Photo montage Ken Burns effect w/ variable intervals synced to music cues

I was thinking of buying Final Cut Pro to create a photo montage because iMovie does not let you define the specific timings for each photo montage. For example, I need one photo to show for 3 seconds and transition to another photo that lasts 5 seconds because of the way the music flows.
I start with music and I'm adding photos to specific points of music changes.
My question: the tutorials I've found on google all use Final Cut Pro. Can I accomplish the same task with the cheaper Express version?
Here are the tutorials that show what I want to do:
http://www.geniusdv.com/newsandtutorials/2008/08/photo-montage-to-the-music-with-final-cut-pro.php
http://www.geniusdv.com/newsandtutorials/2008/05/ken-burns-effect-photo-montage-in-final-cut-pro.php
Can I use the techniques described in those 2 links in Final Cut EXPRESS?
Thanks for the info.

Tom Wolsky wrote:
This information is probably obsolete. FCE supports 1920x1080.
Now I'm confused about FCE max resolution. I found this soundbite on the web... a user says:
"There is also the consideration that FCE 4.0x won't natively export 1920x1080, which I think is very disappointing -- the software engine is limited to 1440x1080. FCP does true HD from what I understand."
I'm not sure if he's saying the FCE "engine" doesn't support 1920x1080 or if AIC doesn't support 1920x1080 or something else.

Similar Messages

IMovie Crashing when importing photo with Ken Burns Effect

iMovie is crashing all the time when I am trying to import a photo with Ken burns effect using media browser and hitting "apply". Is this a known problem ? If I dont apply Ken Buruns effect then it imports it fine.
I am trying to put Photo at the begining of my project ( and then put title on that photo). If I have any clip in the begining and then try importing photo with ken burn's effect then it is not crashing, but it still does not import it. I click "apply" and it does soemthing , I can see the clip in timeline for a sec and then it disappears. So either way, cant use any photos anywhere with Ken Burn's effect. Whats going on?
I have more than enough space available on my HDD and I do not think there is any conflicting QT plugins I have ( It's all default Install). This is so consistent that it seems like a Bug but can't find this exact case mentioned anywhere in discussions.
Powerbook G4 12.1" 1.5Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Welcome to the forum! And thanks for such an insightful post.
I have two guesses here:
o The Ken Burns code of iMovie has a problem with partitions
o The Ken Burns code of iMovie has a problem with access rights
I've never seen a Ken Burns problem with partitions (I've used multiple partitions for years with no problems). I suspect that's not the cause.
But I think you've hit the nail on the head that iMovie may have a problem with permissions/access rights. I don't know exactly what the problem is — or whether it's caused by iMovie or OSX — but there is behavior that suggests something isn't right.
I suspect the issue, whatever it is, causes a failure to save the rendered Ken Burns clip inside the project package. The red bar runs, but the rendered clip isn't saved to disk. My guess is OSX refuses to allow iMovie to save the file for OSX doesn't believe YOU have permission.
One would think that using the Finder to set the permissions of the project package would solve the problem, but it doesn't seem to.
There are two possible solutions:
1. Set the partition to ignore permissions. In the Finder, click on the partition and Get Info. Turn ON the checkbox "Ignore permissions on this volume";
2. Use Disk Utility to reformat (erase) the partition. Somehow that seems to fix the problem.
Here's some history which may suggest another solution: In an earlier version of iMovie a similar problem occurred, where iMovie would refuse to open a project. It had somehow decided you didn't have permission to edit the project.
The only solution was to use the Finder to create a new set of project folders — a folder and all the folders it normally contains — then Option-drag the FILES of the original project folder to the appropriate folders. (Option-dragging COPIED the files instead of moving them.) The new project folder would now open normally.
If you are adept at working with packages, you might try creating your own package (which contains all the normal folders) then Option-drag the files of the problem project to your package.
Once I saw an error -52 announcement, but it was not reproducible.
Error -52 is a "Get file position error", which (may) suggest a disk directory error. That may be a disk issue unrelated to iMovie. You might want to consider using Disk Utility to Verify/Repair that partition.
I have a separate partition for the movies and made a
link from my home account to the directory with the
movies on that partition. iMovie works correctly
except for the Ken Burns photo rendering.
I'm never sure whether creating such a link is a good idea or not, especially for the iLife apps. Some apps don't resolve the alias as they should, which creates other problems. A "Movies" alias sends iDVD a million miles beyond Jupiter, for example, where the iDVD project joins the space dust.
For iMovie projects saved on partitions and external drives, I just save them inside a "iMovie 6 Projects" folder on that drive. (Every new version of iMovie gets a new folder.) For convenience, I may create aliases to help navigate there, but do nothing else. Everything just works.
If you figure out something new, please say.
Karl

