[MacDV] Re: Creating Slide Shows Part II

[James Asherman]

On Sunday, January 4, 2004, at 12:53  AM, Chuck Kay wrote:

> Hey Guys;
>
> I have been very successful in creating slide shows using the iApp's. 
> Here is a question and some needed advice. I don't particularly care 
> for the "Ken Burns" effect in iMovie. I use Gee3's "Slick Motion" to 
> create pans and scans and then import the .dv files into iMovie. 
> "Slick Motion" has a much better interface, it scales and displays 
> percentages properly and accurately, and you can rotate the photos as 
> well. Within "Slick Motion", because of the high resolution files I 
> use, I never come close to scaling up to 100% of the images, much less 
> over 100%. However, I still have not solved how to get smooth motion 
> on my photos when I create the pans and scans. I always get "zebra 
> patterns" or other artifacts when viewing the resulting .dv files on 
> computer, digital video camera via firewire (Sony VX2000 and DSR250), 
> DVD's, or VHS tape. I use photos from two sources: 1) scanned photos 
> at high resolutions (300 dpi) or 2) my Canon 10D (6 megapixel) digital 
> camera. The Canon D10 at its highest settings, uses a resolution of 
> 180 dpi resulting in a file well over 3000+ x 2000+ pixels. When I 
> import my photos, I use photoshop to bump the resolution up to 3 or 
> 400 dpi without resampling (does not add any more pixels). Often 
> times, I open up the .dv files created by "Slick Motion" in Quicktime 
> Pro, convert the video track to "High Quality" and save.

Overdoing it by a lot.

> Then I import into iMovie.  While this does help and enhance the 
> quality of the .dv file, there is still too much of the "zebra 
> pattern" in the resulting file.

Because you are trying to enhance photos that are already well beyond 
TV resolution.

>  By contrast, when watching a slide show from within iPhoto, the 
> photos I take or scan look sharp and beautiful (if I say so 
> myself)-even the simple dissolve from within iPhoto looks smooth.

Duh . because you haven't done all your unnecessarry steps yet.

>  I have used another slide show program in the past called Kai's Power 
> Show that creates beautiful and smooth transitions. Is there any way 
> to improve on this?  Does Final Cut Pro do a better job of rendering 
> .dv files from digital photos when creating pans and scans?

Yes(not much)but if you overwork the pictures it won't do you any good.

>  I have Final Cut Pro but have not used it for photo slide shows. I 
> know it can be done, because I observe this technique on TV broadcasts 
> where still photos look very smooth and sharp using the "Ken Burns" 
> technique. Any suggestions to help me out? Thanks a bunch!!!
>
>

Itt is all in the "motion" tab.
I find it simple because I am familiar with keyframing effects. Others 
find it harder.
It is very simple to go to the end of a clip, hit the keyframe button 
and then go yo yje beginning of a clip hit the keyframe button again 
and increase the size to , ssay, 130% . Viola smoooth pull.
Jim