That darn Ken Burns effect

I started a thread in the iPhoto forum, and got my answer. However, it opened up a new question which led me here. This was my original question: "I am losing it here trying to simply drag a photo from iPhoto into iMovie without it coming in with that #$@**Ken Burns effect. I cannot find any way to turn it off, except in a slide show. I don't have or want a slideshow. I just want to use still photos in iMovie. (Both are version 6, running OS 10.4)" As I said, I did get my answer, but someone also said this: "iPhoto just gives you the Picture. It's iMovie that supplies the ken Burns effect."
So now my question is, what can I do on the iMovie side to NOT apply the effect when dragging photos in from iPhoto?
Right now I am having to select each photo in iPhoto, in the media bin, uncheck Ken Burns, save it, then import it.
Any help? Thanks.
Regards

Ben
That was brilliant! Shout it to the world. Not only did each subsequently dragged photo hold the effect of the first, but I had the ability to move the content of the photo within itself (as though the pan and zoom effect was there but fixed as I want it to be).
Great. Thanks.
noodlehead - hapPY

Similar Messages

Ken Burns Effect Pollutes Everything

If you're putting together a slideshow, do not turn on the KB Effect for anything. Ever. I hate to say this, for I love this feature. It has enhanced many of my slides. However, it's a sorcerer's apprentice.
It causes nightmares once it's in your timeline. You can't update its durations, unless you delete the slide & start all over. I've found, oddly, that if a transition is connected, and you try to reduce the duration of the slide, after the transition is rendered, the slide, instead of having reduced duration, is actually increased by the amount of the reduction you wanted!
Beware of using KBE for any photo in your iPhoto imported album. Once you invoke KBE on any photo, it pollutes every photo you click on, thereafter, whether you turn it off or not. Karl Petersen posted a message last month, praising this polluting feature of KBE:
"The most important is that all of the Ken Burns settings, the KB checkbox, zoom, pan and duration are controlled by the LAST imported clip you made, or a previously-imported clip you clicked on. THAT's what sets the default setting for your next import(s). (A very nice feature, by the way, for it lets you apply the Ken Burns settings of one clip to the next photos you import. You don't have to reconfigure settings each time.)"
First, it's boring to an audience to have repetitious effects. Second, I don't know what he means by "import." iM4, in moving a photo from the Pane to the Viewer (timeline), says it's importing it, but I already imported it from iPhoto4. Third, I'm not so lazy as to resent having to reconfigure individual photos, if it means I have control over what I want to reconfigure & what I don't want to reconfigure.
Third, I wish Apple would realize users do have a brain: They don't need everything automated. There should be two buttons: KBE on for all, another KBE off for all. KBE off would allow the user to select which photos KBE is confined to. One thing I like about Microsoft is, it doesn't assume anything about the user. The user has choice & is always in control.
I'm really at the point of not invoking KBE for anything, anymore. It's causing too much frustration, & it's not worth the time trying to figure it out, especially once the photo is in the timeline.
BTW, what's the relationship between the Monitor, the Timeline, & the window in the upper right corner of the Photo Pane?

