Black window when revising Ken Burns effects on photos

Can someone help overcome the black preview window when I try to revise settings for Ken Burns effects on photos in the timeline?
Many thx!
iBook 14 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Are you trying to edit a previously imported image
rendered by the Ken Burns Effect? If so, there's an
iMovie bug that prevents you from updating the clip
when you empty the iMovie trash. It also turns the
preview black.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=191
2675?
:)Sue
Yes, and thank you for the link to the thread. Since there are still varying results, I was hoping that Apple had published a patch or announced a new version that fixed this bug that is now very old. Fyi, my computer won't download the latest version, but my 'updater' says one exists.
Best regards.
iMac 17 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Photos on timeline showing black when using ken burns effect

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Although you've posted in the iMovie 5 forum, that sounds like a well-known iMovie 6 bug. If you are using iMovie 6 you may have encountered the bug:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=714698&tstart=0
Karl

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MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7) 17"

Hi Tifany, there are MANY threads about this if you want to search for them.
First thing I will ask though is: are you using iMovie to create a STILL photo slideshow? If so, you will be disappointed with the quality. There are some photos that just seem to attract this shimmering effect, and others that dont. perhaps turn the KB OFF on the ones that do, and see if that makes a difference?
I personally have found that FotoMagico or iPhoto create better quality slideshows than iMovie (which is, afterall, a video editing tool).

Low quality when using Ken Burns effect

Hi,
I tried to import hi-res photos from iPhoto 6 to iMovie HD 6, adding some zooming with Ken Burns. The resulting clips are very blurry, lots of artefacts - very low quality. Is anyone else having this problem? It happens on my iBook as well on my iMac. Or am I just expecting to much?
Thanks for any advice, Patrick
iBook G4 800GHz, iMac G4 17" 1.25Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Sue,
Have you ever tried Photo to iMovie? Apple even recommends it.
Yes, I know Photo to iMovie. But if I buy an integrated solution like iLife'06, it makes no sense to buy additional shareware programs to correct some flaws of it.
Isn't it possible to raise the quality of a Ken Burns effect, I would say in iLife '05 it was much better.
So I am looking forward to an update of iMovie HD 6...
Kind regards,
Patrick

I need to do non-constrained crops for Ken Burns effect in photo slide show

I am making photo slide shows in imovie '09. I understand the Ken Burns effect and how to set a start and an end point. I want to use the effect on vertical or portrait mode photos. i would like to have the entire photo displayed in portrait mode and have it zoom in a bit. The problem is The start and end points seem to only be horizontal or landscape mode. I can't ever get the entire image selected. How can I do this?
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Tim

You need to add the letterbox (black space) in another application. iMovie's Ken Burns effect will not do it for you. You can do it in Photoshop if you like.
However, there is a way to do it in Automator, and you can do hundreds of vertical photos very quickly. That is the way I do it.
Here is more detail:
There is also a quick way to pad your images without using Photoshop. This method will pad hundreds of images in just a few seconds.
You do it with a tool that comes with OS/X called Automator. It should be in your Applications/Utilities folder.
Automator is basically a workflow tool. It allows you to string together commands and actions into a workflow and then execute the entire sequence at once. If you have Snow Leopard, you can even add these workflows to your contextual menus that come up when you right-click.
There are many workflows that would work to pad your images. Here is an example:
In Automator, start a photo workflow and drag the following actions into the workflow from the Action palettes on the left.
You should have something like:
1)Ask for Photos (You must select one or more photos and hit Select - you can make this easier by putting them in an album beforehand)
2) Copy Finder Items (give it a folder to copy to- so you can find them easily)
3) Pad Images. (put a check mark in "scale image before padding" Pick the pixel dimensions of your project...like 640x480 or 960x540. or 1920x1080
Hit Run and a dialog box will come up asking you to select photos. When you are finished, press SELECT and the Automator script will keep running.
Then at the end you should have padded images in the folder you created in step 2.

Remove ken burns effect from photos in iMovie HD

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Thanks for any help.

Thanks for the response, butt.. this is iMovieHD (or version 6). There is no crop or fit tool in this version (as far as I can tell). There is a "crop" choice in the Edit pulldown menu, but I think that's for clips. And this verison doesn't give you boxes for the Ken Burns effect. These things are in later versions of iMOvie, but those versions don't integrate as well with iDVD which is most important to me.

