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Slideshow timing ruined by transitions

I'm working on a slideshow in iMovie that has about 55 photos. Each photo lasts for about 5 seconds so that in the end, it fits the length of my 5 minute song.

HOWEVER, when I add the "cross dissolve" transition to all my photos, iMovie shortens the length of all my pictures to something over 3 seconds and the overall length of my slideshow shrinks from 5 minutes to just over 4 minutes.

Why does iMovie do this!? Better yet, how do I remedy this?

Thanks for your insights!

20" Intel iMac 2GB RAM - 500GB HD, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 23, 2006 4:35 PM

Reply
13 replies

Aug 23, 2006 5:58 PM in response to Terrabay

Hi Terrabay.

If you double click on each photo in the time line, a screen will come up with clip info. Down the bottom of that screen you will find a "Duration" box. You can change the time there to the length required.

Another suggestion for you (if you are only using stills) - try FotoMagico. You can download a demo version and have a play with it - the transitions don't affect the timing that you set for your photos AND best of all - the quality you get is absolutely superb. You then export it to iDVD and voila, you have a great project.

Aug 23, 2006 10:05 PM in response to Terrabay

Imagine you have 2 five-second photos. When you select "cross dissolve" with a time, say, of 2-seconds, then your 2 photos are now sort of laid on top of each other for 2 of those 10 seconds. So where those 2 photos would have taken up 10 seconds, they now take 10 - 2, or 8 seconds, which is now 4 seconds each. So by the end of 55 photos you have lost a significant amount of time.

Fix 1: Do the math and lenghthen each picture to account for the transition time.

Fix 2: The Overlap transition does not shorten the length of your clips, and it looks very similar to Cross Dissolve. Change your transitions and your original timing should be fine.

Aug 24, 2006 3:26 PM in response to Smtr

those 2 photos would have taken up 10 seconds, they
now take 10 - 2, or 8 seconds, which is now 4 seconds
each. So by the end of 55 photos you have lost a
significant amount of time.



But why would adding a transition effect take ANY time??

Using your example, I would expect that if you had 2 five second photos with a 2 second transition, photo 1 would be pure for 4 seconds, seconds 5-6 would be the transition between photos 1 and 2, seconds 6-10 would be purely photo 2.

Why does adding a transition TAKE AWAY from my total time???

Aug 24, 2006 4:59 PM in response to Terrabay

Why does adding a transition TAKE AWAY from my total
time???


Some transitions affect the total length of the project while others do not. Don't miss what Smtr said, that the Overlap transition is different than the Cross Dissolve transition in this regard. In your case, the Overlap transition may be what you should use.

The Cross Dissolve transition borrows 2 seconds from EACH side to build a 2-second transition. Put another way, it borrows 4 seconds total to build a 2-second transition. That's a net loss of 2 seconds to the total length of the project.

The Overlap transition, on the other hand, borrows 2 seconds from only the right side to build a 2-second transition. There's no net loss.

A Cross Dissolve transition must behave like that so both clips continue to zoom or pan during the transition. An Overlap does not continue the pan or zoom on both sizes, so it doesn't have to borrow from both sides. Essentially, it plays 2 seconds of the right clip on top of the last frame of the left clip.

To see the visual difference, import two photos with a zoom or pan — imported with the Ken Burns checkbox ON. Duplicate both clips on the Timeline, then apply a Cross Dissolve to one set and an Overlap to the other set.

Karl

Aug 25, 2006 3:41 PM in response to paylady

I ran into so many "bugs" with
IMovie6 that I had given up.


I think you're right, the operative word here is "bug." Though there may be scenarios why you may want adding a transition to magically reduce the length of the two joining clips, the majority of times this would be a disruptive to the timing of your movie. A bug that I hope iMovie remedies when we see iMovie 7 someday.

Aug 26, 2006 9:14 PM in response to Karl Petersen

Sometimes a software feature doesn't work exactly as
we expect it to, but that doesn't make it a bug.
Sometime we just have to learn how to work with the
software.

Karl


Karl, I had a mini revelation this morning...I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to understand why a transition would shorten the total time and I finally get it. Using two physical slides as a metaphor for the virtual ones we use in iMovie, I realized that if I placed the two slides so that they overlapped one another (with the overlapping part representing the transition), the total time indeed IS shorter. Guess I'm more used to working physically than virtually.

I take back my comment about it being a "bug," however, it's not the most intuitive thing and I'm sure many newer iMovie users question where the time went.

Aug 27, 2006 9:54 AM in response to Terrabay

I take back my comment about it being a "bug," however, it's not the most
intuitive thing and I'm sure many newer iMovie users question where the time
went.


Absabloominlutely true!

It doesn't "look" right, so probably 99% of us have concluded, at least initially, that it's not working as it should. Then eventually the lightbulb goes on. (For me, the lightbulb tends to go on during sleep, for you, the kitchen.)

Karl

Aug 28, 2006 11:36 AM in response to Karl Petersen

Absabloominlutely true!

It doesn't "look" right, so probably 99% of us have
concluded, at least initially, that it's not working
as it should. Then eventually the lightbulb goes on.
(For me, the lightbulb tends to go on during sleep,
for you, the kitchen.)

Karl


I'm a fairly new Apple user and I wish that Apple would do more user testing with people like me so that they could anticipate where newbies get frustrated. Do we know if they monitor and incorporate the findings from these boards to improved their products?

Slideshow timing ruined by transitions

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