Zooming into video clip a la Ken Burns effect

Sorry for what may be a dumb question with an obvious answer, but I've not ever seen this come up in any FCP forum.
Does the "Ken Burns" effect also work on video clips? That is, if you have a one camera interview shot or tutorial, can you "zoom" in on the person as you might with a still photo? If I had a 2nd camera or some one to shoot for me, it would be less of an issue. But, just to have some movement occasionally instead of a static talking head would be nice. I suppose if overdone, focus and quaility issues would come into play.
Thanks,
Dave

Tom Wolsky wrote:
The explanation isn't quite right. Scaling is a logrithmic animation. An image at 100% scale fills the screen; when the image is at 50% scale it's a quarter size of the screen. This is why when you scale an image up it seems to get slower and slower as it scales up, and vice versa. Position on the other hand is a linear animation . The difference in the two is the problem.
Tom, you have great experience of this, so I'm a little wary of criticising but are you sure? I see that when scaling an image its area does not vary linearly (technically it's quadratic, not logarithmic, I think) and this will produce the illusion of changing speed which you speak of. Nevertheless, any given point in the image will move with constant speed.
On the other hand, position is not implemented linearly in FCP X. I set up a simple animation to test this, and at the start and end of the movement, the image's Y-coordinate changes by 2 pixels per frame of animation, whereas at the mid-point it changes by 6 pixels per frame: three times as fast.

Similar Messages

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.

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.

Video Slideshow Creation in iMovie (Ken Burns Effect)

I'm trying to create a slideshow video in iMovie. The process seemed pretty straight forward, and seemed to be going nicely. I got all the images imported into iMovie and added the music to the timeline as I wanted. When I previewed my results though, I was less than pleased.
After viewing the preview, the Ken Burns effect was the exact same zoom/pan for every picture--it wasn't randomizing the effect like it does when you do a slideshow from within iPhoto or Front Row. Any way to get it to randomize the effect? There's just way to many pictures in this compilation (250+) to go through and change it up a bit for each.
At this point, I figured I'd just go with the slideshow export feature in iPhoto since it does randomize the Burns effect. Yeah, that didn't go so hot either. Apparently, you can only add one music track, so I had to find a utility to combine the MP3s we were going to be using. Looked like this was going to work until we played it after the (LONG!) export process. Turns out, the slideshow somehow ended up a whole four minutes shorter than what I had in iMovie. Apparently the default transition speed of 5 seconds does not hold true to iPhoto slideshows. Plus, much to my surprise there is absolutely no fade-out in the music at the end--it just abrubtly stops. Not cool.
There's got to be a way to make that (very cool) Ken Burns effect randomize in iMovies I'd think. Any suggestions?

Although you cannot permanently remove the Ken Burns effect option, you can set your default to having it off.
You need to apply your settings to a particular photo and then the changes should be the new default.
Drag any photo into the timeline. Select 'show photo settings' and deselect KB effect and update that photo.
Close or hide photo settings. Click on something else. If you don't want the photo in your timeline, delete it.
When you open the 'show photo settings' again, your recent changes should be there.
If this process does not work for you, try deleting iMovie's preference file.
With iMovie closed, go to your Home file(YourUserName)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imovie.plist
Drag this plist file to the trash. iMovie will create a new one when you reopen it.
Reopen iMovie.