Ken Burns Effect Portrait Photo iMovie 08

Hello...
I'm trying to make a slideshow of photos in iMovie 08. In an older version of iMovie, I was able to apply the Ken Burns Effect on both landscape and portrait oriented photographs. In iMovie 08, the landscape photos are fine, but i'm having a problem on the portrait oriented ones. The red and green bars in the Ken Burns Effect only select a portion of the portrait oriented photos, so you only see a small section of the photo when using the effect. Please help.
Thanks,
Lauren

The Ken Burns effect in iMovie only pans over the photo pixels. And it only allows rectangles in the same aspect as the screen (landscape).
You can pad black space on the left and right in your photos using an application like Photoshop. so that the Ken Burns will pan over the entire photo
There is also a program called Automator which comes with your Mac. Automator has a "Pad Images" action which will add the black space to vertically oriented photos. With automator, you can batch any number of vertically oriented photos and pad them all at once.

Ken burns effect deny photo import

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On iMove 6.02 it worked!
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thanks in advance
peppo

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2006-10-06 10:08:46.939 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:08:50.812 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:08:51.228 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:08:54.133 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:08:56.987 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:00.293 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:03.481 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:09.290 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:12.211 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:15.433 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:18.237 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:21.309 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:24.030 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:30.223 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:33.610 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:36.482 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:39.486 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:42.558 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:53.642 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:09:57.247 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
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Ken Burns effect causing photos to show static

As the subject line suggests I am getting a sizzle effect, like sparkling pixel static across my photos when the Ken Burns zoom is in progress. It is uniform across the entirety of the photo. THis is in imovie hd 6.0.4 on my new imac 21.5 with system 10.6.4 These are photos taken with 12mp dsl camera and I notice some other older photos taken with 4mp camera point and shoot do not show this distraction. Something up with the rendering of high res stills ? THis does not happen in Ilife 09's imovie.
Thanks for shedding any light on this anyone.

I had the same problem with iMovie 9. I found a solution that worked for me at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12544852&#12544852

Removing Ken Burns effect once photo is on time line

I am using the lastest version of iMovie, I have made a movie using only photos. All of the photos have the Ken Burn's effect some are ok but other are not. Can the Ken Burn's effect be turned off once images are on the time line?

Found it. Select the photo on time line, highlight the adjust symbol in the upper right hand corner, highlight crop button and chose "fit" or "crop to fill".

How do I remove Ken Burns effect from individual photos?

The instructions say to " In the Photo Settings window, deselect the Ken Burns effect checkbox and then click apply". My interface shows the word "update" instead of "apply" which has worked when I change other settings such as the length of time a photo is displayed. However every time I deselect KB...it comes back! I have also tried to constantly save the project, trying to save the deselect process.
Has anyone an idea? BTW the KB effect is very poor for most vertical pictures as it will cut off the top of the photo.
powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9) iMovie 6.0.3 version

• Yes, the Photo Settings window says Update instead
of Apply because you are updating an existing clip,
not importing a new one.
However every time I deselect KB...it comes back!
• Not sure exactly what you mean there. Do you mean
that in spite of unchecking the Ken Burns checkbox
the Updated clip doesn't change? It still has the Ken
Burns effect?
YES - see solution I found below.
If so, it sounds like iMovie may be failing to save
the updated clip to disk. That can occur if the
project resides on an external disk that uses the
wrong disk format. iMovie requires the Mac OS
Extended disk format. To check yours, see this:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=41
76921#4176921
I had our office software person check this out.
BTW the KB effect is very poor for most vertical
pictures as it will cut off the top of the photo.
• The Ken Burns effect can't read our minds. It only
does what we tell it to do. For photos that have a
portrait orientation it's normal to adjust the
zoom/pan so the rendered clip stays within the photo.
Note that it's possible to drag the photo in the
Preview window to adjust both the Start and End
points. So for a tall photo you may want to zoom/pan
up-or-down instead of side-to-side.
Note too that the settings in the Photo Settings
window always accept those settings of the last photo
we imported, updated or clip clicked on. So once
you've imported a tall photo with the Ken Burns
settings you like, you can easily apply those
settings for another photo. Just click on that
previously-rendered tall clip in the Timeline before
importing your next tall photo.
Karl
Karl,
Thank your for your input and in the last couple of days I have been able to produce the iMovie. But I now have another question about burning it.
Let me point out that I was able to deal with the Ken Burns issues by deleting the photos I wanted to change and replacing with new photos and using your tips + the help menu on "adding motion to your photos" to zooming right / left / vertically (which was very helpful).
Now that I have my project I cannot burn it as I get the following:there is not enough space to encode the aspects and in the pull down: "iDVD needs 2.350 GB of disk space to encode the remaining assets, but only 1.231 GB are available" I tried to cut down the files by deleting 5 chapters thus reducing the menu to one page showing chapters. I also re-saved the project with a new name.
BTW - I did burn it once but needed to fix it as the opening menu didn't have sound and I saw some other small photo details I wanted to fix. This version had 11 chapters on 2 menu pages with photos in the background. Essentially all I did was add a few more photos in motion and add the sound. That is why I thought maybe it was too much and removed the chapters saving one remaining page with music. I also do not have it on wide screen format as that uses more memory.
Can you help me with this? I don't understand why I'm getting the same message no matter what I do.
Many thanks,
Rozy

