Posted Friday, May 09, 2003

Ken Burns: A Little Shakey

A reader writes with an iMovie 3 question: "When I try to do a zoom with Ken Burns I always have problems with chattering, aliasing and a bouncing of the picture, almost like the earthquake effect in iMovie. I am using photos that were recorded in the high end of the resolution scale on my camera. I have tried slowing the speed way down, and a small zoom, still with the same problem. No matter what I try the process does not work for me. Any ideas?"

I've seen this problem sometimes myself. An Apple representative acknowledged that other users have reported some shakiness, and says the company is "looking into refining the feature even more."

In the meantime, you might try one of the third-party pan/zoom add-ons that are available for iMovie. I write about these on page 129 of "The Macintosh iLife." My favorite is LQ Graphics' Photo to Movie, which not only provides smoother moves than does Ken Burns, it also provides "ease-in" and "ease-out" features that make pans and zooms less jarring. Highly recommended.