iMovie isn’t useful only for people with video cameras. Still images with accompanying sound can be used to create high-impact presentations or documentaries and can be used to spice up live-action films with professional title and credit backgrounds. Even if you’re a digital photographer who is completely satisfied with iPhoto, you’ll find that iMovie can create new and exciting ways to display your masterpieces.
If you’ve added view clips to your project from your camera or from other sources, they’ve almost certainly had sound accompanying them. What if you decide that you don’t like the sound that goes along with your movie clip? Do you have to reshoot the video just for a new audio track? No, not at all. iMovie provides you the ability to use dozens of canned sound effects, record audio from your computer’s microphone (if available), use music from your iTunes library, or even take the sound from other video clips and use them with different video sequences.
iMovie is known for the ease with which it allows you to import and manipulate digital video with special effects and transitions. iMovie integrates completely with iPhoto, providing instant access to your photograph library.
Photographs can be worked with much like video clips. You can apply the same effects and transitions, as well as use a special effect designed specifically for digital photographs—an effect dubbed the “Ken Burns Effect.” This effect, which we’ll discuss later in this chapter, can add motion and depth to otherwise still images. Figure 28.1 shows a still image within the Timeline—it appears identical to a video clip.
iMovie supports a number of native image formats through QuickTime’s media framework. TIFFs, JPEGS, and even PDF files can be dragged into an iMovie project as a source of still images.
The best and cleanest way to handle importing images into iMovie is to first import them into iPhoto. iMovie automatically connects to your Photo Library and provides access to all your digital images the same way it does with digital music and iTunes. The drawback to this is that even if you only want to insert an image or two into iMovie, it’s best if they are added to your Photo Library. Let’s review some of the basics of working with iPhoto that were first explained in Chapter 23, “Using iPhoto.”
By the Way
You should start iPhoto at least once before using iMovie; otherwise, the iPhoto/iMovie integration will not be complete, and iMovie may behave strangely when attempting to access photo features.
There are two straightforward methods for getting images into iPhoto. The first is to connect a supported camera to your computer and then follow your camera’s instructions to place it in playback or transfer mode. Your computer will sense the connected camera, launch iPhoto, and present you with the Import pane, shown in Figure 28.2.
Clicking the Import button transfers files from your camera. Thumbnails of the transferring images appear in the image well of the Import pane along with the number of photos remaining to be transferred. When the import is complete, the new images appear in the photo viewing area along with any other images you’ve imported. If the box for Erase Camera Contents After Transfer is checked, you are asked to approve deletion of the original photo files from the camera.
Imported images are stored in groupings called rolls in the Photo Library. Any image, in any roll, can be added to an arbitrary album by first creating the album (choose File, New Album from the menu) and then dragging from the Photo Library into the Album name displayed along the left side of the iPhoto window. This helps you keep track of your images and provides a convenient means of accessing them in iMovie.
The second method of importing images assumes that you already have a group of image files on your computer but not in iPhoto. In this case, you can select them in the Finder and drag them into the Photo Library. This, once again, creates a new roll in the Photo Library and gives you access to the pictures from within iMovie—no camera required.
As mentioned previously, there are two ways to add photos to iMovie, either from files on your desktop, or via iPhoto integration. Because iPhoto is the preferred method, we’ll start there.
To add a photograph that you’ve previously stored within your Photo Library, click the Photos button in the icon bar in the lower-right portion of the iMovie window. The Photo pane appears, as shown in Figure 28.3.
At the top of the pane are the controls for the Ken Burns effect, followed by the library of available iPhoto images. The pop-up menu at the top of the image catalog can be used to limit the images being displayed to any of the iPhoto albums.
Choose the album or category that contains the image you want to use and then scroll through the image catalog to find the exact picture you want to add.
Finally, drag the image to the Timeline or Clip Viewer at the bottom of the iMovie window. iMovie behaves exactly as if you are adding a video clip with a specific duration. (You can change the duration by dragging the slider in the Photos pane that is labeled with a rabbit (for quicker) and a turtle (for longer-lasting). Figure 28.4 shows a collection of three images that have been added to the Clip Viewer in iMovie.
You can easily add photos directly to iMovie by dragging the image files from your desktop into either the Clip shelf, the Clip Viewer, or the Timeline Viewer. In all these cases, iMovie adds the image, just like a video clip.
The Ken Burns effect is a method of bringing life to still images that was pioneered by the filmmaker Ken Burns, who has created many award-winning documentaries, and whose work has been nominated for an Academy Award.
By the Way
For a complete background on Ken Burns and his work, visit http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/.
