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

Similar Messages

Photos on timeline showing black when using ken burns effect

My photos in the project are not visible in the preview window when selecting'show settings' after the ken burns effect has been applied. The arrow moves but the screen is black.
Any ideas ??

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

Here's how to make an iDVD with no flicker using Ken Burns Effect

iPhoto renders the Ken Burns effect as smoothy as can be - no flicker
iMovie does a poor job of rendering the Ken Burns Effect - much flicker
so
1. Make a slide show in iPhoto. Single out only those slides that have the Ken Burns Effect. Each of these slides is turned into a Slide Show of just one slide at a time.
2. Each single slide with the Ken Burns effect is adjusted for time, etc. and then exported into a QuickTime Movie - a movie consisting of only one slide.
3. Save all the individual movies into one folder (for convenience).
4. In iMovie (I use 06) , assemble the slide show - but only include all the slides that have no Ken Burns Effect.
5. Drag each of the single-slide movies into the iMovie clip pane, and then place them where you want between the other slides.
6. Play the iMovie and see how smoothly ALL the slides play.
7. Send the entire iMovie over to iDVD and burn it. Make sure the "Interlace" feature (File Menu -Interlace) is NOT checked.
8. All the Ken Burns slides will be rendered with hardly any flicker.

Like most iLife 08 owners I use iMovie 06.
Do you believe that your procedure will work the same way using iMovie 06 with iDVD 08?

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)

I made a slide show in imovie using ken burns effect and when i transfer it to idvd the background shimmers. Is there a way around this?

If anyone has done this before and knows how to keep ken burns and lose the shimmer I would appreciate your help.

Add some blur to the image. I know it sounds crazy, but blurring the photo will reduce the flicker on a TV. DVDs are really low res. and by reducing the image detail will help prevent line flicker.

Shimmering of stills when using Ken Burns

I know Ken Burns did not invent panning, zooming, and movement in stills, but I think everyone know what I’m referring to.
I’m using FCP Studio 1, yes, it’s old and not supported by Apple any more, but it is more than enough for me.
On the stills that I set the keyframes for movement, during the movement the faces of the individuals were blurry and the entire still seemed to shimmer.
I have seen that in smaller amounts before, but this particular project there seemed to be much more.
What am I doing wrong?
Hank Kearns

The flickering is an artifact of the interlaced nature of video. It is a result of very thin (often horizontal) elements that exist on one scanline as is common in text or titling. This can also be the case in scanned images with great deal of detail with high contrast.
As the alternate fields play, the flashing element is essentially being turned on/off. The basic strategy is to get the element to exist over two scanlines so it is refreshed every time the field plays or to reduce the amount of contrast so the difference between ON and OFF is not noticeable.
Things to try (In increasing order of image degradation)
• (in FCP) field order>none
• (in FCP or Photoshop) reduce whites by 10% - reduces overly bright areas
• (in FCP) flicker filter - minimum
• (in Photoshop) motion blur>vertical> .2 - .5 pixels - blurs vertically only
• (In FCP or Photoshop) Gaussian blur> .2 - .5 pixels -blurs both horizontally as well as vertically
• (in FCP or Photoshop) deinterlace - throws away half the image and is generally not appropriate on scanned images
Remember: Unless you are viewing your work in the appropriate external NTSC/PAL monitor, you are playing blind. The computer monitor only shows you a proxy image.
If you have slowed your material significantly, and have not used some sort of frame blending/optical flow processing, you may be simply duplicating frames to create the additional material to pad the playback. The flashing you see is the result of this.
good luck.
x

Exporting slideshow to .mov file using Ken Burns looks low res?

I've created a slide show using the Ken Burns effect exclusively, and after I export as an .mov file and pull that into iDVD (or watching it in QT player) the moves look like a very low resolution image was used instead of the high res files that I know are there. Any ideas of how to fix this? or is this just the way iPhoto handles the files when using Ken Burns FX.

Have your tried the procedure that seems to solve a variety of problems for the iLife applications? Quit iPhoto and delete your iPhoto preferences. To do this, go to your username> library> preferences> com.apple.iphoto.plist. Delete this file. Then reopen iPhoto; it will create a new preference file with all of the default settings.
Ken Burns also...images do not fit to screen any more.
I am not aware of an option to make the Ken burns effect "fit to screen". This effect is applied in a somewhat random fashion, so what you see on one playing of your slideshow can be slightly different when viewed again. You can avoid undesirable changes, like cutting off the tops of heads, by manually applying the KB effect to photos in question. The control is at the bottom of the window when in the slideshow mode. When you are satisfied with the way the slideshow looks, export it as a QuickTime movie.
I hope this helps.

