How to highlight or add arrows in movie

melopod2007 wrote:
I am making a football highlight movie and I want to "highlight" one player by ideally putting a spotlight (circle) on them or an arrow. ...

read the last entry on my site..
http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08tricks

iM08 supports tiff or png files with socalled 'alpha cannels' = transparency.. use your preferred paint app and create an arrow on a transparent background.. import that into your iM08 project ... for highlightening a part of the video, create a 'mask', with fully transparent 'light' and a 30% grey to lower unwanted parts ..

iMHD6 supports plug-ins, geethree.com has an excellent 'hilite/obscure' and 'whiteboard' plug-ins, to teach iM such effects..

Karsten, I'm helping Keanu try to figure this out, and it looks like in order to do this you have to create an image the size of the frame, and then place the arrow into the image where you want it to show up in the frame. While I think this would technically be possible, his project has many scenes that each need their own arrow, so this will take creating a separate image for each one, and being able to place the arrow in the right place. Is this the only way to do this? It seems like it should be easier to do something relatively simple like this.

Or is there a way to use the text tool with a fonts with an arrow character? it seems like where you can place titles is somewhat restricted, but if you could place a title wherever you wanted on the frame, he could do it with text.

I figured out a workaround using Titles, but if you have any other suggestions for an easier way, we'd appreciate it still.

.. so this will take creating a separate image for each one, and being able to place the arrow in the right place. ..

now, no real 'better' way ..

what I would do (aside using FCE..) is:
export a still frame of the scene you like to add the arrow to
open that as a 'reference' in your pic processor..
add arrow..
export as advised as png, tiff, .. with a transparent background
add to clip in iM08..

it is just a workaround.. for adding many elements, consider usage of iMHD6 and plug-ins from geethree.com / imovieplugins.com / stupendous-software.com ... Slick offers some charming options, even moving elements..