Mixing photos with Ken Burns effect with 'still' photos

I am just beginning to experiment with iMovie '09. My medium is still photographs and my goal was to create a movie with these photographs, and send them to iDVD to test the quality of the final images.
I have 3 questions.
1. I started by using about 10 photos from iPhoto, then adding music and transitions. I used the same 10 slides, same music and transitions to make a second movie, but this time I used the Ken Burns effect on two of the photos. When I moved the movies to iDVD, the first one was fine, but in the second one, the 'jaggies' appeared in the iDVD version. Is it an 'all or none' proposition regarding the Ken Burns effect if I want to avoid images with jagged edges or is there a way to combine moving and still images?
2. The first time I tried to send the movie to iDVD I chose Share>iDVD. A drop down window appeared and it looked as if a movie had been created but when I opened the media/movies pane in iDVD, a message appeared saying "the project can't be used because it has not been prepared for sharing yet." What was actually happening when I chose Share>iDVD?
3. I have been reading other posts about sharing from iMovie to iDVD. Am I understanding correctly that I the largest size I can go to is 'medium'? In my experiments, I have been choosing 'large' and they look OK. (I chose 'large' because that was what was modelled in the tutorial.) Would I have trouble when it comes to burning them?

Is it an 'all or none' proposition regarding the Ken Burns effect if I want to avoid images with jagged >edges or is there a way to combine moving and still images?
You should be able to combine.
Open iMovie Preferences and put a check mark next to "Display Time as HH:MM:SS:Frames". This lets you edit more accurately and if there is an extraneous Ken Burns Frame you can see it.
he first time I tried to send the movie to iDVD I chose Share>iDVD. A drop down window appeared >and it looked as if a movie had been created but when I opened the media/movies pane in iDVD, a >message appeared saying "the project can't be used because it has not been prepared for sharing >yet." What was actually happening when I chose Share>iDVD?
Try saving your movie to either iTunes or the Media Browser first. When you send straight to iDVD it is expected DV or AIC or h.264. With photos only, none of these exist.
After sharing to the media browser or iTunes, if Share to iDVD still isn't working, you can open iDVD, find your movie in the Media Browser, and bring it into iDVD from there.
I have been reading other posts about sharing from iMovie to iDVD. Am I understanding correctly >that I the largest size I can go to is 'medium'? In my experiments, I have been choosing 'large' and >they look OK. (I chose 'large' because that was what was modelled in the tutorial.) Would I have >trouble when it comes to burning them?
Both will work. DVDs are 480i, so if you send in large, iDVD has to downscale. You may want to try it both ways to see which gives you better results.

Imovie will not render photos with ken burns effect

I have started to produce a video and have tried to import photos from both iphotos and straight from desktop however when i do this the red bar showing the state of rendering does not move. The photo will not render and therfor i am unable to use the ken burns effect. Could anyone please give me any idea of what i am doing wrong.
Thanks.

Hi
What file type is Your photos eg .tiff, .pict or .jpg ?
What size are they eg 1Mb, 10Mb or 100Mb ?
How much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disc ?
Ps When ready - Don't use Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie. Just drop Your movie icon
(with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
OR - Your movie project in iMovie will be harmed and You'll have to re-do it ! ! AND
the DVD disc will be severely pixelated - extreme low quality Ds
Yours Bengt W

Stutter when playing back photos with Ken Burns effects

I am new to iMovie (& Macs) and am trying to replicate some complex motion on a still photo that I had on my PC with Adobe Premiere.
The motion I would like is to pan and/or zoom around a photo, then pause at the end of the motion for a few seconds before transitioning to the next photo. I tried to do this by basically using two paired clips:
1) add ken burns effects to the clip to accomplish the pan/zoom
2) copy the clip
3) on the copy, use the option key to transfer the settings from the "End" to the "Start" (which should make the clip motionless, but give it the same zoom and location settings as the end of the first clip)
4) set the second clip duration to a few seconds (first clip is generally between 6-10 seconds originally)
Sometimes this works great, but other times I get an inexplicable stutter between the two clips (both during playback on my computer or in the finished DVD), even though theoretically, the frames should be exactly the same between the two clips. It seems to happen after I've added transitions between photos (but not between the 2 paired clips that make up the motion), after it's re-rendered items.
Does anyone know why I would be getting this stutter (it looks like a flash of white, actually, that is only 1 frame long) ? When I walk through the movie, frame by frame, it looks like somehow I am actually getting a single white frame at the end of the first clip, but I have no idea where this frame is coming from or how to get rid of it.
Is there a better way to accomplish this type of motion ? I did some searching, but didn't find any topics on doing complex motions - has anyone seen any.
Thanks for any help.

