Ken Burns issues in FCP X

I have a problem with the Ken Burns Effect in FCP X.  In the beginning and end of each clip I use the Ken Burns on has a ramp up and down, or slowly increases speed in the beginning of the clip and slows to a stop at the end of the clip.  I want it to just pan and zoom without and slowing or ramping.  I have experianced the same effect when using key framing.  iMovie's Ken Burns effect doesn't have this same slowing or ramping.  Am I missing some setting to turn this added effect off Ken burns and key framing in FCP X?  Please Help!!!
Thanks,
Brett

Although I'm not certain, I don't think the Ken Burns effect has the ability to adjust the ease in/ease out settings. I usually prefer to use those, however....here's the solution.
http://alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/smooth-move-fpx-effect/
Anybody using FCP X needs to get this. A free plugin called Smooth Move. It's like Ken Burns on steroids. The main points:
KB only works on the entire duration of a clip. SM gives you the options to hold at the beginning and/or end of the clip or photo and just move in between. And, I don't know the terms for this, but it does the scaling and positioning in a smooth professional way without the strange glitches if you scale and position at the same time using keyframes. And, best of all for you, it gives the option to make the moves constant or eased. In fact, you have separate ease/constant settings for position, scale, and rotation.
It's that good, and it's free - get it.

Similar Messages

  • Export a 'Ken Burns' Pic to FCP

    Moving pictures in FCP ***** as anyone who has FCP knows. Can I export an iMovie 'Ken Burns' pic to FCP?

    Hello awp,
    Moving pictures in FCP *** as anyone who has FCP knows
    New to me - just created a squence with multiple pictures and clips, all moving, keyframing, time-remapping, etc. Great results ... customer satisfied.
    But to answer your question:
    Exporting your clip (KB pic) via quicktime should do the trick. Export as full quality DV.
    hope this helps
    mish

  • How do I Ken Burns Video in FCP/FCE?

    I've looked around the internet for days. Someone please help!
    Is there anyway to Ken Burns VIDEO (not photos--I've seen a million tutorials on that)so there is a pan or zoom type effect.
    If anyone could help, THANKS!

    Hmm.... I remember the Apple II CS where internally they were calling the CS for Carl Sagan. He got mad and was going to sue so internally they changed the name to Apple II BA for Butthead Astronomer. We better watch out cause Ken's gonna get mad and then we will all have to quit calling it the Ken Burns effect and change it to something like BP (already has a bad connotation) for Boring Producer Effect.

  • Anyone Know Of A Free "Ken Burns" PlugIn For FCP HD?

    Any Suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

    Jim:
    Was it you who referred me to a link for a plug-in for about a hundred bucks (cheap price to pay, IMHO) that brought drag-and-drop simplicity for this feature to FCP?
    I have a lot of this to do, but I failed to bookmark your post (if it was you), and I would SORELY love to buy the program now. It was called Photo* something.
    The way I've gone is hand keyframing on each still, and it just takes a lot of time.
    Should I don protective clothing myself? What sort of weapons are we using? Is this like the Uma Thurman thing in Kill Bill where she rips out the only remaining eyeball of her vicious opponent?
    They've banned Halloween at my kids' local school in Newton, MA. I'm sorry if I sound crabby.
    Thanks for help or pointers; I don't want free stuff. I'm happy to pay people for the intense and serious work they do to make my life – and work – easier.
    – Joel.

  • Ken Burns Effects Don't Work in iMovie HD (I've Tried Everything)

