Still Life, Photo 2 Movie, Fotogmagico - anyone like them w/iLife software?

Question

Hello -
I'm looking to do photo montage effects beyond just the Ken Burns effect in iMovie (or iPhoto). I have FCE but don't want to keyframe (not even totally sure how to do that yet)!
I'm looking for recommendations here:
- does anyone recommend any of these? if so, which one?
- do they integrate easily with the iLife suite of software?
- which program do you use for final output (are you bringing back into an iLife or Apple product to finalize as a movie or burn to DVD, etc.?)
I need to get up to speed quickly and easily on the program so it's key that it's intuitive. I heard good things about Still Life but read somewhere it's discontinued and the forums link is broken on their website - never a good thing.
Thanks SO much for your help!

Answer 1

"..Have you heard anything about Still Life being discontinued?.." ..It says so on their website: http://www.grantedsw.com/
However, their most recent version, 2.4, is - it seems - a 'Universal' version, and so it WILL run on an Intel Mac.
"..How would I know if it works on an Intel-based Mac.." ..because it's described as a "Universal binary", i.e; the kind of program which runs on both PowerPC Macs and also on Intel Macs.
It downloads OK for me ..the link isn't broken.
Hold down your Ctrl key and click on the picture alongside the description of Still Life. When it's downloaded, change the suffix from .dms (..if that's what it is..) to .dmg and then double-click that .dmg 'disc image'. It should open to show the Still Life application ..and just drag that to your Applications folder.
"..Could you not do transitions in Still Life?.." ..No - unless this 2.4 version also includes some transitions. The version I use (version 2.2.3) just manipulates individual photos ..turns them, zooms them, moves them along a path, etc. You can manipulate as many separate photos as you want, then import the resultant .DV movies into iMovie and then apply iMovie's transitions between them.
"..is there any drop in quality bringing it in.." ..None at all. Of course, you mustn't zoom in too strongly (..i.e; to a greater magnification than the standard DV video resolution ..call it 640x480..) or your pictures will look horribly pixellated. But Still Life provides an onscreen warning, or won't let you zoom in to such an extent that it might spoil your pics.
You'll need - obviously! - a higher resolution pic than the DV video resolution of about 640x480 to start with if you want to zoom in at all!
So if you want to use a 4x zoom, you'd need to start with a picture which has at least 2x 640 pixels width and 2x 480 pixels height, i.e; a pic of at least 1280x960.
If you wanted an 8x zoom, you'd need to start with a pic of at least 2560x1920 pixels. That goes for all the picture-zooming programs ..and for the Ken Burns effect within iMovie itself. If you try to zoom in too far into a low-resolution photo, you'll just end up with pixellated blobs, whichever program you use!