Themes / Ken Burns effects don't render, Transitions and Video FX do render

Topic pretty much says it all. I'm working on some family vacation videos, and thought it might be nice to apply some travel themes to some sections of the video.
The red "rendering" bar that's supposed to crawl along the bottom as it's rendering, and then disappear when done, is dark red, and never fills with the bright red indicating that it's actually rendering the clip.
iMovie's at the latest version (6.0.3), and I've tried this with a number of projects, with no luck. Transitions and video effects work like a peach, so it's just something with themes and the ken burns effect on pictures.
I've deleted the imovie.plist, and repaired permissions.
I should also note, the preview, when dropping clips onto the drop zone(s), display's properly. As does the ken burns effect when setting up it's duration. It's when you apply the settings, and it drops the clip onto the timeline to start rendering it, that's where we hit a snag.
This is on the internal drive, Mac Extended (Journaled) format, there's about 40GB free space. I've emptied both the system, and iMovie trash. I've tried deleting the FontCollections folder.
I'm just rambling off suggestions I've tried from the various threads I've been gleaning in hopes of finding a solution to this.
When I started these projects, I chose DV Widescreen, as everything I film with my DV camcorder (Panasonic PVGS59) is set to widescreen.
I've even tried manually splitting the clips, so that the part(s) I want "themed" are only as long as the theme duration, hoping maybe it was choking on a longer clip (say around 1 to 2 minutes), when all it needed for the theme was about 4-10 seconds. Exact same thing, dark red "rendering" bar, but no bright red bar showing how the rendering is progressing.
I've dug through about 32 pages so far, still going and not finding anything that's actually helping. It seems though my issue is quite similar to others', it's unique as nothing that's worked for others is working for me.

Hi, Nice to be here, despite the problems!
Last night I reinstalled iMovie from the recovery disk and even manually deleted all plugins and prefs beforehand. It didn't make any difference in either my account or a new user account I set up. I repaired all the disk permissions again and also once again deleted the iMovie plist, all to no avail.
I had a software update flagged on Monday night (which I downloaded), the problem has only been since then. The other software flagged for download included a battery update and a SuerpDrive firmware update. The SuperDrive update seems to fail to operate. It would try to run it on startup but would advise that the program could find a device to update? Strange. I deleted the .pkg and also the program from nmy startup items.
So, with the version of iMovie rolled back to the original one off the recovery disk, I would have hoped that it would have started to work, which it hasn't! I subsequently searched for software updates and added a couple, one at a time to see if that would help (restarting every time). That didn't work either!
What on earth is there left to do, despite a full reinstall of Mac OSX?!
I wonder if this is an emerging problem following the latest seemingly recent software update for iMovie?
Sara

Pan and Zoom (Ken Burns Effect)

Does iDVD 06 support the Ken Burns Effect? When I import a Slide Show from iPhoto to iDVD it looses the transitions and the pan and zoom features. I can add the transitions back through iDVD, but I can't find anywhere to add the Ken Burns effect back to the slide show? Is it possible? I will be really disappointed if iDVD 06 does not support this feature.

Welcome to iDVD Discussions.
I don't use iPhoto, so I can't help you with that, but I can tell you that iDVD does NOT have the KB Effect.
iDVD 6 Getting Started PDF download
Apple's iMovie Learning Site
Apple's iDVD Learning Site
iLife ’06 Multimedia Tutorials
General Learning Center
Ken Stone: Authoring in iDVD 6
My favorite, by far:
iMovie HD & iDVD 6: The Missing Manual
You can download Chapter four: Camcorder Meets Mac.
iPhoto 6: The Missing Manual

Using iMovie 9.0.4 cannot zoom in or out on ken burns effect? Only pan

When I am in iMovie I am trying to apply a Ken Burns effect to a portrait style photo, I understand the ratio is different so It will not position the entire photo in the screen unless you choose fit. But when I choos fit I cannot apply a ken burns effect. Is there any way to apply the Ken Burns effect to a fit portrait photo?

You can apply the Ken Burns effect by clicking on "Ken Burns" rather than Fit.
If you would like the Ken Burns to be able to go beyond the boundaries of the photo so you can zoom more, choose "Allow Black".

I have an older version of imovie. After I change the photos using the Ken Burns effect and save them, the next time I open the file and click 'show photo settings' to change the zoom, the picture appears black and I can't change the zoom?

I have a five year old version of imovie that generally works fine. However, when I add a photo using the 'Ken Burns' effect then save the movie, the next time I open the file and click 'show photo settings' the picture appears black and I cannot change the zoom. Any suggestions?

Have you rendered both iOS 7 and iOS 8 (both of which will work on your iPhone 5) out of the question entirely without trying every possible configuration? The animations can be disabled entirely, if that's the problem. And if the whiter-brighter user interface is the problem, there's reverse-contrast modes that darken everything. You can expose accessibility controls to gain immediate access to these functions to toggle them on and off. I guess my point is you may have decided against upgrading the OS based on an early experience with iOS 7 when Apple has since made changes in later revisions to address some of the usability complaints.
Now, Apple's instructions for downloading older versions of apps is to do so from the Purchased list, not from the app's product page.
See here:
Install the latest compatible version of an app on an earlier version of iOS or OS X - Apple Support
Let us know how that works for you.