Thmes and Ken Burns Effect

All images used are still photos at least 5x7 inches @ 300ppi. I like the "Themes" feature in iMovie, but when i drop the photos in, they seem quite "soft" as the Theme goes through its motion. Also; when I preview the Ken Burns effect, the photos look fantastic on the screen as I zoom and Pan. However, when I hit the "Apply" button, the images soften. Any explanation for these two questions? One more question please, would a more expensive software product produce sharper results? Thanks very much. Wayne from Studio 24

Hi Wayne
I'm not so familiar with Ken Burns but can share some thoughts.
1 - If I would use KB in an iMovie project I would definitly NOT use the Share/Export
to iDVD function within iMovie BUT
a) Close iMovie
b) find the project icon/folder
c) Ctrl-click on it and Show package.
d) in this there are a folder -> Shared Movies -> iDVD
e) in this there is a QT movie nnnnnnn.mov
- You can test this with QT-player to see that it is OK -
START A NEW iDVD project - so that old material will not interfere.
f) drop this into an open theme in iDVD (just inside the edge of the
window) and save it as a desktop image
(if iDVD prior HD/5 You have to add a hack to make this possibly
named HPfurz and install it)
Test this with Apple DVD-player - OK then burn it with iDVD
or Toast if You have and don’t want to re-code the movie.
2 - I use more and more FinalCut Express HD 3.5 and in this there are no
Ken Burn as a function but there are a much more powerful function to lay
out motions by hand and in a very precise way. And here You have a really
super quality on Your picture.
BUT on the other hand FCE has a rather steep learning curve and to me lots
of trial and error. But it's much more fun than any coputer games I came across
to date. AND it costs !
Yours Bengt W

How to turn off Ken Burns Effect

Hello
working with iMovie HD 6.0.4
I do have iMovie 11, but can't figure out how to manage more than one soundtrack (Movie and Music).
So back to iMovie HD 6.
I searched the Help section regarding turning off Ken Burns Effect.
This is what it says:
To remove the pan and zoom effect from a photo in your movie:
Select the image in the clip viewer or timeline viewer.
Click the Media button, click Photos at the top of the Media pane, and then click Show Photo Settings.
In the Photo Settings window, deselect the Ken Burns Effect checkbox.
Click Apply.
BUT: here is NO checkbox to deselect Ken Burns Effect.
Anybody know what happened?
The reason I want to get rid of it is that zooming makes stills unwatchable. I it barely ok in iPhoto but in iMovie, the resolution is totally messed up.
It would be great if somebody has an idea to turn off Ken Burns Effect.
Thank you
Christian

Go to File/Project Properties and you can define the default behavior for adding stills to your project.
After clicking File/Project Properties, you will click on the Timing Tab. There you will see how to set the default still photo duration and the initial photo placement.
You an set it as Ken Burns, Fit, or Crop. You can always change it later in the Rotate, Crop, Ken Burns tools, but if you are importing a lot, it makes sense to set the default as the one you are most likely to need.

Ken Burns effect -- artifacts

When I import photos into an iMovie MPEG-4 project with Ken Burns effects, the result is quite lousy. There are clear artifacts: blocking, unsteady zoom, shimering lines. To me it looks like the results of a poor MPEG-4 compression, resulting in compression artifacts. Any way to get better results?

Photos come out better in DV projects than they do in
MPEG-4 projects. Not perfect, but better.
There are many conversations here discussing the
quality of photos. Search for words like "blurry",
"Jaggies" and others.
Karl
Karl,
I'm not sure what a "DVD project" is exactly or how one would create one within the iLife suite of programs, but I would like to echo the observations of the original query. When I impose Ken Burns effects on photos imported into iMovie from iPhoto, the result can be unwatchable. This is especially true with lines than with solid objects. I think what we're hoping for is a way to get around this rather than to join the ranks of the disaffected. Any ideas?
Leonard

IMovie HD 6 - Ken Burns effect ????

Does iMovie HD 6 have the Ken Burns effect for photos? I did not see it listed in the Effects menu. Thanks for the help.
PowerMac dual G5 Mac
Mac OS X (10.4.4)

After a little investigation I discovered that the Ken Burns effect is included in iMovie HD6. There is a separate control panel for the effect and it is semi-transparent and can be a little hard to recognize at first.
PowerMac dual G% Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Black window when revising Ken Burns effects on photos

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