[MacDV] Re: Moving a graphic file into iMovie

[Brian Olesky]

>> How do I put my logo on the front of a short video I'm doing?
>> 
>> When I import it as a .jpg file, it looks horrible on screen. Same
>> thing when I use a .tif, .bmp or .gif file. Do they just look bad in
>> the iMovie preview window, but they'll look fine when I burn to a DVD?
>> 
>> Finally, I have a professionally produced video with my logo on the opening
frames, and it also incorporates a nice graphic effect. I'd like to be able to
just pull it from that DVD and import it into iMovie, where I can just edit out
>> the logo section, adjust it's length, and use that for my video. So last
question, how do I rip that video to my hard drive (it's about 7 minutes long)
and extract the section with my logo in a format I can use in iMovie?
>>  
> TIFF seems to work best. You should size it to 640x480 in a graphics
> program before importing it -- either by matting, scaling, or a
> combination of the two; otherwise, iMovie will just scale it for you and
> you'll probably not appreciate the result. By performing the sizing in
> your graphics program, you'll have control over the background color as
> well (otherwise, iMovie gives you the choice of any color you want, so
> long as you want black).
> 
> If you want to pull it from your "professionally produced video,"
> extract the VOB using DVDBackup, Mac the Ripper, or some other ripping
> software, then use a tool like MPEG StreamClip to convert to DV Stream
> files, sized for use with iMovie. Import the DV file and trim away what
> you don't want included.

Great answers, thank you. I'll try and use the .tif file and rework it in
PhotoShop Elements (the closest thing I have to a graphics program.)

Meanwhile, while I was waiting for help to arrive, I downloaded DVDBackup,
and extracted the video files, but the documentation didn't mention how I'd
get them into iMovie. Your answer came along just as I was puzzling over
this. I'll google MPEG StreamClip and try that.

Again, thanks. This was a big help.

Brian