How make still images into movie - each 1 frame only??

The photos were imported for 5 seconds each because apparently that's the duration currently set in the Photo Settings window, the window that opens when you press the Show Photo Settings button.

The shortest duration offered by the Photo Settings window is 00:03 — three frames. But there is a back door to import with a 1-frame duration. The trick is to use the iMovie feature that imports photos using the import duration — and all the other photo import settings — of the last imported clip you clicked on.

1. Click on any photo in the Photos list. Press the Show Photo Settings button. Turn OFF the Ken Burns checkbox in the Photo Settings window; drag the duration slider as far left as it will go; then press the Apply button. The new clip will have a duration of 3 frames. (Don't try to type the duration in the Photo Settings text box. The text box is buggy and you won't get the duration you want.)

2. Double-click on that new clip. In the Clip Info window that opens, change the duration to 0:00:01, which is one frame. Press the Set button. Now the clip will play for one frame.

3. In the Photos list, click on any photo. The default duration will be 00:03 in the Photo Settings window, which is the duration of your last import.

4. Now click on the new 1-frame clip, then click on any photo in the Photos list. Now the default duration will be 1 frame, not 3.

5. The photos you subsequently import will be 1 frame long until you change the duration, or click on a clip that's longer.

There's one other hurdle, importing the photos in the order you want them. Ideally you have them now in the same folder, and they are named in numerical order. To preserve the order, the best method is usually to use iMovie's File > Import command to import all at the same time. (Click on the first photo in the folder, then Shift-click on the last one.)

That method usually delivers them in the proper order. Dragging them from a Finder window — or from the photos list — usually will not.

Oh, and don't forget to set your iMovie preferences to import them to the Timeline, not the Clip pane.

If you can't get this to work then Yes, use QuickTime Pro's Import Sequence command. It lets you import all the photos with whatever duration you want. Save that movie, then import it to iMovie. Doing the type of movies you are, it's probably worth purchasing QT Pro for that one feature.

Karl

Hello Eric:

if you happen to have Quicktime Pro, then you can import all the images as a sequence, as long as they are the same format, named exactly the same and have a numerical sequence. - Simply go to the File>Open Sequence menu in quicktime Pro and select the first image... then you can save that as a "reference" movie so you do not need to render all the frames, and then import into iMovie.

I hope that helps.

cheers

those are great instructions
First of all, after I have all the .bmp files to make the animation, do I import those photos into iPhoto?
because I did that
And I made them all one frame long
But then when I went to go to file, import, it opened up a dialog box that looked basically like the open dialog box
I couldn't figure out a way to import the selected images Shift-Clicking and then going File>Import
Any idea what will work? I want this method to work for me, but it might just need a little tweaking
I don't want to drop $30 to buy QT Pro

iMac intel core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

It's not necessary to first import the photos to iPhoto. The instructions above assume the user has done that — because most do — but that's not a requirement.

The first step is to drag any photo from iPhoto (or from a Finder window or any other location) to the Timeline of the project. That creates a clip. Then select the clip in the Timeline and configure new Photo Settings for it, using the settings described in #1 above. Then Update it.

Then proceed with Step 2 above. That step sets the default duration of future imports to 1 frame.

Now import your photos to iMovie. To do that you can 1) drag them from a Finder window to the Timeline or 2) choose File > Import, then Shift-click to select the photos.

The one-frame duration will "stick" until you intentionally change it or click on a clip that has a different duration.

Karl

How did you know what to do - where did you figure that out?

Mostly from listening in this forum 🙂

Glad it helped.

Karl