Slick 8 Effects

Slick Motion II Tutorial

Slick Motion II brings life to your still images with advanced pan and zoom features.

First, select a clip on the iMovie time line. Most often, this will be a "dummy" clip, as your pan and zoom will go over this clip. We recommend that a still image be used as it is easy to adjust this duration to the desired length of your pan and zoom motion.

The next step is to select the Slick Motion II name in the list of Effects, and click the Configure button. The custom dialog box window will appear.

Select a graphic file for your motion by clicking on the Choose button. The recommended formats are JPEG and TIFF

Click on a diamond marker on the Key Frame line to select a key frame. The box at the center of the Canvas represents the full screen of the video. You can see this in the Preview window. At first it may be counter-intuitive, but a small box will show the picture with a high zoom factor, and a small box will show relatively little zoom.

In the Canvas, the controls to adjust the frame:

  • Position the frame within the picture by dragging in the center area of the box.
  • Resize the frame by moving the side handles.
  • Rotate the frame by dragging outside the box.

You can also set the parameters manually by typing in values in the Info area. This is also the area to set the opacity of each frame.

The checkbox locks the aspect ratio as you resize the box. Uncheck the box to have the width and height parameters scale independently.

To add a key frame, move the playhead to the desired location on the timeline and click on the “+” button.

The frame attributes (position, size, rotation, opacity) can be edited only at a key frame position. To get to a particular keyframe, click on a diamond marker on the Key Frame line.

The motion path can bet set to move between key frames in straight lines or curve.

When the Ease In/Out checkbox is selected, a double marker appears at the first and last key frame. The length of the double marker determines the hold time at the beginning and ending of the motion. Move the interior marker to change that time,

The constant speed option gives the motion a uniform velocity along the path. In essence, this ignores the timing aspect of the key frames.

The last steps are to click the OK button and Apply the effect in the main iMovie window.

Slick Motion II Gallery

Slick Motion II Overview

Slick Motion II Gallery
Example 1 - Example 2 - Example 3 - Example 4 - Example 5
Example 6 - Example 7 - Example 8 - Example 9 - Example 10

 

 

 

 


Some Slick Motion II Tips

To ensure a smooth motion, the duration of the motion must be long enough to accommodate the distance traveled and degree of zoom. For example, if the path distance is 100 pixels over a short period of less than 100 frames, the motion may look jumpy. The solution is to increase the duration of the motion or decrease the travel.

Panning and zooming images with very fine detail can cause those details to flicker during a pan and zoom. One solution that can help is the slightly blur the image before you apply the motion effect.

For a very cool effect, instead of using a "dummy" image on the timeline, use a nice picture or video and set the opacity of the motion so that it is semi-transparent.

To get a smooth zooming action over the duration of the motion, set the beginning and ending scale before adding key frames. As you add key frames to set the position of the frame, the scaling setting at the point in the timeline will preserved for a smooth scaling.