    Version:
    OS X 10.4.10
    iMovie 6
    *Hardware 1:*
    PowerMac G4 Dual 500 Mhz, 1GB RAM, Internal 40GB HDD and Internal 320 GB HDD
    *Hardware 2:*
    PowerBook G4 500 Mhz, 512MB RAM, Internal 20 GB HDD
    Problem:
    This problem occurs on both of my G4 Macs. In iMovie HD, I imported a JPEG from iPhoto with Ken Burns Effects on. The still photo appeared properly in the Clip Viewer initially, but appeared as a black screen in the iMovie Monitor. Once the imported photo with the Ken Burns Effects completed rendering, the clip in the Clip Viewer turned white and appeared as a white screen in the iMovie Monitor. I have tried almost everything I read about in these forums in search of a resolution.
    *Resolutions that Failed:*
    1. The photo is definitely a .jpg
    2. Tried importing the actual .jpg file as well as importing from iPhoto.
    3. QuickTime and all other Software updates have been applied and are running on the most current release.
    4. Repaired disk permissions.
    5. Created, saved and manipulated the iMovie file in the standard Movie Folder on my main internal hard drive. (i.e. – I'm not saving to an external HDD)
    6. Created, saved and manipulated the iMovie file in the standard Movie Folder on my secondary internal hard drive. (i.e. – I'm not saving to an external HDD)
    7. Deleted the 'mac.imovie.plist' file and created a new one.
    8. Attempted to do apply the effects logged on as a different user.
    9. Saved file, restarted machine and reopened numerous times but the problem persists.
    10. Tried a lower resolution photo and the problem persists.
    11. Attempted to import all the photos I planned to use, added transitions to all of the clips and rendered completely. Saved the file, restarted the machine and reopened the file with no change to the blank clips.
    12. The iMovie trash emptying issue did nothing to help.
    *Additional Notes:*
    1. The problem is confined to the Ken Burns Effects in iMovie. I am able to work with true video clips without incident.
    2. Ken Burns Effects operate properly in iPhoto 6 using the slideshow functionality.
    3. I would use iPhoto, but it seems like it would be easier to line up specific sections of an audio track with certain Ken Burns Effects in iMovie. (i.e. – a crescendo at the 16 second mark of the audio track coincides with the end of a 'zoom' on a photo, transition from second 16-17 second mark, new photo at the 17 second mark and pan left to right from 17 second mark to the 25 second mark.) Point is that it lines up precisely with the markers on the audio track, which seems far easier to do in iMovie than iPhoto.
    4. Please help me, I'm going nuts troubleshooting this bug! I can't find any resolution that works.
    Thanks in advance for the help.
    Message was edited by: Charlie Brown Jr.

    Hmmm. You seem to have tried, without success, most if not all of the methods of resolving a Ken Burns black screen issue.
    Some thoughts that have occurred to me:
    1. Perhaps your G4 500mhz Mac is not fast enough. I think that the minimum spec for iLife '06 is 733mhz. Might have nothing to do with this problem, but I just mention it.
    2. Are the sizes of your images too large, as can happen with some of these new high def cameras? iMovie has trouble working with very large images.
    3. Do you have any 3rd pary plug-ins, particularly in Quick Time, that could be causing a conflict?
    4. Do you have enough disk space for the project to operate?
    5. Have you done a recent Quick Time update? Some users have reported a problem with that.
    6. From your post, it appears that you have continuously worked within the same iMovie file that exhibits the Ken Burns problem. If this is true, try creating a new iMovie project and experimenting with a few clips to see if the problem persists in the new project.
    Ken Burns issues can be very frustrating. I think that you will need to keep trying things until something works. Wish I could be more help, but perhaps some of the tech experts on this forum will have some workable suggestions.
    There is an application called Photo to Movie that reputedly has a far better Ken Burns type of effect. If you can't resolve your problem, you might try downloading that app. I believe that it offers a demo download.
    Good luck.

  • 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

  • Ken Burns Crashes FCP X

    I am currently on 10.0.7 of FCP X.  I have noticed this bug since the last release, but not prior to that.  This occurs on my MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 running MacOS 10.6.8) and also on my 11" MacBook Air.
    Basically, a third of the time that I add in a Ken Burns effect, the program crashes as soon as I go to adjust the START/END boxes.  The effect will still run as long as I don't touch the default positions of the boxes.  Once this occurs, I can not edit KB on that image, no matter how many times I restart FCP or the computer. 
    This is a relatively new issue to me that hasn't gone away.  I have seen a prior thread from a year ago on this topic (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3707812) but the suggestions all point to a user file size issue which I don't think is the case here.  It is clearly a FCP bug that perhaps the Mac application development folks don't see on the combination of hardware/OS that they are using.
    Any thoughts on this?  Does anyone else see this bug?
    Thanks in advance for any tips,
    -Todd

    Tom,
    This happens on most movies I edit, but it may have something to do with size as it is usually after I'm 90 seconds or so into the flick.  All my movies are 720P or 1080P and the content is either from a GoPro HD camera (any of the 3 generations) or my Nikon Coolpix S8100 (video and stills).
    Today I was reminded that this problem happens with Ken Burns cropping video in addition to stills, so it is not limited to the file type.  Seems tied to the KB effect and perhaps (?) the size of my project.  I just don't see it on video as often as I rarely use this effect.
    Would it be useful to post or email the crash information that FCP provides when it restarts?  I always submit it to Apple, FWIW.
    I do have my media on an external drive when running FCP.  I use a USB slim drive for the Air and a FW GDrive on the Pro.  It is possible that I only see this problem when running the USB slim drive, but I can't confirm that (I usually see it on the Air, but currently am using the slim drive on the Pro and see the problem.)

