Editing Transition Settings

Clicking the Trans button below the Clips pane displays the Transitions pane, where you can preview different effects and adjust their durations.

To preview a transition:

  • Click a transition name. The preview window automatically plays a rough version of the transition (Figure 11.1).

    Figure 11.1. Clicking a transition name previews its effect in the Transition pane's preview window.

    graphics/11fig01.jpg

  • Click the Preview button to view the rough transition in the Monitor (Figure 11.2). Note that it will play slower than normal.

    Figure 11.2. You can view a full-size, though rough, version of a transition in the Monitor.

    graphics/11fig02.gif

To change a transition's duration:

  1. Select a transition, either in the Transitions pane's list or one that you've already added to the movie.

  2. Drag the Speed slider. The duration appears in the lower-right corner of the preview window. Transitions can be as short as 10 frames or as long as 4 seconds.

graphics/tick.gif Tips

  • To stop a preview, simply click elsewhere on the screen.

  • To watch the transition again in the preview window, click the transition name again or click an empty area of the list of transitions.

  • iMovie creates a preview based on the location of the Playhead. If it's near the beginning of the clip, iMovie transitions the previous clip into the current one; if the Playhead is near the end of a clip, it transitions the current clip to the next one.


To set an effect's direction:

  1. Select the Push transition for an example of this type of setting. Although Push is the only transition from Apple to use a directional control, other developers use it, too.

  2. Click a button on the directional controller to specify how the effect plays (Figure 11.3). Using Push, the control indicates where the old clip exits the frame and the new clip enters (by default, the new clip "pushes" the old clip from left to right).

    Figure 11.3. The Push transition is Apple's only one that features a directional arrow.

    graphics/11fig03.jpg

graphics/tick.gif Tips

  • If you click the name of the Push transition, it reverts back to the default left-to-right push, even if you specified a different direction.

  • Transitions can also blend between movie footage and still clips. For example, you're editing an interview and you want to dissolve to an embarrassing high school photo of the interviewee. You can also achieve some low-tech special effects: suppose you want to end your video with a still image overlaid with styled text. Save one frame as a still image (explained in Chapter 8), and add the text in Photoshop or a similar program. Then, import the changed still image, and add a Cross Dissolve or Overlap transition before it (Figure 11.4).

    Figure 11.4. Use Overlap to slowly dissolve from a clip to a modified still image.

    graphics/11fig04.gif

  • Apple has built into iMovie the most commonly used types of transitions, but you may be looking for a different kind of effect. If so, check out transitions and plug-ins offered by third-party developers. Although I can't honestly say I'll ever use a transition that draws video within a heart shape, for example, other transitions range from the beautifully subtle to truly psychedelic (Figure 11.5). See Appendix B for a list of iMovie plug-in developers.

    Figure 11.5. Several third-party companies offer transitions you can add to iMovie, such as this one from GeeThree.

    graphics/11fig05.gif




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

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net