The effect is really simple. Instead of just putting a photograph onscreen while someone narrates, a virtual “camera” pans over the image, zooming in or out as it goes. A photograph of a bouquet of flowers, for example, could start zoomed in on one particular flower and then zoom out, centering the bouquet on the screen as it goes. When the effect is used properly, the end result is stunning and can make the viewer forget that he is not watching live video.
To use the Ken Burns effect in iMovie, first make sure that you are in the Photos pane. Then select the image that you want to apply the effect to. At the top of the Photos pane are the controls that you will use to determine the path that the virtual camera will take, how long the resulting video clip will be, and how far in or out the virtual camera is zoomed.
For example, I’ve chosen a picture of a rose that I want to apply the effect to. I’ve decided that I want to start out zoomed in on one of the petals and then zoom out to show the entire rose. To do this, I click the Start button and then click and drag the image within the Ken Burns effect image well. This allows me to center where the camera will be starting when the effect is applied. Next, I adjust the Zoom level either using the slider control or by directly typing in the Zoom field. Figure 28.5 shows the start settings of my Ken Burns effect.
To complete the effect, I need to repeat the same process for the Finish point of the effect. This time, I click the Finish button, click and drag the image so that it appears as I want it in the image well, and then adjust the zoom so that I can see the entire rose, as shown in Figure 28.6.
To preview the Ken Burns effect before you actually apply it to an image, click the Preview button. To reverse the path that the virtual camera takes (effectively switching the Start and Finish points), click the Reverse button. If you want the total time the transition takes to last longer (or shorter) than 5 seconds, adjust the duration slider, or type directly into the Duration time field. Finally, to add the image with the Ken Burns effect to the Timeline or Clip View, click the Apply button. The effect may take several minutes to apply (watch the little progress bar that appears above the image in the Clip Viewer or Timeline).
One final source for still images is a video clip itself. iMovie makes it easy to create a still image from any frame in a video file. To do this, switch to the Timeline Viewer and drag the playhead until the image that you want to use as a still appears within the main viewer. Next, choose Edit, Create Still Frame from the menu. iMovie adds a still image with a 5-second duration to the available iMovie clips.
A point of confusion when working with still images is the duration, and how duration can be changed. A still image that does not have the Ken Burns effect applied is, by default, treated as a 5-second video clip. To change the length of time that it is displayed onscreen, simply double-click it within the Timeline or Clip Viewer. A window, as shown in Figure 28.7 appears, where you can manually enter how long the clip should last.
The same, however, cannot be said for an image that has had the Ken Burns effect applied. Double-clicking a Ken Burns image shows a noneditable duration, as shown in Figure 28.8.
The reason for this difference is because an image that has had the Ken Burns effect applied to it is effectively a piece of video. It has different frames that iMovie calculated based on the settings you gave it. A “real” still image is just a single frame that iMovie understands should display for a set length of time.
To change the duration of a Ken Burns effect image, select the image within the Timeline or Clip Viewer; then click the Photos button to switch to the Photos pane. The selected image is shown in the Ken Burns preview, and the settings used to create the image are loaded. Adjust the duration using the duration slider; then click the Apply button to re-render the effect with the new duration.
iMovie makes it simple to apply effects and transitions to images that you’ve added to your project. In fact, there is virtually no difference between working with still or Ken Burns effect image clips and video clips. There are two specific situations, however, when things don’t work as you’d expect
Clip Duration—. Sometimes the length of a still image clip isn’t long enough for a given transition (a wipe, fade, and so on) to be applied. In this case, iMovie tells you that the clip must be longer, as shown in Figure 28.9. All you need to do is adjust the duration (as discussed previously).
Convert Still Clip to Regular Clips—. Sometimes, when you apply an effect that changes over time—such as “Ghost Trails,” which makes each frame shift slightly to create a “blurring” appearance. If you apply this effect to a still image, nothing will happen because nothing is moving in the frame.
To apply the effect, iMovie must effectively change the still image into a video clip. Click the Convert button when prompted, and iMovie renders the effect. The only drawback to this is that, like an image with the Ken Burns effect added, you won’t be able to change the duration as you would with a normal still image. To revert to a normal still clip, you’ll need to delete the converted clip and re-add the original image.
In an iMovie project, sound often plays almost as important a part as video. Sound and music can set the stage for a romance, suspense, comedy, or thriller. It can help create pacing for the movie and smooth through otherwise trouble-some video transitions. If you’ve been using iMovie to import and arrange movies from your camera, you’ve already got audio in your projects. Movie clips themselves can contain embedded sounds, and these are usually transferred and saved along with the movie files. Although this is convenient if you only want to use the sounds you’ve recorded with your camera, it doesn’t give you the flexibility to mix sounds or add additional sounds to your movie.