  • FCP - Ken Burns affect

    Is there a way to modify still images in FCP similar to the Ken Burns affect found in imovie?
    I have been unable to find anything in the manual.

    Here is a video tutorial from our resident guru Shane Ross:
    http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rossshane/movement_onstills.php
    These video tutorials are pretty good and there are loads of them on creative cow...a nice way to keep in touch with what's out there.
    Hope it helps...
    Susan.

  • Choppy Ken Burns screensaver.........Never had this issue before

    Maybe I've just been lucky to this point as I've had no issues whatsoever with the upgrade to v2.0.
    But I came home from Valentine's Day dinner with my family, went to the aTV and noticed something that I'd never seen before......a slightly choppy and "grabby" Ken Burns mosaic screensaver. I've never had this issue before, even when I was using the 40gb aTV a few short weeks ago.
    Also, I've noticed that the performance seems a bit sluggish in general as I navigate through the UI (ie unsmooth and choppy scrolling of artist and album titles and YouTube history). It's also choppy with the album artwork flow.
    This strikes me as odd as I didn't have this issue on the 40gb aTV but am having it now for the first time after the upgrade on a 160gb with over 100gb's of free space.
    My laptop PC(hosting iTunes) has been running without issue all the while.
    Any ideas here?
    Would a "reboot" do it?
    This issue here reminds me of when my office PC starts to get sluggish. I'll reboot and it will be fine. But right now, I'm still a bit paranoid about rebooting my aTV.
    (As info, I sync and never stream.)
    Message was edited by: Drum_Phil

    A restart shouldn't do any harm at all, since you sync everything make sure you don't restore.

  • IMovie for iPhone 4 - Ken Burns Effect Issue

    If I move the timeline to the start of my clip, the Ken Burns Start button is not available but the End button is. Start shows up at the end of my clips.
    When at the start of the clip then start should be available and at the end of the clip then End should be available. By it being reversed, this causes me to make my effects backwards of how I intended them to be.
    Is this a software bug or do I just not understand how to work this editor?

    Resist wrote:
    ... iMovie for iPhone 4
    to quote our forum's host Eric W.:
    The forum for iMovie for iOS 4 devices can be found here
    http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1379

  • No question, but a suggestion RE: Ken Burns

    Hey all,
    I couldn't find an appropriate place to leave "suggestions" for the Apple software gurus who are working on the next version of Final Cut Pro, so i thought I'd air it out here.
    It seems that many people utilize still photo montages in FCP projects, with pans and zooms ala Ken Burns. I myself have used them many times in many different genres of video projects (longform documentary, wedding/birthday videos, etc.) I'm curious why FCP does not include a more intuitive method for doing this, other than Motion keyframes, while lower-grade products like iMovie have the feature built in.
    What frustrates me the most is the supposed "control" we get with Motion keyframes; yet we also forfeit some control. This is most evident when zooming in/out of a still image. When you start zoomed in (i.e. put an inpoint Motion keyframe at 100% scale) and then zoom out, no matter how slow (outpoint keyframe at 50% scale), the image will always "accelerate" toward the outpoint. Even when using the Bezier curve handlers to ease in/out of the endpoints, it will always seem to "hurry" toward the zoomed out image.
    I know the reasons for this are mathematical: when the image is larger in the frame, parameters become magnified and more coarse, thus a 10% move while zoomed out is much faster than a 10% move zoomed in. Still, it seems unlike Apple to disregard the natural, intuitive, visual, human approach to this tool: our eyes should arrive at both inpoint and outpoint gently, rather than like screeching our brakes at a red light.
    I watch quite a bit of documentary television, and I can always spot when the production is using Final Cut Pro to zoom in/out of photos. The rates of acceleration, and the patterns created by the final render, are instantly recognizable for those who have been stared at FCP screens for enough hours.
    And while I recognize that there are plug-ins available to make zooms/pans more smooth, I am just curious why Apple did not take the time to incorporate this seemingly simple concept into their flagship video editing software.
    Anyone have any thoughts about this? Feel free to post or e-mail me.
    -Jared Pike
    [email protected]
    G5   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

