Digital Commons at Penn State

This tutorial will show you how to import a number of sequential image files so you can create animations at various frame rates.

Download Sample Files

Video normally plays back at 30 fps (frames per second). This means that 1 minute of video consists of 1800 individual frames (30 x 60 sec). For this workshop, we are going to create an animated image sequence at 10 fps. 1 minute at this rate will need 600 images.

1. Final Cut Pro lets you set a default video size for imported images. We need to set things so that an image is imported to play as 3 individual video frames. This will give us a playback frame rate of 10fps.
To set this import size go to the top menu and select user preferences from the Final Cut Pro menu.

2. Select the editing tab (second item) in the user preferences and change Still/Freeze Duration to 00:00:00:03. Click OK.

3. Import the folder of images. These should be sequentially named and 720X480.

iMovie 09 allows you to smooth out or stabilize a clip, in other words if your footage is really shaky it will help smooth that out. The following tutorial will help you find and smooth out your clip in iMovie 09.

Once you have some footage in your timeline you are ready to smooth it out. To do so simply hover your mouse over the footage and you will see a "Gear wheel" appear over that specific clip, click this "Gear Wheel" and choose the option "Clip Adjustments."

Once "Clip Adjustments" has been selected you will see an "inspector window" pop up on screen.

You will see a check box at the bottom of the inspector window that reads "Stabilization: Smooth Clip Motion" check that box and iMovie will automatically analyze the clip, this may take a few minutes depending on the clip.

iMovie 09 allows you to change the speed or direction that a clip plays. The following tutorial will help you find and change the speed of a particular clip.

Once you have some footage in your timeline you are ready to change the speed of that footage. To do so simply hover your mouse over the footage and you will see a "Gear wheel" appear over that specific clip, click this "Gear Wheel" and choose the option "Clip Adjustments."

Once "Clip Adjustments" has been selected you will see an "inspector window" pop up on screen.

From here you can manipulate the speed of a clip by dragging the speed bar, moving left slows down your clip and moving right speeds it up. To the left of the bar you can see the percentage of speed for that clip and the exact duration of that clip in seconds. There is also a button to reverse the clip and play it backwards.

Once you have the speed you would like simply click "Done" to apply it to your clip.

iMovie 09 comes with several video effects that can be added to any or all of your footage to help you achieve a style or look to your video. The following tutorial will help you find and add those effects.

Once you have some footage in your timeline you are ready to add video effects to that footage. To do so simply hover your mouse over the footage and you will see a "Gear wheel" appear over that specific clip, click this "Gear Wheel" and choose the option "Clip Adjustments."

Once "Clip Adjustments" has been selected you will see an "inspector window" pop up on screen.

From this window click the "Video Effects" Button that currently should read "None"

Now you will see a list of effects you can use on your video clip, you can simply scrub or mouse over these effects to view your clip with that particular effect on it. Simply click on the one you like and it will be applied to your clip. You can then press done in the inspector window to return to your timeline.

You can now create and edit projects in iMovie 09 using themes. These themes will automatically place titles and transitions in between your clips as you add them to iMovie 09.

To start lets create a new project by clicking File > New Project. The new project dialogue box will now appear, here you can choose your selected theme.

Now you will have an empty timeline in iMovie, you can start adding content to your timeline as you usually would by selecting and dragging video from your events into the timeline. As you add video footage you will see that the opening title is created.

As you add your second clip iMovie 09 will automatically add the ending credits title to your video project, don't worry as you continue to add video to your timeline the ending credits will get pushed back to the last clip each time.

iMovie 09 has a new feature that allows users to create custom animated maps to place in their video, this tutorial will outline exactly how to create and include one of these maps in your video.

To start we want to locate the "Maps and Backgrounds" button on the right hand side of the toolbar, clicking this button will show us the maps and backgrounds explorer.

At this point we can choose what style of map we would like to use, once we choose simply click and drag that map to any point in your timeline and drop it.

Now you will see the map on your timeline, an inspector window will automatically open allowing you to edit the map, this window will be located randomly on your screen, if you lose the window simply click on the map in your timeline to view it again.

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Faculty Case Study Interview

Student Video: Squat

The project is a video-based movement analysis of a physical motion (i.e. soccer kick, baseball throw). Students choose a 10-second motion to analyze (e.g. throw a baseball or step off a staire), video tape the motion, and then put it into a format that they can share with classmates in a presentation.