iMovie Information

... I will be out Wed. afternoon and all day Thurs. and Fri.... SO... here are step by step instructions on how to import photos to iMovie, set up the clip speed in preferences, take off the "Ken Burns" effect, and other helpful tips for making your Stop Motion, "Claymation", Film. Okay... here goes....

Opening iMovie: Go to Finder, Applications, iMovie (with a star and movie camera in the logo).

Click on the icon to open and I would keep the icon in your tool bar.

Once open, a box that says.... "iPhoto Video Thumbnails" import "Now" or "Later"... click "Later"!

Click "File", "New Project", and Title it with your title for your Claymation Project. Keep the "Ratio" on "Widescreen" and DO NOT ADD A THEME!! Also, DO NOT ADD an AUTOMATIC TRANSITION!!

Next....

Setting Up Clip Speed: Click on "iMovie" in the top bar next to "File". Then click on "Preferences". Once you are in "Preferences" click the square that says, "Display time as HH:MM:SS:Frames". This will help your film movements look more realistic. You will want all of your clips to be at least :05sec. If you do not click this box the fastest your clips can go will be a full second per slide which is really slow!!!

Next....

Adding an Title and Introduction Slide: Click on the "World Icon" to add a background. Everything you do will use a drag and drop method.

Then, click on the "T" icon to add your text. Make sure to include your title here!! For end credits you will need to do the same steps but make sure to credit the characters, voices, creators, and music. You will also want both of these slides to last much longer that :04 like the other slides.

Next.....

Importing Photos: To import photos you are going to use the same steps just from the camera icon. You will drag and drop the images onto your story board. You can choose more than one photo at a time by pressing shift and highlighting all of the ones you want. Drag them to the area and it will import them to your story board.

Next....

Changing Clip Speed and Ken Burns: Once the images are imported you will need to change the clip time and the Ken Burns effect. You can hold shift and highlight all of the images that you wish to change... (I believe, my computer is a bit different than yours) After that click on the tiny blue gear icon. I cannot take a screen shot of it because it disapears. If there is no gear you can click on the photo and it should pull up the "Inspector Box" as well.

After clicking on the gear, you sould see the "Inspector" box and change the "Duration" to :04 or :05 depending on what your computer will allow. Click the box that applies to all stills and then click done.

After changing the clip duration, you need to get all of your images off of "Ken Burns" effect, which zooms into each photo. You will click the crop tool at the top of the photo. This should be what you see.

Take off "Ken Burns" by clicking "Fit", then click "Done".

You should not do any croping or editing here! It should be done in photo booth and iPhoto!!

Next....

Adding Music and Sound: You will look at the same icon bar at the middle right and click the music notes. You will use the same drag and drop method by grabbing a song and dropping it onto the slide where you want the song to start.

To add narration you will click on the "Microphone" icon. It will bring up a "Voiceover" box and it will say "Click a clip to start recording". Play with it until you get it the way you want.

Finally....

Little tips and added info below!

Remember to add your last background slide with text as your end credits!

Also you may need to duplicate a photo or lengthen its time if the characters are supposed to be still for a few frames.

If you have any questions....

Comment to this post or email me at ahough@esc17.net.

Best Wishes!!! Mrs. Stewart