    I use both FCP and After Effects for moves on photos, and I will have to agree that the acceleration is an issue. After Effects has "intelligent algorithms" to deal with this visual phenomenon...to slow down the zoom as it gets further away from the image. Avid has a plugin called PAN & ZOOM that does the same thing...used to have to use a third party app called MOVING PICTURE. That plugin is available for FCP as well.
    As for the ease in/ease out options...Iately I find that I rarely want the picture moves to start from a standstill and end on one. I want a constant move. However, I do occasionally want the picture to come to rest and sit for a moment from time to time. And FCP does allow for this, you just have to plan for it.
    But After Effects does a better job...and as I said, the speed of the zoom could be dealt with better. But post that at the link Pat provided.
    Shane

  • Zooming into video clip a la Ken Burns effect

    Sorry for what may be a dumb question with an obvious answer, but I've not ever seen this come up in any FCP forum.
    Does the "Ken Burns" effect also work on video clips? That is, if you have a one camera interview shot or tutorial, can you "zoom" in on the person as you might with a still photo? If I had a 2nd camera or some one to shoot for me, it would be less of an issue. But, just to have some movement occasionally instead of a static talking head would be nice. I suppose if overdone, focus and quaility issues would come into play.
    Thanks,
    Dave

    Tom Wolsky wrote:
    The explanation isn't quite right. Scaling is a logrithmic animation. An image at 100% scale fills the screen; when the image is at 50% scale it's a quarter size of the screen. This is why when you scale an image up it seems to get slower and slower as it scales up, and vice versa. Position on the other hand is a linear animation . The difference in the two is the problem.
    Tom, you have great experience of this, so I'm a little wary of criticising but are you sure? I see that when scaling an image its area does not vary linearly (technically it's quadratic, not logarithmic, I think) and this will produce the illusion of changing speed which you speak of. Nevertheless, any given point in the image will move with constant speed.
    On the other hand, position is not implemented linearly in FCP X. I set up a simple animation to test this, and at the start and end of the movement, the image's Y-coordinate changes by 2 pixels per frame of animation, whereas at the mid-point it changes by 6 pixels per frame: three times as fast.

  • Cannot get rid of Ken Burns effect on slideshow

    I have turned off Ken Burns effect when creating slideshow on my Mac Mini (the one that I share iPhoto libraries with Apple TV). I did the same in Apple TV.
    Still I have these funky effect that may fit some documehtaries, but is inappropriate to some other content... and one has to realize that (e.g. if you present photos from someones funeral you do not give some fancy effects to upset audience, right?)
    Isn't it a bug in software? Anyone had the same issue? Under what circumstances the checkboxes to turn it of in APPle TV and iPhoto are ignored by Apple TV?
    Thank you.

    I figured out how to do this.

