Ken Burns effect

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Level 1

4 points

Ken Burns effect

Under Snow Leopard 10.6.8 I am using iMovie '11 version 9.0.4 (1634).

Making for the first time a movie out of iPhoto pictures, with lots of effects (transitions, titles, etc.), I experience in the use of the Ken Burns effect that any zooming ('in' as well as 'out'), or panning, constantly generates a kind of 'moiré' artifact: stones, leaves, steps, rooftiles and in general anything that is rather detailed, start to twinkle and flicker. The duration of those scenes varies between 1.14 and 4.00. On extreme shortcuts, this effect is - as seems obvious - rather not seen.

As the use of the Ken Burns effect in my iMovie project is essential, I love to know how to avoid that detoriation. In iMovie itself it is not too ennoying on my 27" iMac monitor. But on TV, with the DVD burned (iDVD version 7.1.2 - 1158), it is really desastrous to watch...

Is upgrading from iMovie to Final Cut a solution?

Thanks for any help.

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 7:21 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 17, 2011 8:39 AM in response to pdrcourious

That extremely fine detail you're noticing the moiré pattern on is probably only affected by lowering the contrast of the images. It's kind of like putting a softer focus filter on it in a a way. High contrast, sharpness is not what you want. You can try lowering the contrast by clicking on one of the most egregiously moiré-ing images and hit letter V to bring up the video inspector. Drag the Contrast slider to the left, by 50 and do a test run. I think it might make the moire less noticeable because the edge-effect will be softened, maybe the moiré will be less noticeable too.

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Answer 2

pdrcourious Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2011 10:28 AM in response to elikness

I applied your advise on several clips, without succes. Moreover, lowering the contrast makes the clips more grey: all colours fade out...

Other tips here in the margin on 'More Like This' ("Here's how to make an iDVD...") are interesting too, but concern older iMovie versions. Is there really no other way than was suggested (starting from iPhoto, instead of on the basis of iMovie in my case)?

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Answer 3

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 18, 2011 12:29 PM in response to pdrcourious

The only other thing you can try is to look at your workflow from iMovie to iDVD. There are two possible paths:

1. Share > Share to iDVD

2. Share > Share to Media Browser

For highest quality the second option is the best. It uses a completely different mechanism than option 1. Believe it or not Option 1 actually transcodes to MPEG 2 directly into the iDVD project. Whereas option 2 converts to H.264 then gets transcoded within iDVD itself.

Which way did you get your video into iDVD originally? I don't know if changing the path into iDVD will have any effect on your moiré artifacts.

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Answer 4

pdrcourious Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 18, 2011 2:12 PM in response to elikness

I used the first option, and will try the second one.

Is there a way to show directly within this community site an example of what I meant bij "moiré" or "twinkeling"?

Am I correct that publicing within the Mediabrowser has to be as 'Big (960 x 540)" in stead of the two "HD 720p/1080p" options?

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Answer 5

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 19, 2011 2:57 PM in response to pdrcourious

Yes, choose the 'Big (960x540)' size. DVD cannot playback anything larger than 720x480 MAXIMUM that is the International Reference Standard for all DVD playback. So there's no point in exporting HD720p/1080p whatsoever as ALL that data gets thrown away to fit into the 720x480 frame size. With Big size you are still throwing away data, but it's not as much data and it will take a lot, LOT less time Sharing it to Media Browser at Big size versus Full HD (like 10x shorter because of the difference in the size of the files being generated).

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Answer 6

pdrcourious Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2011 3:34 AM in response to elikness

I now did share the iMovie project, showing hardly any 'moiré/twinkeling' artifacts after changing or eliminating the Ken Burns Effect, to the Media Browser as 'Big'.

By starting the new iDVD project, the 'Movie' option under 'Media' button contains the iMovie project (only 16.38 min. long) indeed, but in playing it for control all the known artifacts keep appearing again.

Will they disappear in the proper iDVD 'professional' encoding proces, or is - maybe - my workflow wrong? Is iDVD essential and necessary to burn the DVD, or is there another way to go from iMovie export to Media Browser to DVD?

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Answer 7

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 21, 2011 8:10 AM in response to pdrcourious

Professional setting for the final encoding step might get rid of the artifacts. I don't know for certain I cannot test it out for you in advance. So try it and see.

Based on everything you've described the workflow is what I consider to be the iMovie Discussion Group's best practices for getting good quality video from iMovie out to DVD-R using iDVD as the encoding/burning software. And unfortunately the Media Browser only works with other iLife Apps, and iDVD is the only iLife program to create DVDs. Other options to iDVD includ Roxio Toast which gives you different quality/size options. But again I don't know if it's going to address your problem with the artifacts you are seeing in the still images.

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Answer 8

runrs13

Level 1

5 points

Oct 23, 2011 11:38 AM in response to elikness

I think there are two paths from iMovie to iDVD. Direct to iDVD or a Quick Time Movie. I think I noticed some noise by using the QT Movie and then importing to iDVD. Which is the right way?

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Answer 9

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 23, 2011 3:22 PM in response to runrs13

runrs13. Share to Media Browser, Share to iDVD, Export to QuickTime. Share to Media Browser wins hands down compared to ALL other paths.

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Answer 10

runrs13

Level 1

5 points

Oct 23, 2011 10:02 PM in response to elikness

I want to ask why does one path over the others produce a better product? Thanks for your help. So many paths to take and always wondered which was the best. Again, thanks.

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Answer 11

pdrcourious Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2011 3:30 AM in response to runrs13

The path advised by "elikness" (19, 21/10) gave the best result. Small artfacts still remain on some images (for example: the very narrow seating rows in the ancient theatre of Dodoni in Greece keep some 'waves'), but overall the result of sharing to the Media Browser and then encoding as 'Big' seems to be a fairly sufficient solution.

Maybe these existing small artifacts, as still seen on my HD Sony Bravia, are produced by playing the DVD on my Sony DVD recorder through a component 576p signal, its best output quality.

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Answer 12

runrs13

Level 1

5 points

Oct 24, 2011 5:51 PM in response to elikness

Where do I find the final rendering of "Share to Media Browser"? Need to get it into iDVD but can't find the movie product.

Thanks,

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Answer 13

elikness

Level 4

2,640 points

Oct 24, 2011 6:37 PM in response to runrs13

From iDVD click on the button labeled: Media, then above there in the upper right hand corner is another button lableled: Movies. Click on those two buttons, first Media then Movies. This will open the Media Browser just below the Movies button. And you will see an iMovie star icon with a list of project names underneath of it. One of those will be the project that you Shared to Media Browser. Drag that iMovie Project icon into your iDVD Project window and then burn the DVD-R.

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