I have had something similar happen in my slideshows. I would first check to see if you have a flash frame between the photos (which I've found sometimes randomly occurs for some unknown reason). You can enlarge the timeline as big as possible to see if you have one and just delete it. But I've also had a flash of white that appears at the end of a photo that is not a flash frame on the timeline. The only way I've figured to get rid of it is to delete the photo and re-insert it. Which is a pain, but has worked for me.

Jaggies in Ken Burns effect

My Photos with Ken Burns effect usually have jaggies to one degree or another. I had same problem with windows programs (Roxio EMC 8, Adobe Premier and Studio Media by Pinnacle). I just bought an iMac because all of those programs would crash too often, and their Pan and Zoom effects produced jaggies. Apple has such a good reputation for video that I assumed their programs would not have the same problems. The good news is that the iMac has not crashed at all. The bad news is that the pan and zoom produces jaggies in complex pictures (flower gardens) or in pictures with a lot of lines (sail boats). I have read the boards here (thanks Karl !!) and I have tried many of the remedies (render in iDvd not iMovie, import with effect on, etc.,) but the results are still very very disappointing. it is almost misleading to say that you can add motion to a picture when the quality suffers so much on so many pictures.
But this isnt a rant - just a question. What do I need to produce a quality pan and zoom effect on a photo if cost is not a big issue? Is there an upgrade for Idvd or iMovie? Would Final Cut Express or Pro produce a better product? Would more memory help (I have 512 mb)? What do the pros use? I am willing to throw dollars to solve this problem but I dont know where to throw them.

Hi Mardot - welcome to Apple, and to this forum!
It might be worth looking at either Still Life, or Photo to Movie before trying the expensive FC route. Both of these applications create very good pan and zoom effects that can be later integrated into an imovie project.
http://www.grantedsw.com/still-life/
http://www.lqgraphics.com/phototomovie.php
You probably should up-grade your imovie. imovie 6 is part of the iLife 6 suite of applications, which includes iDVD as well. Just be aware that iMovie 6, or indeed FC uses 'non-destructive' editing which needs much more storage space.
It would be a good idea also to list your computer model, RAM etc in your profile as this will then appear at the bottom of your posts. It can be helpful when diagnosing problems.

Is it possible to undo the Ken Burns effect on all photos at once in iMovie, rather than clicking "crop" and "fit" on each individual photo?

Is it possible to undo the Ken Burns effect on all photos at once in iMovie, rather than clicking "crop" and "fit" on each individual photo?

Hey Villiam, Kevin is referring to setting a movement on a photo setting keyframes (like zoom out to in), right-clicking on Motion, and choose save as preset. This will put that movement into your presets folder under Effects. I am going to try this on my next montage and see if I can find some efficiencies. Thanks Kevin, that was a great tip!!!
Also thanks to Jim. I spent like 30 min looking at all the keyboard shortcuts. It's a little overwhelming to establish a solid shortcut format that a team of editors can learn and use. I'm going to be trying the FCP short cuts, then go back to the default. It looks like the PR default has a lot of existing and helpful shortcuts assigned already. It's just going to take getting used to a new platform.
I'm still looking for tools and/or methods to allow an editor to assemble a 60 second montage with 10 photos, VO and music in 30 minutes. It's going to be a challenge but I think it's possible with the right innovative process. I'll still challenge anyone to find a way to quickly assemble a montage in an assembly line or template-based fashion using Adobe Premiere CC where there's on-screen text, advanced transitions, timed to VO, etc.
I think I'm dreaming for a tool to automatically do this within Premiere, while I think the answer for now might just be customizing motion presets and creating a favorites folder of transitions that can be dragged onto each clip. I'll see if there’s a way to apply a set of transitions or motion presets to a series of photos on the timeline opposed to doing it one by one. I can see this solution being important as video montages are becoming more popular in our industry, and the faster we can make them using a professional software package like Premiere the more prosperous we will be.

Ken Burns Effect - Variable vs. Constant Speed

On a test slideshow I worked on in iPhoto, I noticed that the Ken Burns effect uses a "variable" motion. Meaning if I'm utilizing the zoom effect, it'll start out slow, then speed up, then slow down again for each photo. However, I just want a constant speed zoom for each photo.
Is there away to have the Ken Burns effect zoom (and/or pan) with a constant speed?

100 brownie points to Terrabay! LOL
For those that don't know how Terrabay arrived at his solution: iMovie DOES let you dictate how long your transition (for ANY transition) is when you put it into your show. When you press editing and go into transitions drag the transition you want into your time line - you can adjust how long you want it to be and which direction you want it to go before you put it in your show, and if youve already put it in but want to lengthen/shorten it, just click on your transition in the time line, make the change and press UPDATE. Simple.