IMovie HD6 Ken Burns Effect Not working

Hi. I've been using iMovie HD6 with my old iMacG4. We used Ken Burns Effect a lot with no problems.
I just got a 1 year old G5 iMAC with Intel Dual Processor and it has the latest versions of Tiger and iMovie 06. Everything works but the Ken Burns Effect. When I use the Ken Burns effect, it shows up when I set it up but when I push the button to make iMovie render the effect, the clinic does not render. It looks like the computer is about to render the effect but nothing happens and I need to force quit iMovie to do anything else. On the set-up of the Ken Burns effect, the preview shows the Ken Burns effect working.
I had a previous version of iLife O6 so I tried deleting the iMovie from the application and reloading the iLife 06 but this did not help. Because I don't have iLife 08, I cannot download a version of iMovie O6 to give this a try.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your help, Andy

Since you just got a one year old computer, I would do the following:
1. Close iMovie and trash the file com.apple.iMovie.plist located in User/Library/Preferences. iMovie will create a new .plist file on relaunch.
2. Before you relaunch iMovie, do a permissions repair using the Disk Utility app on your Mac.
3. Make sure that you have sufficient free disk space for iMovie to operate efficiently -- 25GB is recommended.
4. Update iMovie and Quicktime to current versions, and do a permissions repair afterwards.
5. If you have any 3rd party plug-ins, or Quicktime plug-ins, move them to another folder to temporarily disable them.
With the Ken Burns effect, do not empty the trash until your project is finished. Emptying the trash will cause you to be unable to edit a photo to which the Ken Burns effect has been applied.
Hope the above helps.

IMovies problem with Ken Burns effect.

When I use Ken Burns effect in IMovies, the bricks of a house, the line of a shirt, ... are kind of vibrating. In Aperture 3, it is ok. Is that a known problem with IMovies ?
Lombarr1.

I have seen that in older editions - like iMovie 6 - especially when using pics at a high resolution - the water or sky seemd to shimmer. Funny I'm using iMovie 11 now and some things I liked better in 6, but you bring to mind something that bugged me (though people would ask - "How did you get that to happen?")

Ken Burns effects with stills

I am trying to superimpose images with Ken Burns effects. I have one still that takes up my full frame (rectangle, 16:9). I also have smaller photos superimposed on the first that are placed in other parts of the frame. I can size these other images to any dimensions if I don't use effects, but as soon as I try to use Ken Burns effects on the smaller images, Final Cut is forcing the image to 16:9. This is particularly awkard if the image is a still with portait orientation as opposed to landscape.
Any ideas what I can do? Was not an issue with Final Cut Express.

In Image/Wireframe mode, holding down shift causes resize to be unconstrained when dragging the corners. Have you tried simply dragging the corners of the video without holding down shift? This works for me on my system, although my default method is to use the scroll wheel on my trackball to change the values for scale in the motion tab.
shoots808

When i create a slideshow in iphoto using the ken burns effect it will not work in idvd. any tips please.

when i create a slideshow in iphoto with the ken burns effect it works fine. when i then transfer it to idvd it will not work. any tips please.

With the amount of information you've provided it's impossible to offer a solution. We can't see your computer so we need to know the details of your problem and setup, i.e.:
what version of iPhoto are you using?
what system version are you running?
how are you getting the slideshow into iDVD?
what size slideshow did you send to iDVD?
can you export the slideshow to the Desktop and play it with Quicktime Player there?
what fixes have you tried?
how much free space on your boot drive?
Here's how you should create and sent a slideshow to iDVD from iPhoto:
Export the slideshow out of iPhoto as a QT movie file via the Export button in the lower toolbar. For iPhoto 9.4.3 and earlier select Size = Medium or Large. For iPhoto 9.5 and later selct 480p.
Open iDVD, select a theme and drag the exported QT movie file into the open iDVD window being careful to avoid any drop zones.
Follow this workflow to help assure the best quality video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

Can I turn the Ken Burn Effect off when using the iMovie app on my iPod touch 5th generation?

I have an iPod touch 5th generation and I'm trying to make a movie using the iMovie app. When I put an image on there it moves from side to side and zooms in and out. I believe this is called the "Ken Burn Effect". Is there any way that I can turn the Ken Burn Effect off without having to adjust the image position and zoom level to be the same for the start and end points?

Hello MisfitxCaleb
Unfortunately, the Ken Burns Effect cannot be turned off in iMovie for iOS. Like you mentioned above, having the photo at the same start and end point is the best way to make it appear as if it isn't moving/zooming.

Stills using the Ken Burns effects are bad quality

The high quality still I'm inserting into the timeline using the Ken Burns effects are bad quality. Do you know why? I don't have that problem in iMovie.

Yes, I have rendered it (I think). Not sure how to do that and don't know how to get the "complete specs" of the still image and project.

Ken Burns effect makes photos shimmer when playing, Why?

When viewing a slideshow type project using the Ken Burns effect in iMovie,the photos sort of shimmer, which can distort the picture. Is this normal? Is there something that I am not doing, or something I can do to fix this problem?
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).

Why is ken burns effect not working on individual slides I have amended when sent to iDVD

When making a slideshow in iPhoto, I changed the zoom and scan on individual slides as instructed in the Help dialog; these showed perfectly when played. However, when I shared the slideshow to iDVD, those particular slides were just 'still' and there was no Ken Burns effect at all. Why did this happen?

The Slideshow was created in iPhoto and then shared to iDVD. The Ken Burns effect works on all the photos that used the basic "Ken Burns' setting. However, on some of the photos I tried to amend the scanning to zoom into particular faces or parts of the photo. When I played the slideshow in iPhoto, these amended photos were exactly as I wanted, but after 'sharing' it and viewing it in iDVD, those photos I had altered were 'frozen' and the Ken Burns effect did not work at all, neither the automatic version, nor the specific way I had set it. All the other photos still had the Ken Burns effect as expected. I am using iPhoto 11, 9.1.5, I haven't had this problem in the past.
If you have any ideas why this should have happened I'd be grateful.
Thanks

Low quality when using Ken Burns effect

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