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

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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

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

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.

FCPX crashes the entire system when applying Ken Burns

When applying Ken Burns to an image, when repositioning the start and/or end frame the entire system locks up, not just FCPX. The cursor can still be moved, but other than that the entire system is unresponsive and the only solution is turning off my iMac and rebooting. That is how the problem started, a few days later during the same process the entire screen turns black and rebooting is once again the only way out.
Is anyone else familiar with this problem?

There's a little icon that appears in the Project on top of each picture that has Ken Burns applied, click on that icon (it's a cropping square icon). that will bring up the Inspector and show you the red/green boxes that indicate the area where the zoom starts and ends for Ken Burns. If you drag the edges of both the red/green boxes individually to fit the entire picture, I think you will get the effect of not cropping. But it won't really be Ken Burns either because it won't zoom/pan across the image as it plays back.

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.

Exporting still photos with Ken Burns from iMovie to Keynote

I am new to the Mac and have no experience of iMovie. I am putting together a slide lecture that uses photos and graphics to promote a coffee-table book on conservation issues. The presentation will use manual advance and will be shown to public audiences on large screens. The quality of the projected image is very important so I will be using a high quality Canon projector with a resolution of 1400x1050.
Some images are of landscapes and I want to use the Ken Burns effect that is available in iPhoto and iMovie but, for some unknown reason, not in Keynote. I posted this first with the Keynote Discussion Forum and was advised to move the photos from iPhoto to iMovie, apply the Ken Burns effect in iMovie, and then export to Keynote via Quicktime. My question is, if I do this, will my Ken Burns landscapes retain the same size and quality of projected image as the rest of my Keynote presentation? My impression is that using this process I may lose quality, but I hope I'm wrong. Please advise.

Some background: Importing photos with the Ken Burns checkbox ON causes iMovie to render a video clip from the photo. That's an entirely different process than importing the photo as a "still" image. Unfortunately, Ken Burns and several other rendering routines are vulnerable to factors that sometimes cause them to fail. The disk format can cause failure, third-party software, inadequate video cards and the like. The factors often have nothing to do with iMovie itself.
The same problems can occur when rendering other kinds of clips too, such as themes and special effects. (Ken Burn gets the bad rep because it's where the problems usually occur for users.)
Some of the items you listed in your Library/QuickTime folder are third-party products. There may be others too in the other folders mentioned in the link I posted earlier, so be sure to look in those too. And in iMovie plug-in folders.
Sometimes necessary items are missing that should exist. One I've seen mentioned here occasionally is the QuartzComposer.component, which should reside in your System/Library/QuickTime folder. If it's not there that might cause the problems you see.
Installing/reinstalling the QuickTime 7.1.6 might help. I've seen reports of problems going away after that update. Repeating the update won't hurt.
Have you tried creating a new user account and running iMovie as that user? If iMovie runs okay as that user that suggests a software conflict when you are the user. Unfortunately, if the software is installed in places where it applies to all users it will cause problems for the new user too.
I'd keep trying to find some software component causing trouble for QuickTime/iMovie. It's clear some third-party components have been installed; there might be others. Perhaps stuff related to AVI?
Karl

Firewire Problem When Using External Burner

Before I go into detail about my problem let me say that I contacted the manufacturers CS and they were unable to help (sent a new burner and I still had the same problem).
I finally got an external DVD burner, the lacie d2 with Lightscribe, and I plugged it in the firewire port, updated it with all the latest drivers and tried burning some cd's from an iTunes (7.1) playlist. It checked the media, started to burn the first song and and immediately went to finishing the disc burning without going through the other songs. But then it just hung there (the player started running, I could hear it, but when it froze after the 1st song he player just quieted down). I left it alone for awhile figuring it would eject the disc but nothing happened. I was unable to stop the process, quit iTunes or even eject the disc. Eventually I had to force quit and restart the computer.
I tried it using Toast but I got an error the first time and the second time I tried it froze on the burn screen. The funny thing is I'm able to burn when using the usb connection (it's really slow though, 1.0) and I'm able to rip cd's when connected via friewire but burning causes all types of problems.
The burner shows up on the system profile (vendor supported after updating with drivers), I've switched firewire cables, and used both ports on the iMac and the dvd burner, and after contacting Lacie they sent me a second burner but the problem persisted. I use a lacie external hard drive and never had a problem with it so I was wondering if anyone had an explanation or a similar problem. If not I was thinking of sending this second one back and trying the new Sony firewire dvd burners.
And one last thing, I got this because my superdrive gave up on me, although it's still recognized in the system profiler, it just doesn't start up if I put in a cd or dvd.
Please help as I'm at the end of my rope with this burner.
iMac G4 Flat Screen Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I'm curious if the internal superdrive's inaccessibility to the system and
the firewire port issues are related; or share a common thread in how
they may require one action to try and make them work.
Aside from that speculation, have you tried seeing what the Apple
Hardware Test (boot the computer from it) says in regard to this
matter and the details of any error codes it may generate? And
if you can run Disk Utility from the installer OSX disc#1 from the
external FireWire disc drive, to see if any maintenance can help
the system, that would be nice.
There also are third-party freeware disc burn utilities; and a few share-
ware ones that are quite good. They usually will work in problematic
situations where the hardware is OK and the basic OS X is, too; but
for some reason the external FW or internal replacement Superdrive
won't burn a disc or does it partially; or improperly. I've used my disc
burners so rarely I am not a great one to improvise here; but I did get
Burn 1.7u (v12) http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net and it does work well.
Can you boot the computer from any of the DVD - Firewire external
recorder/players you have or had? You should be able to boot the OSX
from the installer disc#1 from a good external; but some may not do it.
Was there any issue in the procedures you described before upgrading
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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)

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?

How can I use ken burns end transition frame to set cropping size for next segment?

I am trying to figure out how to trivially take a large frame view, in a clip, and use a Ken Burns transition to "zoom" into a new view, and then grab the ending "frame" location and size and set that as the clipping rectangle in the next segment. It seems like I should be able to just select the end fram view, type CMD-C to copy, and then select the next segment, choose "Clip", and type CMD-V to paste that "rectangle" as the clip. This doesn't work, so I am looking for another way. There's nothing in the popup menus or the main menus that I can find.
Is this possible?

I am afraid there is no easy way to this with Ken Burns. A better way may be to animate the Crop tool instead, using keyframes.

Importing photo's & using ken burns

I'm importing photo's into i movie OK.
They are fine, and run as a movie in clip viewer until I add a Ken Burns effect. Then they go Black in the clip pane (disappear).
They return to view only if I remove the ken burns affect.
What's up with that?

I found my problem, after numerous hours of frustration.
the movie has to be saved into "movies" icon on main hard drive. Where all the effects, etc. are stored to go with the movie project. I was saving my project to an alternative file on my secondary hard drive.

Ken Burns -field blending

when using ken burns effect I get excessive field blend even in 'highest' selection. can onyone help?

KEN BURNS EFFECT
Anyone know where Apple has hidden the button for
this in iDVD 6?
They 'hid' it in iMovie and iPhoto - it's not a part of iDVD.
You can apply a transition (fade, dissolve, etc) as images change in a slidehow using iDVD.

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

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

Shimmering of stills when using Ken Burns

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