How do I get rid of the Ken Burns effect on my photos

I would like to get rid of the Ken Burns effect on my photos I addes to my video. How do I do that

When you create a New Project and give it a name, the next thing you should always do is go to File>Project Properties and make sure in 'Initial Photo Placement you have selected either Fit or Crop. It seems the default setting is the Ken Burns annoyance.

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?
Thanks,
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.

Photo Settings not showing up; cannot remove Ken Burns effect

Hello,
Earlier today, I selected the photo setting button and a little box showed up with the Ken Burns effect options in it, however now when I select photo settings, the only thing that shows up is the preview of the of photo zooming/panning. Please help... how do I get back to that little box so I can remove the Ken Burns effect from my photos! Thanking you!

Also having the same problem. When going to show photo settings, it shows black screen. Un checking Ken Burns and updating does nothing. All photos in slide show have same super zoom of Ken Burns with no way to remove it or alter it.
iMovie HD broken, iMovie 08 ***... The only reason I purchased Mac was for handling media and I end up doing projects on my old pc using photoshop elements.

Remove ken burns effect from photos in iMovie HD

I am trying to burn iphotos slideshows to DVD like I used to do before newer versions stopped supporting iDVD. I was advised on this board to use iMovie HD and it seems to be working and I am pleased with the integration with iDVD. But when I used the ken burns effect on some of my slides I got a shimmering effect. So I tried to get rid of it. In iMovie HD, you are supposed to slect the media tab and click on "show Photo settings" This gives you a window where you can adjust the Kne Burns setting or uncheck the box. When I uncheck the box, nothing happens. Whther I press "update" or not, the effect is still there. This is a 1000-slide project. I hope I don't have to start over.
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 same in all iMovie 3.slideshow photos

I am working on a slideshow using iMovie 3.0.3. I am using iMovie because I have more than 99 photos, and would like the slideshow divided into chapters for iDVD viewing and navigation, and because I would like to add specific music to each individual chapter or slideshow, but have them play contiguously.
I have created separate albums in iPhoto for each chapter of my slideshow in iMovie. When I import all photos in an album from iPhoto with the Ken Burns effect box turned on and click Apply, each photo is imported, but the panning and zooming is the same on each photo, unlike when playing an iPhoto slideshow where the panning and zooming is automatically randomly applied to the photos in the slideshow. Am I doing something wrong and is there any way to correct this problem without manually setting the pan and zoom of each photo individually? Would a newer version of iMovie correct the problem?
Thanks,
Jennifer
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Hello Jennifer,
the behaviour of iMovie is quite normal as you will have to create a different setting for each picture in order to have a different effect upon import. up to version 5 (iMovie HD) this remains the same - and i'm quite sure also for iM 6, but haven't upgraded yet.
you have another possibility though: export your slideshow with random KB effects from iPhoto as QT movie and then import to iMovie
hope this helps
viva la mela

Ken burns effect deny photo import

Hallo I updated iMove to 6.03, but now if I make a project encoded for MPEG4, it doesn't permit import photo on project if ken-burn effect has been selected.
On iMove 6.02 it worked!
What can I do? or please how can downgrade Imove release to 6.02?
thanks in advance
peppo

THIS IS WHAT MY CONSOLE.LOG SAYS....Basically when the burns efffect works onthe preview, but when i hit play the image that was burnsed goes all back
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.
2006-10-06 10:10:00.252 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:10:03.206 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:10:06.044 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.
2006-10-06 10:15:39.627 iMovie HD[214] Looked for URLs on the pasteboard, but found none.

Using the Ken Burns effect in I Photo 5

The first time I worked on a slide show I was able to use the Ken Burns effect with no problems. Later on opening I Photo and clicking on slide show I no longer have the controls for the Ken Burns effect. There is just a blank space where they should be. Why did this happen ? How do I get the controls back?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Vernon

Vernon:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. What may have happened is that one or more items within the iPhoto application package have had their permissions changed so you do not have access. Run Disk Utility and repair disk permissions. If that doesn't help try moving the application to the desktop and making a duplicate of it-select it and type Command-D. Now move the duplicated to the applications folder and rename to just iPhoto. Now see if the KB controls come back.
Next would be a reinstallation of iPhoto. You'll have to delete the current application and all files with "iPhoto" in the file name that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder. Now reinstall iPhoto 5 and immediately update to the latest version. Then repair disk permissions.
Hope this has been of some help. Good luck.
OT

Photo montage Ken Burns effect w/ variable intervals synced to music cues

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