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IMovie 11 Duration of photos and transitions

Hello out there.

Is there anyone else out there having issues trying to get the durations of photos and transitions right in IMovie 11.

When ever i add a selection of photos and then add a transition i try to set the photos to 5 secs it sets it to something else like 4.2 secs. If i remove transitions it will set to 5 secs.

Any ideas.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2), Its very shinny

Posted on Oct 30, 2010 1:12 AM

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36 replies

Nov 1, 2010 5:16 AM in response to acmac

In iMovie '11 after adding a transition, click on the gear icon (cogwheel) under the transition and select Transition Adjustments. In the Inspector that opens you will see an option labelled "Overlap". The selections are "All-Maintain Clip Range" and "Half-Maintain Project Duration". Alternate with these settings to see what the effect is. I haven't done this myself but will test shortly and report back (been interrupted). It may be the answer you are looking for!

John

Nov 1, 2010 5:21 AM in response to acmac

mmm not sure there but.... I know you can click a still, bring up the inspector and adjust the time for the still. On that same panel you can also adjust the duration for every still in the project. So all would be say 5:00. The same goes for the transition. Using the clip inspector on the transition adjust the duration then apply that timing to all transitions in the project.

-- Dan
Keeper of TheUnofficialiMovieFAQ.com

Nov 1, 2010 5:40 AM in response to John Cogdell

With 2 clips of 6 seconds each, adding a Cross Dissolve of 1 second will result in 2 clips each of 5 seconds plus the Cross Dissolve of 1 second - when the option is set to "All-Maintain Clip Range". So the overall length reduces by the duration of the Cross Dissolve (original 12 seconds; new 11 seconds).

When the option is changed to Half-Maintain Project Duration, the new length become 2 clips at 5:13 each plus transition of 24 frames (I'm using PAL 25fps). This totals 12 seconds - the same total duration as the original 2 clips before adding the transition.

Be careful though - try it on a test project. I've found that once you change the option in a project, the option then becomes greyed out.

John

Nov 16, 2010 5:32 AM in response to John Cogdell

Thanks for all you help but dont seem to be able to resolve the issue im afraid. This is what i am doing.

Step 1: Adding 5 secs of video. no problem.
2: Adding another 5 secs of video. no problem
3: Adding 3 or 4 photos and then another 5 secs of video. no problem
4: Adding cross dissolve transitions to 1sec after every clip of VIDEO. no problem
5: Adding the same transition in between photos. Problem... Transition appears as 0.9sec and photo duration increase to 5.5 secs. I try and change it back but it wont (well it changes the duration to 5.4secs)... If i change the transitions setting to half the same thing happens.

I hope someone can come up with solution as its driving me crazy. I have re-installed imovie with no joy.

Thanks

ant

Nov 25, 2011 8:58 AM in response to acmac

Has this issue ever been resolved? I am frustrated with iMovie's inability to allow me to maintain my clip durations when adding transitions. What gives? I see no workaround for this. Not that we should have to work around it. I want to be able to set my clips and videos, transitions and timing to my choosing, not iMovie automatically deciding a clip's timing.

Dec 10, 2011 5:34 PM in response to acmac

I'm also struggling with this issue and what's worse is that the transition times seem to change on-the-fly from time to time! That is, often when I set a transiton for, let's say 1.5 seconds then add a clip for 8 seconds, all seems well. Unfortunately, as soon as I add another element (photo or video) that 1.5-secon transition suddenly reads "1.2" seconds ... and I notice that the text is in YELLOW rather than in white, like some other transitions.


I've played around with all the different settings and swapped things out yet nothing makes sense. In a way, I'm heartened to see that others are running into the same prob cuz I was thinking that I'm just not understanding how transitions work.


Previously used iMovie as part of ILife 9 and it didn't seem to be this unstable.

Dec 12, 2011 3:13 PM in response to acmac

I have found that, after adding pictures and video clips, if I add transitions one at a time, I can set timing of transitions yet maintain clip duration. However, adding transitions automatically does not allow me to set timing as I choose. This is not a problem if the movie is short. Working with several hundred pictures is a nightmare. Previous iMovie versions did not have this problem.


Message was edited by: Patricia Bunyard

IMovie 11 Duration of photos and transitions

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