To accommodate additional sound effects, iMovie includes two sound tracks that can hold any sound, music, or audio that you want. Figure 28.10 shows the three available iMovie tracks: Video/Audio, Audio Track 1, and Audio Track 2.
There is no difference in functionality between the audio 1 and 2 tracks. You can use one track to hold sound effects, the other for background music, or mix and match them as you choose. In addition, each track can overlap audio clips, allowing you almost limitless layers of audio. You could, for example, have a base piece of background music in Audio Track 1, then perhaps an environment sound track layered on top of it, and, finally, sound effects layered on top of that in Audio Track 2.
By the Way
You’ve probably figured this out, but you must be in the Timeline view rather than the Clip view to see the available audio tracks.
Sounds added to either of the audio tracks can be moved to the other track by clicking and dragging between the tracks in the Timeline. No matter what type of sound you’re adding, it is referred to within iMovie as an audio clip.
However you’ve decided to layer your audio, iMovie automatically composites it correctly when you play back your movie project. If you’ve included audio clips in all the tracks, they’ll automatically all play back when you play the movie.
Sometimes this can get to be a bit of a pain as you try to fine-tune your special effect sounds and don’t want to hear the dialog from your video tracks, or the background music you’ve added. To enable you to focus on a single set of audio, Apple has provided the ability to control audio playback using the three check boxes to the right of the video and audio tracks, shown in Figure 28.10.
You can also control the overall volume of the movie using the volume control slider to the right of the main playback controls.
There are a number of different ways to add audio to a project, so we’ll start with one of the most common (and useful) Then we’ll discuss how to work with audio clips that have been added to a Timeline, and, finally, examine other means of importing audio.
Adding audio to an iMovie project takes place through the Audio pane, accessed by clicking the Audio button in the icon bar on the lower right half of the screen. Figure 28.11 shows the iMovie window with the Audio pane active.
Your iTunes library is the default source for audio that is added to the project. You can use the pull-down menu at the top of the iTunes listing to choose between your iTunes playlists or type a few characters into the search field at the bottom of the song list to filter the songs that are shown.
Did you Know?
When using the search field to find your iTunes music, you’ll notice that an “X” appears at the end of the field after you’ve typed in a few characters. Clicking the “X” clears out the search results and returns to the full list.
If you have a library of thousands of songs and can’t remember which one you’re looking for, you can choose a song from the list and then click the Play button underneath the list to listen to the song.
Watch Out!
You must remember that using copyrighted material is against the law. Be sure that any songs you’re using on a movie are public domain or properly licensed. If you’re making the movie just for yourself, you can use music you own, but if the final product may be seen by others, you cannot distribute the copyrighted material.
After you’ve located the song file that you want to add to the iMovie project, position the playhead where you want the sound to be inserted, click within the audio track that should receive the sound file, and then click the Place at Playhead button in the Audio pane. iMovie takes a few seconds (or minutes, depending on the length of the file), and then the corresponding audio clip appears in the selected audio track as a colored bar labeled with the name of the audio file, as shown in Figure 28.10.
Did you Know?
In the current version of iMovie, there is no obvious means of telling which audio track is currently selected. The last track you clicked on is the one used for inserting audio.
If you happen to end up with audio inserted in the wrong track, simply click and drag the audio from one track to another.
Did you Know?
Another, perhaps more elegant, way to add audio clips to the project is to drag a name from the list in the Audio pane to the audio track where it should be inserted. As you drag the name into the Timeline, the Timeline moves to show you where the audio will be inserted when you stop dragging.
You can even extend this technique to the Finder by dragging audio files directly from your desktop into the Timeline.
After a piece of audio has been added to an audio track, it can easily be manipulated to match up with your video tracks, or the volume can be changed to better mix with the video or other audio files.
Sometimes you place a sound in a movie, and it “just doesn’t fit,” or doesn’t sync up with the video. To move an audio clip, click and drag it horizontally within the Timeline. The audio segment moves to any position you want within the project. While you are dragging, the playhead automatically tracks the start position of the audio, enabling you to position it perfectly within the project, as shown in Figure 28.12
Did you Know?
For extremely fine control of audio positioning, click to select the audio clip in the Timeline (it will darken in color to show that it is selected); then use the left and right arrow keys to move it frame by frame along the Timeline. Holding down the Shift key increases the movement to 10 frames at a time.
