iMovie '09 Transition Problem

[Chris204]

I recently started using iMovie '09, and one thing I'm having trouble doing is making transitions work when also using picture-in-picture. It seems that once picture-in-picture is applied, the transitions don't appear.

The only reason I'm using picture-in-picture is to overlay a PNG watermark on top of the video, which I can't do like in iMovie '08, which was just a simple drag and drop.

Any ideas how to overlay a watermark more easily, or how to make transitions work while using picture-in-picture?

Thanks!

 

[KeriJane]

I don't use iMovie '09 very much but maybe you could do it like this:

step 1- create your entire project, with all transitions and effects but without the watermark.

step 2- render the project to a high quality video file. Maybe call it something like "My Great Movie 1a.mov"

step 3- start a new project called "My Great Movie1b". Import My Great Movie 1a.mov, then apply your watermark to the entire project.

step 4- render My Great Movie 1b to whatever output format you want.

Good Luck,

Keri

 

[Chris204]

Great idea. Thanks!

 

[winkg]

Having problem with transitions between video and stills

I am a newbie at iMovie '09 and am having trouble inserting transitions between video clips and stills. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It seems completely random. I've tried changing transition duration (sometimes works, most times not), removing titles (on the stills), removing crops (worked once, not again), changing duration of the still. It's very bizarre.

Any suggestions?

 

[JRTeK]

I don't use iMovie '09 very much but maybe you could do it like this:

step 1- create your entire project, with all transitions and effects but without the watermark.

step 2- render the project to a high quality video file. Maybe call it something like "My Great Movie 1a.mov"

step 3- start a new project called "My Great Movie1b". Import My Great Movie 1a.mov, then apply your watermark to the entire project.

step 4- render My Great Movie 1b to whatever output format you want.

Good Luck,

Keri

just did it and it worked like a charm... great idea... thanx

 

[WayneH1]

I am a newbie at iMovie '09 and am having trouble inserting transitions between video clips and stills. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It seems completely random. I've tried changing transition duration (sometimes works, most times not), removing titles (on the stills), removing crops (worked once, not again), changing duration of the still. It's very bizarre.

Any suggestions?

Hard to be sure exactly what you're seeing, but here are two points that might have an effect:
1) Preferences. Check the properties of your project. The normal default might be, for example, to apply a cross dissolve of 0.5 seconds between all clips. That's really handy for quick assembly of a timeline, but gets in the way when you want to customize things. SO just assemble and then turn off the automatic feature. You can edit transition type and duration to your heart's content, except when...
2) Your clips are too short. If you want, say, a 3 second transition between clips, they need to overlap by that much and be at least that long. Same with stills - you need to lengthen the slide duration enough to INCLUDE the transition time. Slide duration is also set automatically unless you take control as above. Again, it's more efficient to put everything together first before you start to override the automatic settings.

Hope these help.