iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Still Images as Titles

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, one of the best reasons to get to know the still-image importing feature is so that you can supplement, or replace, iMovie’s builtin titling feature. By using still images as your titles, you gain the freedom to use any colors, type sizes, and positions you want.

The only disadvantage to this approach is that you sacrifice the professional-looking animation styles built into the iMovie titling feature.

Even so, imported graphic title cards don’t have to be still and static by any means. For one thing, there’s nothing to stop you from animating your still-image titles by applying the Ken Burns effect to them—to make the title zoom in from nothing, for example, or slide from left to right. (Just remember to prepare the title as a graphic with high enough resolution for Ken Burns to work with.)

The Freeze-Frame Effect

If you were a fan of 1970s action shows like Emergency!, you may remember how the opening credits looked: You’d be watching one of the starring characters frantically at work in some lifesaving situation. As she looked up from her work just for a moment, the picture would freeze, catching her by lucky happenstance at her most flattering angle. At that instant, you’d see her credit flashed onto the screen: “JULIE LONDON as Dixie McCall, RN.” (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy does the same kind of thing.)

That’s an easy one to simulate. Just create a freeze-frame as described in the next section, and then ...