If you decide that you want to remove an audio clip from the project, simply click on it; then press Delete or choose Edit, Clear from the menu.
To help you precisely align sound effects with the start and end of a video clip, iMovie includes a feature called Timeline snapping. When activated, Timeline snapping produces a snapping sound as you align the beginning or end of an audio or video clip with the beginning or end of another clip. It also displays a yellow bar to mark those alignment points, as shown in Figure 28.13.
To use Timeline snapping, hold down the Shift key as you drag a selected video or audio clip. When you hear the snap or see the yellow bar indicating perfect alignment, you can stop dragging.
Did you Know?
You can also drag the playhead while holding down the Shift key to double-check your alignments without actually moving anything. Remember, if you like the way things are lining up, you can choose Advanced, Lock Audio at Playhead to preserve the positioning.
You can enable Timeline snapping in the iMovie preferences, as shown in Figure 28.14, so it is on by default. That way, you won’t even need to hold down the Shift key. (If you enable it, holding down the Shift key temporarily turns it off.) You can also choose to silence the snapping sound and leave only the visual cue that clips are all lined up.
In addition to Timeline snapping, you can use audio track waveforms to line up audio clips and video. Waveforms are representations of the volume of sounds in an audio track. Loud sounds have longer “waves” and silence appears as a blank space. An example appears in Figure 28.15.
To display waveforms, open the iMovie preferences, shown in Figure 28.15, and check the box labeled Show Audio Track Waveforms. Audio tracks and video tracks with sound will have their waveforms overlaid on them so you can position sound based on high points and silences.
Often the act of moving audio around is an attempt to synchronize it with a piece of video. iMovie’s capability to position on a frame-by-frame basis makes this simple, but what if you decide later that you want to reposition the video clip? If you drag the video, all your hard work synchronizing the audio will be lost.
To “lock” a piece of audio to the video track, select the audio that you’ve positioned where you want it; then choose Advanced, Lock Audio Clip at Playhead from the menu. The audio track will then be “attached” to the video that occurs at the same place as the audio. Moving the video track within the timeline moves the audio as well, keeping your synchronization intact. You can tell a lock is in place by graphical “pushpins” that appear on the audio and video tracks, as shown in Figure 28.16.
To unlock an audio clip, select it within the audio track; then choose Advanced, Unlock Audio Clip from the menu.
Watch Out!
Locking audio to a video clip works one way. It does not lock the video to audio. If you drag the video clip, the audio moves with it, but not vice versa. Dragging the audio simply repositions the lock to the video, potentially losing any synchronizing work you’ve done.
By default, all locked audio clips are displayed with the pushpins all the time. To change the display so that the pushpins are shown only when the audio clip is selected, be sure to check the Show Locked Audio Only When Selected option within the iMovie preferences.
Like video, audio clips can be cropped to choose how much, or how little of a clip is played. Simply position your cursor over the start or end point of an audio clip until the cursor changes to show a vertical bar with an arrow pointing toward the center of the clip. Then, drag toward the center until the clip ends where you want it to stop. The cropped edge will lose its rounded corners, as shown in Figure 28.17.
If you change your mind before you empty iMovie’s trash, you can position your cursor over the trimmed end until a double-sided arrow appears, and drag the clip back to its full length.
Suppose that you want soft background music in one portion of your movie, but want it to slowly build to a blaring orchestra in another? In iMovie, adjusting the volume is as simple as clicking and dragging.
To edit the volume editing mode, click the Edit Volume check box at the bottom of the iMovie window. Within a few seconds, all the audio clips (and the video clips that contain audio) display little lines through them. These lines represent the volume level of the clips.
To change the volume level of a clip, highlight the clip within any of the tracks (remember, even the video track’s audio can be adjusted here); then click and drag the volume adjustment at the bottom of the iTunes window, or type a new volume level (100% being the “default” volume) into the field beside the volume slider. As you change the volume level, the line raises or lowers within the clip. Multiple clips can even be selected at once (Shift-click) and simultaneously be adjusted with this control.
You’re thinking, “Okay, that’s nice,” but it still doesn’t get me the fine-tuned control I need to really mix different audio clips together. Don’t worry, volume adjustment can be as simple (as you’ve seen) or as complex (as you’re about to see) as you want.
To alter the volume level within a specific part of an audio or video clip, click and drag the volume line within the clip. As you drag, an adjustment handle (a big yellow dot) appears. Dragging this dot up or down raises or lowers the volume at that point. To carry the volume change through to a different part of the clip, simply click wherever you want another volume adjustment handle to be added, and the level changes are carried through to that point.