How to manually zoom in using the Ken Burns effect

I love the way the Ken Burns effect zooms in on a photo. But it isn't optimally positioned on my photo. So I want to manually control this effect from start to finish of the duration. I understand how to slide left, right, top or down but its not obvious how to make it zoom in or out from start to finish. Can someone tell me how to do this.
Thanks in advance.
--Mickey

pick the photo in the slide show - click on the settings icon in the tool bar and on this slide - click on start next to Ken Burns at the bottom of the settings window and zoom the photo to the desired size using the zoom in the lower right hand corner and pan to the desired starting point by dragging - click end and do the same for the final position and you have it
LN

How do you pan and/zoom an image--the "Ken Burns" effect?

How do you pan and/zoom an image--the "Ken Burns" effect?

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Eddie
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Ken Burns effects are unsmooth. They stop and start, also stutter as they zoom. Can anyone advise?

Ken Burns effects are unsmooth. They stop and start, also stutter as they zoom. Can anyone advise?

Are you noticing this while playing back a project you're working on in iMovie or are you notivinh it in finsihed projects (i.e. projects you output or Shared)?
If the former, that could indicate something about your hardware configuration that's struggling to keep up with rendering your project on the fly while it's playing in iMovie. Are you running other apps? Do you have limited hard drive space?
What are the specs of your Mac?
Matt

Can I undo the Ken Burns effect for all clips at once (instead of pulling up each clip individually)?

Can I undo the Ken Burns effect for all clips at once in iMovie (instead of pulling up each clip individually)?

Yes, you can select multiple clips then Adjust, Crop, click on "Fit".
Geoff.

IMovie producing scrambled video with ken Burns effect

I was creating a movie with stills from iPhoto. The first 3 photos are using the Ken Burns effect just fine. Anything after that is absolutely unrecognizable. It looks like a scrambled mess of what is on my screen. I can actually see my Dock in the video. This is really strange. It occurs with photos I've edited and with ones I haven't. I have the latest version of Quicktime (7.0.4), iMovie (6.02) and iPhoto (6.0.4) as well as Tiger.
I've never had this problem before. As long as I don't use the Ken Burns effect I'm fine.
eMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi Appleman1958
Thanks for the advise. I'll give it a try when I get home tonight. Went nuts last night looking for a way
to do it. Didn't want to do them one at a time or delete it and start over. Any idea why the pictures
are not nearly as sharp when I burn to a disc on iDVD. as they are when viewed on iMovie or Aperture?
Thanks Again,
kayaking1

Jumpy ken burns effect

I have been very happy using the ken burns effect when exporting slide shows from iphoto to idvd. however, i am working on an iMovie project now (i have to use iMovie due to video clips) and I find the Ken Burns effect has a jumpy quality from one photo to the next. i never had this problem with iphoto slideshows, the transitions from one photo to the next were always smooth. it almost feels like the effect speeds up as it pans over the photo, then jumps to the next one and speeds up again. i am a novice at this and hope their is a simple solution. i have been working on this project for months now and would hate to start over. any suggestions?

it almost feels like the effect speeds up as it pans over the photo, then jumps to the next one and speeds up again. i
Yes, that's a known problem. Unfortunately, there is no ideal workaround.
It helps to use slow zooms/pans. It also helps to add a transition between the clips, which covers the first second or so and helps eliminate the sense of acceleration. Another solution is to set the clip duration a second or two longer than you really need, then trim off the end.
There are third-party products such as Still Life and Photo to Movie that let you create Ken Burns-style clips you import to iMovie. Some users prefer those to Ken Burns.
Please tell Apple you don't like this "feature". Maybe it will be fixed. Unfortunately, while the iPhoto programmers got Ken Burns right the first time, iMovie programmers keep dropping new bugs into the Ken Burns Effect with each new version of iMovie. It's really quite astonishing.
Karl

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

Zooming into video clip a la Ken Burns effect

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