Leveraging Photoshop skills within iMovie 09 projects.

1. Creating logos
for iMovie 09
This isn’t an official iMovie function, but it does help
leverage existing Photoshop skills in learners for use in video.
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2. Both Photoshop CS and Elements have a video template
under the menu file>new option. But to ensure you have the
exact pixel dimensions of your iMovie Project, you can
“right click” on a clip to create a freeze frame as a template.
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3. You can reveal the freeze frame in the finder by ctrl/click or
right clicking on the still image. (You can delete the image
from the project later).
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4. Again right click on the freeze frame in the finder to force it
to open in your image editor of choice.
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5. Just out of interest by going to Photoshop’s Image menu
you can check the pixel dimensions of the freeze frame
taken from iMovie - in this case it is 960x540.
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6. Select the image by the Cmd/A short cut. Then use
File>New>from clipboard Ensure that “background contents” is
set for “transparent.” This will create a new empty document for
our logo design.
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7. Create your design in Photoshop - have fun with layers.
Any text layers need to be simplified (elements) rasterised
in Photoshop CS. I’ve been restrained here !
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8. Merge your layers- it is crucial that your background
remains transparent.
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9. Merge down layers (as opposed to flatten) so that
you are left with one layer but with the transparency
intact.
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10. Save as PNG.
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11. Drag and drop your logo from the finder to the project.
Make sure you have the “advanced settings” on in the iMovie
preferences. A drop down menu will appear. Choose Cutaway.
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12. You can fade the cutaway in. In this example, I’ve reduced the
the size of logo in Photoshop and placed it bottom left of the
template before saving as a PNG.
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13. Jagged edges can occur with complex image
outlines. A small amount of blur can be
helpful in terms of smoothing the outline.
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14. A note about Final Cut Pro/Express
this kind of work can be extended in FCE/Pro
whole .PSD files with layers can be imported
the file appears as a nested track with each layer intact
each video track can then be animated and effects applied
offering a whole new way of working with time based
Photoshop layers.

15. julian coultas
digitalroadtrip.org
+44 7970323255