Each handle that is added also carries with it a transition point that determines how the audio clip transitions to the new volume level (will it happen abruptly? smoothly?). The transition point is displayed as a small magenta square to the right of the adjustment handle. The point can be dragged so that it is right above or below an adjustment handle, making for an immediate transition in volume, as shown in Figure 28.18.
To smooth things out a bit, the transition point can be dragged all the way along the volume line up to another adjustment point. The transition then occurs all the way between these two points. For example, Figure 28.19 shows the same volume adjustment being made as in Figure 28.18, but the transition takes place over a much larger span of the audio clip.
Volume adjustment can be used to ramp down an audio clip while ramping up another (similar to video transitions that blend the end of one clip with the beginning of another; this is called a cross-fade), or to create any number of other effects within your project.
If you have a sound or song that you want to play part of at one time, and another part at another time, you have two choices: You can import the audio clip twice, or you can simply “split” the existing clip into different pieces and use them wherever you want. To split an audio clip, position the playhead where you want the clip to break; then choose Edit, Split Audio Clip at Playhead from the menu.
Lines appear at the location of the split within the audio clip, as shown in Figure 28.20.
After you split a clip, click outside the pieces of the split clip to deselect, and then click on the one you want to reposition; otherwise, both pieces will be selected and you won’t be able to move them separately.
Now that you’ve learned how to work with audio clips in iMovie, let’s take a quick look at the other sources of audio available for adding audio clips to your project. At the top of the Audio pane is a pop-up menu with additional choices for importing audio clips. As you’ve already seen, the iTunes Library and playlists are available.
A great source for canned sound effects is the included iMovie sound effects library, accessed by choosing iMovie Sound Effects from the top of the Audio pane in iMovie. The iMovie sound effects, shown in Figure 28.21, encompass a wide range of environmental and special effect sounds. The “Skywalker Sound Effects” (from George Lucas’s Skywalker ranch) are extremely high-quality effects that can be used to create an impressive sound track.
Unlike iMovie music, you cannot click the Place at Playhead button to insert a selected sound effect (I can’t imagine why not, but it doesn’t work!). Instead, you must click and drag the name of an effect into your audio track. After it is added, it behaves like any other audio clip.
To add a sound track from an audio CD, put the CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive and then wait a few seconds. iMovie automatically switches to Audio CD mode, queries the Internet CD database to get a list of track names, and then displays the contents of the CD in the Audio pane, as shown in Figure 28.22.
Choose the song you want to add to one of your iMovie audio tracks; then either use the Place at Playhead button or drag the song to the Timeline to add it to the project.
If you want to narrate a portion of the video, position the playhead where you want to start recording from your computer’s microphone; then click in the audio track that should receive the audio. Finally click the red Record button to the right of the Microphone label at the bottom of the Audio pane. A graph of the level of sound input is shown beside the label as it records. To stop recording live audio, click the Record button again.
The new audio clips are added to your project with the sequential labels “Voice 01,” “Voice 02,” and so on.
As we’ve already mentioned, the video track often also contains audio that accompanies a video clip. When adjusting volume, you can adjust the volume of a video clip just as you would an audio clip in an audio track.
Having video so closely tied to audio, however, has a disadvantage: You cannot manipulate the audio and video independently of one another. Thankfully, iMovie allows you to “decouple” the audio and video from one another. To do this, select a video clip with audio; then choose Advanced, Extract Audio from the menu. After a few seconds, the audio from the video clip appears in the audio track below the video clip. Figure 28.23 shows a video clip in the Timeline before audio extraction, and Figure 28.24 shows the same clip after extraction.
After audio is extracted from a video file, it can be manipulated like any other audio clip.
In some cases, audio extraction happens automatically. If, for example, you cut and paste a video clip using the Paste Over at Playhead option of the Advanced menu, iMovie automatically extracts the audio of the original clip and moves it to an audio track so that it is not replaced by the paste over. The video clip that is pasted over will be lost, but the audio will remain.
This feature can be disabled by deselecting Extract Audio in Paste Over within the iMovie preferences.
In this chapter you learned how to use photographs and audio in iMovie. You learned how still images can be added to iMovie presentations and how they can be made “dynamic” through the use of the Ken Burns effect. In iMovie, a still image behaves almost exactly like a standard video clip and can have all the same transitions and effects applied. Although simple to use, iMovie’s audio features can allow novice editors to create layered audio tracks with ease. You learned how to work with a variety of audio sources available for adding sound to your video project.