The conclusions you've reached about the Ken Burns Effect are so strange it makes me wonder if you've understood how it works. Unlike the Ken Burns Effect in iPhoto — which adds the effect on-the-fly as a sequence of photos is played — the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie affects how the photo is imported and rendered. iMovie renders video — creates a movie clip — based on your Ken Burns settings.
Remember, iMovie is all about creating video clips that play as part of a movie. iPhoto, on the other hand, has no movie. It simply displays a series of images. It never creates a movie until we export the slideshow to a QuickTime movie.
Changing the Ken Burns settings of a photo in iPhoto simply changes how that image is played in the iPhoto slideshow. Changing the Ken Burns settings of an iMovie clip, on the other hand, changes how it is (immediately) rendered into a new video clip.
You can't update its durations, unless you delete the slide & start all over
Of course you can change a duration. Click on the rendered clip in the Timeline, change the duration, and Update the clip.
Of course, if you've edited a previously-rendered clip — added a title or transition, for example — then it is no longer a KB clip. But if you remove the title or transition you can update the KB settings normally.
First, it's boring to an audience to have repetitious effects.
I never suggested you use the same KB effect on all your clips. I suggested that if you want to avoid having to reconfigure your Ken Burns settings before importing a photo, first click on a clip that already uses those KB settings. This saves time and considerable aggravation. I find this especially useful because the KB settings window is so clumsy (and buggy).
Second, I don't know what he means by "import." iM
Each time you add a photo from the iPhoto list to your iMovie project it is imported to the project. iMovie adds the photo to the project, then renders the video clip, if needed. (The imported photo is retained so you can Update the clip later, if you want.)
Third, I'm not so lazy as to resent having to reconfigure individual photos, if it means I have control over what I want to reconfigure & what I don't want to reconfigure.
Fine, iMovie lets you do that. There's nothing preventing you from configuring new Ken Burns settings for each photo. (My suggestion was to avoid having to do that unnecessarily.)
Third, I wish Apple would realize users do have a brain:
Apple DOES assume we have brains. And that we use them to learn how the program actually works, and why.
There should be two buttons: KBE on for all, another KBE off for all. KBE off would allow the user to select which photos KBE is confined to.
It's that point which makes me wonder if you've misunderstood something important. The Ken Burns settings we apply in iMovie do NOT control how the movie PLAYS in iMovie, at least not directly, like it does in iPhoto (and other slideshow software). The KB settings control how a clip is RENDERED when the photo is imported to iMovie. Once rendered, that clip is FIXED unless we re-render (Update) it. Changing its Ken Burns settings changes the clip ONLY if we re-render the clip.
Another way to think about it is that the Ken Burns Effect affects how a photo is imported. Once imported, it does not affect how it plays.
Once you invoke KBE on any photo, it pollutes every photo you click on, thereafter, whether you turn it off or not
There's no pollution of anything. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, the settings do NOT change anything about existing photos or clips until you Apply those settings, which (usually) causes iMovie to re-render the clip.
Try to re-think how Ken Burns works, where you assume iMovie is creating video, not just a series of images it plays in sequence. Those are two very different things.
Karl

Ken Burns Effects

It seams that the Ken Burns effects are set up for horizontal pictures (longer width, shorter hight. Is there any way to change so it works with portrait pictures (shorter width, longer hight) Currently, it cuts off most of the picture in portrait? Any suggestions

You can use Automator to pad the vertical pictures with black space so that KBE works. If you don't know how to use Automator, you can do a search for Automator under my screenname and find several posts on this.

IMovie HD 6 - Ken Burns effect ????

Does iMovie HD 6 have the Ken Burns effect for photos? I did not see it listed in the Effects menu. Thanks for the help.
PowerMac dual G5 Mac
Mac OS X (10.4.4)

After a little investigation I discovered that the Ken Burns effect is included in iMovie HD6. There is a separate control panel for the effect and it is semi-transparent and can be a little hard to recognize at first.
PowerMac dual G% Mac OS X (10.4.4)

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.

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.

Preview of Ken Burns Effect is a black screen!!

So, I am doing a movie for my parents, and I have 102 photos that I have loaded into IMovie. I loaded them in to the clips section, as I am not a huge fan of iPhoto personally. At first, no problems, but later, as I dragged photos into the playhead area, my photos wouldn't allow me to preview the Ken Burns Effect. I would drag them into the playhead, click on "Meda" button, and then select the Show Picture Settings button. The preview screen goes black as the effect scrolls through the process, disallowing me to see the preview. I have deleted the pictures from IMovie, re-inserted them, and started over (AAAARRRRRGGGGGG!), and it happened again.
Any Ideas? Thanks for the help!
Oh, and I have made no modifications to my machine (no new graphics card), and the pictures are all in .jpg format.

Hi Tonyy13.
I am presenting the same problem. I can set the Ken Burns' effect while I am with the pictures before placing them in the Clip or Timeframe viewer. After placing them there, if I try to edit the picture (either by right clicking and choosing -edit picture or by control clicking and doing the same, I ended up with a black background. If you change the setting in this black ackground and update this changes they will be effective. So, you can change the slide duration, and everything in the sliders but without an image.
I was running System 10.3.9 and I thought this was the reason. Today, I went and bought Tiger but it didn't sove the problem. I do believe it is a bug in the program. According to Apple's Help and David Pogue's "The Missing Manual" this shouldn't happen.
If you solve this problem reply to this posting. If I did I will reply to your posting. Thank You.

