[Treebeard]

(**warning: I'm a frikin newbie. I know nothing. I admit this. And I accept it. But I don't want to be a newbie anymore. Hence the post.**)

Hi all,

My wife is graduating Grad school in a few weeks, and I was hoping to make a little iMovie for her. A little present.

I don't have a camera, but was thinking about doing kind of a slide show movie set to music. I'm pretty sure I could do that no problem. I did the tutorial in iMovie and it seems easy enough. Kind of boring though.

I wanted to spice it up a little bit with two things:

1) I was wondering if it was possible to make the images shift/move on screen slightly. You know, kind of like OS X's screen savers, where it will show part of a picture full screen and zoom in or zoom out, or scroll to one side or the other. (It's slow and subtle, and very cool.) Can iMovie do that? Or any other shareware/freeware/low-cost package?

2) I wanted to intersperse various appropriate (or inappropriate ) quotes from our favorite movies and TV shows into some of the music. I.e., all relating to the word "master" or to education/intelligence:

DARTH VADER: Now the circle is complete. When last we met, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.
OBI-WAN KENOBI: Only a master of evil, Darth.

AND

VEZZINI: Ever heard of Plato? Aristotle? Socrates?
WESLEY: Yes.
VEZZINI: Morons.

I wanted to mix stuff like that into the music of the slide show. Can iMovie handle dropping a .wav file (or other format) onto a music track. If so, can you move or delete the soundbite once you drop it in? Or would that have to be done in another app?

If iMovie can't do that, what freeware/shareware/low-cost app could handle mixing sound like that, so that I could drop a single (edited) track into iMovie.

Here's what I have:
iMac DV SE 400MHz; 384MB memory; 13 GB HD (I have another 9 gigs on an older computer for archiving); OS X (though I run OS 9.1 for day-to-day stuff); iMovie2 (carbonized, works on both 9.1 and X); QuickTime 5 (only on X), NOT Pro; about a month before she graduates; a lot of patience (i.e., I'd rather have to spend a little time doing things over than have to pay a thousand bucks to get a high-end app--$30 to $50 would be ok... maybe more depending on what it would let me do).

Here's what I don't have:
a DV camera; any commercial media authoring app; quicktime pro; a lot of money.

I am considering getting a cd burner sometime soon. If so, I've heard Toast (don't know about versions) can burn VCDs. Would that be something y'all would recommend? How much can VCDs hold? Do you have to buy special CD-Rs? Would I need another app to arrange a DVD-style interface, or do VCDs just play--i.e., no chapters, options, etc.? (We have a DVD player that says it can play Video CDs.) Also, which burners are the best for the money?

Thanks a bazillion-jillion-trillion for any advice and/or recommendations. My wife will thank you too (furthermore, she'll be sold on Macs for life if I can do it for a low enough cost).

Treebeard

PS: I told you I was a newbie.

PPS: Hmmmm. Last query. Can iMovie do fullscreen presentation (even if only at 640x480)? Thanks again.

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Hoom hom hmmmmmmmmmmm...

[Archangel]

iMovie2 can do all that you want to do. My only caution from the beginning is that iMovie is slightly limited in the fades/effects/transitions. Otherwise, it's really easy to use. It can import PICTS, JPEGS, GIFs, and BMPs (all of your basic photo formats). It can also import AIFF files (which are easy to get form mp3s or WAVS if you download a freeware program called Soundapp). Since you're just working with stills it should be pretty easy too, and you always have these forums to bail you out if you get stuck. And, yes, iMovie can display it all in full screen. You shouldn't have to spend any more money, and it should take less than a week to do.

Just post back if you need any more help.

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I got a yellow slinky from Outpost.com

[Treebeard]

OK. More than a month later and I'm getting done. It's not been easy, mostly because of logistical stuff like having to carry the computer out to the living room to record audio off the VCR, late at night after my wife's gone to sleep. I figure if I had a portable, I'd have been done weeks ago. <sigh>

I have since upgraded to QT 5 Pro, which has made some things easier (I could have done them in iMovie, but it would have taken me longer).

So a few questions:

1) After scanning in a bunch of wedding pictures and importing them into iMovie, some appear nice and crisp (just a handful), while others appear jagged and pixelated (most), as if the resolution is too low...when in fact I scanned them in at quite high resolutions. Any thoughts? Should I lower the resolution? Raise it? I'm going for producing this at 640x480 fullscreen. Should I change both that and the resolutions of the pics? Or does this just happen? (Is it some kind of weird interlacing problem? Total conjecture there...)

2) I abandoned doing the zoom effect (like in OS X's screen saver) right away. Simply because I didn't know how to do it. But I'd still like to do it if it's possible. (Heck, it's been this long already, why not spend some more time, and make it even better, right?) Is it possible? In iMovie? In QT Pro? Graphic Converter? Stone Studio? (Grasping at straws, I know...)

Thanks. If all goes well, I should have this done by the time my kids graduate from college, let alone my wife!

hey! i did a slideshow too for my gf using imovie2 (and we have the same setup: imac 400 dvse 384 ram 13 gb hd, cool!). anyways, the slideshow i made consisted mainly of dissolves, never thought about using a zoom in/out effect., but that would have been nice. well, only way i can think of to achieve the zoom out/in effect is a rather tedious one if done in imovie. it involves making individual frames to achieve some sort of animation to get the zoom in/out effect. u can use photoshop to make each individual frame (i.e. the stil image getting smaller and smaller until your desired zoom out effect is achieved, and in reverse order for the zoom in). that's how i wouldve done it if using only imovie and photoshop.

[Mac 26X]

To do the pan / zoom effects, make sure the Ken Burns effect checkbox is selected when you import the photos. The iMovie help explains how to pan / zoom.

I'm really interested in knowing more about the image quality problem. I prefer to use iMovie over iPhoto to make slideshows because there's more selection of effects, you control the audio and you can use titles. Image quality is the limitation. Has anybody succeeded in improving the resolution of imported images?

[dmcnickle]

Check out this thread on Apple's discussion board for iMovie.

It goes through lots of things you can do with iMovie to make movies out of stills.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]/40

I hope that helps you.

[bluejam]

Hey there. Im quite the newbie also but c'mon people. Lets read the instruction a little. The Ken Burns Effect(pan & zoom) is one of the major features of iMovie for doing stills.
That said, there is an excellent book on the subject. iMovie and iDVD, The Missing Manual by Pogue. He has separate books on all the iLife programs including one devoted entirely to OSX.

[mindwaves]

FYI, this thread is old.

[zigzag]

Originally posted by bluejam:
Hey there. Im quite the newbie also but c'mon people. Lets read the instruction a little. The Ken Burns Effect(pan & zoom) is one of the major features of iMovie for doing stills.
That said, there is an excellent book on the subject. iMovie and iDVD, The Missing Manual by Pogue. He has separate books on all the iLife programs including one devoted entirely to OSX.

I had the same thought but then I realized that the original post was made in . . . 2001.

[bluejam]

Whoa, 2001. I didn't notice either. Well, glad I read it anyway. That thread in Apple discussions is excellent.