reverse button to quickly swap the Start and Finish settings.

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  • You can use the Ken Burns Effect to crop photos. At the Start stage, specify a zoom amount. Then Option-click the Finish button to set the same zoom value. When you click the Apply button, the photo is added to the Timeline as a regular still photo, not a Ken Burns clip. You can also Option-click the Start button to apply the values of the Finish state.

  • Higher-resolution photos generally display better than lower-resolution ones. Although iMovie does a good job of interpolating the image, zooming way in can cause blurry images.

  • If your image doesn't start with much resolution, it appears in iMovie centered within a black border (Figure 9.11).

    Figure 9.11. If a still photo has low resolution, iMovie compensates by keeping the image small and using a black frame to fill in for leftover space.

    graphics/09fig11.jpg

  • For a different effect, drag the image out of the preview window entirely at the starting point, then drag it out of the opposite side of the frame for the finish point the image glides across the screen as if it were in motion.


To apply the Ken Burns Effect to a non-iPhoto still picture clip:

  1. Move the clip to the Timeline, if it's not already there, and make sure it's selected.

  2. Switch to the Photos pane; the picture appears in the preview window.

  3. Set the Start and Finish values (detailed on the previous pages) to define the pan and zoom effect.

  4. Click the Preview button to see a rough version of the effect in the preview window.

  5. Click the Apply button to render the settings and turn the picture clip into a video clip.

graphics/tick.gif Tips

  • iMovie 3.0.3, which appeared the day before this book was printed, broke the functionality described above. Hopefully, it will be fixed by the time you read this.

  • If you want to change how the effect appears, make your changes and click the Apply button again.

  • Unfortunately, you can't create a still frame from a video clip and apply the Ken Burns Effect to it. As a workaround, export the frame as a still image using the File menu's Save Frame As command, then re-import that file back into iMovie.

  • For far more control over pan-and-zoom effects, look to third-party iMovie plug-in vendors. In particular, I like Still Life (www.grantedsw.com/still-life), which gives you the capability to rotate the camera, and add other photos and audio (Figure 9.12). You can then export the clip as a QuickTime or DV-formatted file to be imported into iMovie; or, you can even create a new iMovie project. See Appendix B for other companies, as well.

    Figure 9.12. Granted Software's Still Life offers more control over pan and zoom effects.

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iMovie 3 for MAC OS X. Visual QuickStart Guide
iMovie 3 for Mac OS X (Visual QuickStart Guide)
ISBN: 0321193970
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 125
Authors: Jeff Carlson

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