I'm looking for a High Definition Ken Burns effect

I put together an hour-long DVD every year of the best photos of my daughter. Every year I've used a program called *Still Life* to add the ubiquitous Ken Burns effect to about 25% of the stills. I've been very happy with the results.
But, lo and behold, we've upgraded this year to an HD television, and suddenly everything changes.
Now it is painfully apparent that *Still Life* can no longer do the job, as its output is noticeably non-HD.
I see how I can do the same basic movement in FCE itself using keyframes, but this movement is static. The thing I liked about *Still Life* was that it started the movement slowly, built up speed, and then slowed the movement at the end. It was smooth. I can't make FCE perform as smoothly. I get visual whiplash when it starts and stops.
I've found some other similar programs-- Photo-to-Movie, MovingPicture, etc.--but none of them output in the same high quality HD that FCE express does. I even tried *iMovie HD*, but it isn't flexible enough (you can't change the start or stop movement times, so that when I transition the clips in FCE, I lose the second before the Ken Burns effect kicks in, and so the overall effect is herky-jerky).
Does anyone have any suggestions for a software solution that exports high quality HD Kens Burns movement for a still photo?
Thanks for any help you can give.

Hi(Bonjour)!
I see on photo to movie spec page that you can export in full 1920 X 1080 H.264 codec, a high quality format usable in FCE.
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovieoverview.php
By the way, how do you deliver your HD sequence from your mac to your HD TV set ?
Michel Boissonneault

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.

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.

Pausing at the end of a Ken Burns Effect

Hi,
I have a number of photos that I am using within imovie. I am applying a Ken Burns effect to scroll or zoom on the photo. At the end of the effect I would like the photo to pause.
The viewer would see a photo, the zoom/scroll get to the final position, then the photo held for a couple of seconds.
Is there a way of acheiving this - i know i can import the photo twice, the first doing the effect, the second with no effect - but how do i get the second photo exactly the same as the first photo after effect?

I don't understand what "Option-click" means: how is this executed? I
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard, then click on the Start end of the Start/End thingy. In this context, Option-clicking applies the End settings to the Start, so the clip no longer has an animated zoom.
I also don't see how one selects the duration of the "pause".
The whole clip we're making is the pause. It's a second clip that plays after the first (zooming) clip. These directions create a second clip that "pauses" after the first clip zooms.
Option-dragging the first clip makes a copy that we change into a pause. (Holding down the Option key and dragging the clip to another location duplicates the clip.)
Hope it makes better sense.
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.

Problems with Ken Burns effect

Having a very frustrating time trying to get a decent slideshow. Like the KB effect but when I play it back the images jerk and jump. Smoothness totally
gone. Strange thing is sometimes it is worse than others. Have tried closing all
other unnecessary programs to save RAM , etc...does not help. Sometimes it
looks ok played in iphoto but when I send to idvd the jerking is back. HELP.
When going through process have about 250MB free and 10 GB on disk.
Also when I export a slideshow (size-large 720X480)to Quicktime image
quality degrades considerably. All I want is a decent dvd copy of my honeymoon
pictures but can't seem to accomplish this. Am very disappointed at all the
grief involved in this...any help would be greatly appreciated.

Greetings Old Toad.
It seems that a fair number of users have run into this same problem over recent months: namely, producing a slideshow with audio from iPhoto with the Ken Burns effect creates a "jerky" movie as a result. The advice I have seen is to either clean up your hard drive or get more memory. I consistently run into this problem even though I have a 1Ghz G4 iMac with 768MB main memory. I have tried this on my root drive with about 7GB available and on a firewire drive I have with ~30GB available space. I have also tried using Cache Out X to clean up caches and other various files, and still iPhoto produces jerky results.
The one workaround that has worked was to turn off audio. That seems to fix the problem, but I do want audio in these slideshows to put onto DVD. Others have suggested using iMovie to add the audio track, but reading in the output of iPhoto into iMovie seriously degrades the quality of the video -- not to mention that it is a very slow and tedious process to do this.
I would like to point out that this was not always the case. Unfortunately I cannot pinpoint the exact time when this started happening, but I could swear that I had been able to create slideshows in this manner before one of the many iPhoto upgrades I automatically received over the last year. I now have version 5.0.4.
Have you heard of anyone successfully fixing or working around this problem? I love my Mac...and this is one of the fundamental reasons I switched from Windows a few years ago was for the great photo tools. But now, without the ability to make DVDs the way I want, I am considering switching back .
1 Ghz G4 iMac Mac OS X (10.4.3) 768 MB DDR

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.

That darn Ken Burns effect

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