A few questions on FCE. Advice please.

Question

Hello. I used iMovie 06 HD few days ago to combine a series of quicktime movies into one (with added music and titles). I was able to do it easily without any help. The only problem is that the characters in the animated titles looked fuzzy. So, I went out to buy iMovie 09 hoping that the problem would have been fixed in the new version.
I have tried iMovie09 for a few hours. I am completely lost even I have read the manual and watched the tutorial. First, I cannot import Quicktime movies nor movie created by iMovie 06 HD. Second, it seems that there are less control in title animations. In iMovie 06 HD, I could change several aspects (such as moving direction) of the title animations. I cannot do it under iMovie 09. Moreover, it seems that my favor title animation type "Bouncing Across" is gone in iMovie 09.
In my case, is it better to go for Final Cut Express? Can anybody please check if FCE has "Bouncing Across" title animation? Does FCE has the problem of outputing movie files with degraded/fuzzy characters in the titles? Finally, do you expect FCE 5 to be out soon (say next week)? Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi there,
The fuzzy titles would be something to ask about on the iMovie forums. Personally, I would never use iMovie '09 because of how many features and how much versatility was lost in the revamping of iMovie HD.
As to FCE, there are several ways to create titles. You can either use the normal Text tool, the Boris 3D plugin (this is very powerful for creating titles), or the companion program LiveType to create the titles. Titles should not look fuzzy if created correctly.
Can anybody please check if FCE has "Bouncing Across" title animation?
Here's the thing to understand about FCE: it works in a way that is completely different from the iMovies. There are very few pre-made animations, but FCE gives you the power to create your own animations. Both FCE and LiveType (which comes with it) have the ability to "keyframe" your text, video, etc. In essence this means you define for the program how you want the text to look at a certain time, and how you want it to look at a later time or times. FCE then creates the animation between the two keyframes. I just looked at the "Bouncing Across" title in iMovie HD, and that same look can be created by keyframing in either FCE or LiveType.
Finally, do you expect FCE 5 to be out soon (say next week)?
Unfortunately, we are not allowed to speculate about future Apple products on this forum as it violates the [Terms of Use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa#terms] for the Apple Discussions. However, FCE is generally a selection of parts of the "big-brother" program, Final Cut Pro. So it is safe to assume that there won't be another version of FCE released until at least a few months after the release of Final Cut Studio 3, whenever that may be.