Help with iMovie and Stop Motion Animation

Question

Level 1

8 points

Help with iMovie and Stop Motion Animation

I need some help creating my first stop motion animation! I've played around with iMovie '08 a bit and I think I've got a pretty good handle on how to make a stop motion animation, but I'm having problems with the duration time. I want it to be less than 0.2 seconds but iMovie won't let me make the transitions any shorter. I've been googling about this problem and it seems like the only solution is to download some other movie making program? But, this being my a totally experimental thing for fun AND it being my first time, I don't want to download, let alone pay for, something I might not use more than once.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Posted on May 28, 2009 10:02 AM

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Answer 1

May 28, 2009 12:48 PM in response to asp2134

You can make stop motion that is as short as a single frame (= 1/30th of a second).

See this [video tutorial from Jon Walker|http://web.me.com/jrwalker4/QuickNotes/iMovie 08-09/Entries/2008/4/25_Tutorial024.html]

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Answer 2

Aug 7, 2009 7:52 AM in response to votshtoyalyoobloo

iMovie does not have Automator support.

If you need to do it fast, you could try QuickTime Pro, which offers the ability to quickly produce a still frame sequence.

Also see this [Macworld article and video|http://www.macworld.com/article/141637/2009/07/time lapsevideo.html]

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Answer 3

Aug 7, 2009 8:15 AM in response to asp2134

for stopmotion, there's a free tool
http://web.mac.com/philipp.brendel/Software/FrameByFrame.html

and there's an excellent, fully equipped pro-tool
Boinx' iStopmotion http://boinx.com/istopmotion/overview/

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2009 8:47 PM in response to asp2134

I think I found a shortcut to setting very short durations.

1. Set iMovie to display timecodes
2. Set the project to insert photos in "Fit" mode not Ken Burns
3. Import your first photo, and only the first photo
3. Use the John Walker method to create a single (or 2 or 3 frames) frame for your photo
4. Delete the 4 second clip of the photo, leaving only the very short duration
5. Open the duration and choose Applies to all photos
6. Import the rest of your photos...they should all use the ultra short duration

Hope that helps.

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2009 5:04 AM in response to asp2134

I'm not sure if this is the same in imovie '08, but in '09, it took me forever to work out but once i found it i was kicking myself.

first import your pics
select them all them and set them to fit or crop
then just press the little i button and set the time for each pic to 0.1 or 0.2 seconds.
too easy.

Cheers

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Answer 6

asp2134 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 28, 2009 10:17 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks, that really helped but is there a way for me to apply these adjustments to all the images at once? I'm doing them all separately now, as shown in the tutorial but its a bit tedious...

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Answer 7

May 29, 2009 4:59 AM in response to asp2134

I don't know of any shortcut.

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Answer 8

Aug 7, 2009 7:42 AM in response to asp2134

Is that something Automator could help with? I'm trying to get to grips with it myself, it's made to do the tedious repetitive donkey-work that you can sometimes run into with big jobs like that

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Answer 9

Oct 4, 2009 11:45 AM in response to CitizenCane

Great idea!

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