  • FCE4 and iDVD Anamorphic Ken Burns

    I created a 60min movie in iMovie8 using three media: 1) NTSC Anamorphic DV from a Panasonic PV-GS80, 2) JPEG 2816x2112 stills from a Panasonic DMC-FX3, and 3) 848x480 motion JPEG video from the DMC-FX3. An iMovie 8 project in 16:9 aspect was burned to DVD by iDVD and viewed on a 16:9 LCD TV with no problems encountered and pretty decent quality.
    However, frustrated by the lack of basic features in iMovie, I purchased FCE4 after speaking with an Apple rep at Best Buy who assured me that it could import iMovie8 projects. Although I was carrying a disc with my iMovie project, I wasn't allowed to verify this in the store. Unfortunately, Apple's claim that iMovie8 projects can be imported into FCE4 is grossly misleading at best. They say "With iMovie ’08, putting together a great movie is as quick as drag and drop. When you want to add professional polish to your project, simply export to Final Cut Express 4 and edit like a pro." In fact, contrary to the FCE4 manual, iMovie8 projects cannot simply be opened: Incompatible files. Apple tech support told me iMovie8 projects must first be exported as XML.
    The truth is that iMovie8 projects must be tediously recreated for FCE4 because it can't use MP3 audio files (must recapture from CD's), it doesn't recognize transitions (must recreate Ken Burns effects from scratch), and DV NTSC video clips are captured by iMovie8 at a mysteriously bloated 6.4 MBps rate rather than the 3.6MBps they should be (must recapture all DV). Apple must retract its claims or fix its products to enable upwards migration.
    Nevertheless, having recreated 10 minutes worth of movie in ten days of experimentation and reading most of FCE's 1152-page manual, I have yet to produce acceptable output from FCE. Besides the frustrating discrepancies between the manual and actual FCE4 operation, my biggest problems have been to maintain the 16:9 aspect in iDVD, and to render still images (with modest Ken Burns motion) with any semblance of quality in the final output.
    The FCE4 project settings are DV-NTSC Anamorphic 48KHz. Anamorphic video from the PV-GS80 is captured at 720x480pix, 29.97fps, DV/DVCPRO NTSC, 3.6MBps, 16-bit audio, NTSC pixels, Ana=Yes, Field=Lower (even). Stills are imported at 2816x2112pix, 29.97fps, Photo-JPEG, Square pix, Ana=No, Field=None. Motion JPEG is captured at 848x480pix, 30fps, Photo-JPEG, 1.6MBps, 8KHz x 8-bit audio, Square pix, Field=None.
    All these media appear correctly in 16:9 aspect within FCE4. However, unlike iMovie8, when FCE4 exports as QTMovie, the movie is not recognized as anamorphic by iDVD, so it is burned in a horizontally compressed 4:3 aspect. Why are there no options or controls when exporting as QTMovie, which seems to be the only way to avoid unnecessary processing and image degradation?
    Experimenting with FCE4's Export Using Quicktime Conversion, I was able to export the movie at 848x480, but at a huge cost in time for unnecessary transcoding and the resultant degradation in image quality.
    Experimenting with the Anamorphicizer third-party software that this BBS recommends to solve the incompatibility between FCE and iDVD, I found that the anamorphic aspect is recognized properly by iDVD, but still images are now unacceptably stretched horizontally. This seems like a poor solution to a simple problem of incompatibility within Apple's own products.
    Most recently I stumbled upon the observation that if a FCE4 sequence begins with a few frames of anamorphic DV from the Panasonic PV-GS80, this sequence can be exported as a QTMovie which iDVD will recognize as anamorphic, resulting in a DVD with the correct aspect. This doesn't always work, e.g. if the audio is removed from those few frames, or if their opacity is set to 0% to hide them. It reminds me of the Auto Conform feature in FCE4, but my Preference/Edit/AutoConform=Ask, and FCE4 has never asked. Furthermore, this works even if AutoConform=Never. Unfortunately, I don't want to start my movie with a DV clip but with a still, and this results in a 4:3 movie in iDVD. Furthermore, this "fix" doesn't seem to stick: after editing, the sequence can revert to 4:3 in iDVD for unknown reasons. I can find no mention of this behavior in the docs, and FCE4 shows no differences in properties between these sequences, so I don't know why it happens. Nevertheless, it seems preferable to Anamorphicizer, because still images are not stretched. Can anyone tell me why this happens so that I can control it predictably?
    My biggest remaining issue is that FCE4 renders still images with Ken Burns slow pans and zooms unacceptably poorly. First, some images but not others seem to have gross interlace distortion throughout the clip, as if the JPEG were interlaced. It seems like this problem develops after editing even for stills that once looked OK. Adding the Deinterlace filter merely softens the distorted images. Oddly enough, adding the Deinterlace filter or the Shift Fields filter and then deselecting it seems to fix the problem. I've tried changing the Field Dominance setting on stills from None, but no help. Since the original JPEG is progressive, this seems like an FCE bug. How can I avoid this distortion in the first place?
    Finally there is the issue that Ken Burns style pans and zooms create unacceptable aliasing and shimmering in the output, even if the motion is minimal. Easing zooms by changing Scale fast at first then slowing down doesn't help. Easing pans by changing in several steps (because the Center parameter can't have Bezier controls) makes the aliasing even more noticeable by changing the rate of shimmering in discrete steps. When still images contain significant detail and linear edges, there seems to be no level of Ken Burns motion that will result in a reasonable image on DVD. Why are these artifacts so much worse than with iMovie?
    As a newcomer to FCE4, I am very disappointed in Apple's failure to ensure a reasonable migration path from iMovie. Perhaps they have forgotten how the basic "bait and switch" strategy is supposed to work! I hope someone here can help more than two hours of hold time with Apple Tech Support helped me. I would be interested in any recommendations for other vendors' products that produce better results with less aggravation. If not, I am about ready to get my money back for FCE4!

