[MacDV] iMovie 3 & still photo issues

[Scott Baldwin]

To import still photos, it works better to put them first  into a 
folder in iPhoto, and then use the photo button in iMovie.  Clicking on 
this button immediately shows you the contents of iphoto, without 
actually importing the still photos. You can access any folder in 
iphoto.   You still can import photos to the "clips" window, as in the 
previous version  but this is where you begin to have difficulties.   
It gets messy.

By using the iphoto route you can set the duration of the photo and the 
zoom effect  before you actually drag it to the clip viewer.  The zoom 
effect is not the default setting when using this method (at least in 
my system!).  Picture duration defaults to 3 secs.  If you change the 
duration of any one picture, all the subsequent pictures have this 
duration.

I agree though, I still would like to be able change the duration of a 
photo after it is in the clip viewer.  Sometimes you want to play 
around with this to get it right.

On my G4 dual 500 OS X.2.3,  I do not see the latency that others have 
mentioned.  Transitions seem to render faster as well.

  When I upgraded my system software from 9.1 to 10.2, I installed a new 
hard drive in my machine and did a fresh install of 10.2 on this drive. 
  I seem to have far fewer problems with 10.2 and iapps then other 
people on this list.  I think this fresh install might have made a 
difference, or I'm very lucky.  The weekly sacrifices to Pele probably 
help as well...........

Cheers,

Scott

On Monday, February 3, 2003, at 01:15 PM, hawkgx at planetkc.com wrote:

> I've been watching a friend suffer through iMovie 3. Makes me glad I 
> have
> not *upgraded* to it myself.  Here's a couple of issues/questions we 
> have
> about it so far:
>
> 1) The Ken Burns Effect. Is there an easy way to make the iMovie
> application default to NOT applying the Burns effect to a still photo
> you've imported?  My friend was getting exasperated because every JPEG 
> he
> imported, started rendering with the Burns effect applied.  We 
> discovered
> that if you reset a still photo's properties... i.e. remove the zoom
> settings, then each photo imported after that inherited the latest
> settings. What a PITA! I can foresee just importing the first still,
> re-setting its properties, and THEN importing the rest of my photos so
> they'll inherit the *non-Burns effect*, but it still seems like a lousy
> approach.
>
> 2) On the subject of still photo rendering... we noticed each still 
> photo
> begins rendering after it's imported.  Someone on the Apple discussion
> boards speculated that iMovie is creating a reference file of each 
> still
> photo in order to deal with it more efficiently.  Anyone have the 
> scoop on
> why iMovie is rendering each still photo as it is brought in?
>
> 3) Re: changing clip duration:  We just finished importing 2 JPEGs 
> onto the
> clip shelf. The first one began rendering so we hit command-period to 
> stop
> it. We could then double-click the clip and change the duration in the 
> Clip
> Info window.  The second photo we let render completely. When we 
> viewed the
> Clip Info, the file size went from approx. 120k to 17mb.  Also, after
> rendering we could see no way to change to the still clip's duration.
>
> Any suggestions, complaints or comments about any or all of these 
> issues is
> appreciated.
> Randy
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> mail2web - Check your email from the web at
> http://mail2web.com/ .
>
>
>
> ----------
> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/MacDV.html>.
> Send a message to <MacDV-DIGEST at themacintoshguy.com> to switch to the 
> digest version.
>
>  XRouter | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers!
> Dr. Bott | Now $139.99      <http://www.drbott.com/prod/xrouter.html>
>
>    Cyberian   | Support this list when you buy at Outpost.com!
>    Outpost    |         http://www.themacintoshguy.com/outpost.shtml
>
> MacResQ Specials: LaCie SCSI CDR From $99! PowerBook 3400/200 Only 
> $879!
> Norton AntiVirus 6 Only $19! We Stock PARTS! <http://www.macresq.com>
>