    "This will explain what you can do about this..."
    I shouldn't be required to purchase QTPro just to fix the anamorphic bit in the movies exported by FCE, especially when iMovie8 sets the bit properly. Seems like an obvious FCE bug to me. Tom, any thoughts on why a segment with an anamorphic clip first is handled properly?
    "Where are you seeing the image degradation? Are you looking at the output on a video monitor?"
    I'm editing using a 21" ViewSonic LCD monitor, but then I burn DVD's to view on an LCD HDTV. The artifacts are apparent on both displays.
    " Changing anamorphic values after the material has been edited into the sequence will result in image stretching."
    I assume you mean setting the Anamorphic bit on my JPEG stills: I haven't done that. I'm saying that after using Anamorphicizer, some still images were definitely stretched horizontally. I created these by simply dragging a folder of JPEG images to the FCE browser. Other than setting the still duration default, I don't know what else I should do.
    "If you add motion to the images interlacing will be introduced. "
    I understand, but it is much worse on some images than others, so I'm trying to understand how I can minimize the ugliness of aliasing and shimmering. On some still images, FCE seems to me to have started with two mismatched frames, so that very exaggerated aliasing appears consistently throughout the clip, seemingly independent of the motion. I suspect data corruption in FCE, and I remember a warning in the manual about corruption being caused by copying sequences too many times, but can't find it now. Could this be my problem?
    I've also found that even though FCE claims to be a reference editor, not touching the original files, there is a problem with handling portrait versus landscape JPEGS. After importing JPEGs, sometimes the FCE image matches the file in the Finder, and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have found that if I rotate the Finder file, Save it, then Rotate it back and Save again, FCE will finally get its version rotated correctly. This never works by only changing the source file one time: I must do it twice.
    "If you're uncomfortable or unhappy with the application you might be better off using another one."
    I am mostly disappointed that FCE seems to be so out of sync with other Apple apps, and perhaps buggier than many. My guess is that iMovie and FCE are on a collision course instead of a rational product relationship. I would be happy for any recommendations, because I feel that the time I've invested in learning to use this seemingly overly embellished software may not have been well spent. On the other hand, if someone can correct my misunderstandings, I will be very grateful.

  • Wavy movement of Ken Burns

    I know similar issues have been brought up with the Ken Burns affect being choppy but I haven't seen anyone point out that they're seeing it as 'wavy'.
    What I see is that photos with contrasting lines in them (in this case, kitchen cabinets against walls) look like they're wavy when panning with the Ken Burns affect. Its almost nausiating.
    Is there ANY way to do away with this? It seems to be much worse once the video is transitioned to DVD using iDVD and played on either a computer or a TV.

    You problem is not the same as the link above described (i.e. the old iMovie bug which renders jaggy stills from _non-Ken Burnsed_ images).
    You applied Ken Burns so those images should be immune to THAT problem.
    I guess what you are seeing is suboptimal subpixel rendering with Ken Burns. Sometimes the images may by TOO sharp so they induce interlace flicker when viewed on a TV. This is caused by the fact that a thin and sharp 1-line vertical object is visible only half of the time and even a 2-line vertical object may seem to jump up and down on an interlaced TV (see interlace flicker):
    http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/fields/fields.html
    Some applications intentionally slightly blur images to reduce the flicker (Photo To Movie's higher quality setting, for example). Also in Toast Titanium 7 the output doesn't flicker.
    You can reduce interlace flicker on a TV with image editing applications. One nice approach is to slightly blur the input still image with 90° (vertical) Motion Blur (use 1 pixel value to PAL/NTSC 576/480 vertical input resolutions -- if the vertical resolution of the input still is larger you have to increase the filter's pixel value accordingly. For example: if the input still is 2048 x 1536, use 3 pixel value in the filter because 1536/576=2.7).
    The idea is to cut down on vertical resolution (excess of which causes interlace flicker on an interlaced TV) without compromising horizontal resolution. Another method is to apply a small Gaussian blur to the image. Just using a smaller resolution (640x480) in the input images also prevents flicker but the images may appear slightly fuzzy instead (and you really should not zoom into such low resolution image with Ken Burns).
    So: you might try Photo To Movie instead of Ken Burns and see if it is any better. AFAIR there is a Photo To Movie demo.

Maybe you are looking for