MacMost: iMovie

There are many unusual ways to use the features in iMovie to create visual effects and filters that you may not think are possible. Take a look at 10 ideas using titles, transistions, overlays and other techniques.

iMovie offers limited setting for exporting videos. You can use Apple's Compressor app to take high-quality iMovie videos and compress them however you like. You can also create stand-alone droplet apps to make repeated conversions quick and easy. You can do the same with audio files creating in GarageBand and elsewhere.

You can use the Maps app on your Mac for more than just finding locations and getting directions. You can create maps to be used in other apps as well. You can export a map into Preview and then annotate it to send in an email or message. You can copy and paste or export a map to use in Pages documents, Keynote presentations and iMovie video projects. You can also export satellite and 3D views.

You can create your own transitions for iMovie using Keynote. But making simple one or two-slide presentations that include a transparent background, you can export short videos that can be used as overlays in iMovie. These overlays can be applied to become a transition between one clip and another. They can also be customize with graphics to fit your style or theme in the video.

You can quickly and easily made a slideshow in the Photos app, but those can't be exported to share. By using the free iMovie app from Apple, you can build a slideshow from a set of photos in minutes and then export it as video to share. You can also customize each photo with filters, cropping, movement and text. You can add music, audio and narration to the slideshow too. The basic idea works on the iPad as well.

You can create a fireball in Keynote and then export it as a transparent video. You can then record yourself with QuickTime Player and place the fireball in your hand. It can move with you and you can even throw it if you put the time in to create animation keyframes in iMovie.

Learn how to create an iMovie project, edit it, and export in less than 5 minutes with this complete tutorial. In this fast tutorial I take four clips, trim and arrange them, add titles, transisions, music and filters, and then export a finished project. Get up to speed on iMovie for Mac fast.

Learn some quick and simple tricks you can use to enhance your next iMovie video project. You can adjust iMovie's backgrounds to make them unique or bring in your own. Add audio narration and adjust the fade in and out of any audio. Use cropping to zoom in and special effects like freeze frame and instant replay.

If you want to go beyond the title text feature in iMovie, you can create your own styled text in Keynote or any image editing tool and use the resulting image as an overlay. Then you can use picture-in-picture keyframes in iMovie to animate the text popping in from one side or scale as it moves. You can use this technique with any transparent image for a variety of effects.

You can use the Ken Burns cropping effect to zoom in to a portion of your video in iMovie. However, this cropping effect will continue over the entire length of your clip. To zoom in starting at a certain point and then to stay at the same zoom level for a while afterwards, you need to split the clip at the right places and use a trick to keep the video zoomed out at the end.

It can be difficult to get text to look good in iMovie since you can only choose from a limited number of title options. But you can use a graphics app or Keynote to create any text you want, and then overlay that text on your video. By copying a frame of your video, you can adjust the text to look good in Keynote, and then export just the text as a transparent image. This text can fit the video perfectly, or be used as a resizable and moveable element to position in iMovie.

You can use speed ramping to speed up or slow down portions of a video clip, with the change in speed occurring smoothly. This is commonly used in movies to create a better pace for action sequences. You can use it to shorten long portions of your video or highlight bits of action.

Some apps and Final Cut Pro allow you to add a camcorder overlay to make video look like it was recorded on an old video camera. You can do the same in iMovie using an overlay created in Keynote. With this approach, you can highly customize the camcorder overlay. Once you create your Keynote template, you can continue to customize and adjust it for future use.

The opening and closing slides of a presentation are often on the screen for a while, so why not make them more interesting than just some text? You can easily add a video as a background to a keynote slide. With iMovie you can create a few different backgrounds that you can reuse.

You can't resize or position an overlay and also apply a green screen effect in iMovie at the same time. However, you can do the scaling positioning over a green background, export, and then use the resulting video in another project to get the same result.

You can create professional-looking video end credits with Keynote using only a single simple animation on a single slide. You can incorporate a long list of names, and add shapes, photos or other elements into a group. The result is easily modified and exported as a video to bring into iMovie, Final Cut or any other video editing app.

When you have several clips that you want to use in the same project in iMovie, sometimes you have to deal with different sound levels in each clip. You can use the Auto Loudness button to quickly adjust the volume in each clip. You can also manually adjust the volume in a clip or part of a clip. You can also use noise reduction improve the sound quality in a clip.

If you need to rotate video a small amount to correct a camera tilt or create a special effect, you can't do it with iMovie or QuickTime Player. However, you can use Keynote to rotate video. This involves a small Keynote project with just the video, plus a rotation, and then an export. You need to make adjustments to avoid leaving blank corners.

If you have video recorded in the wrong orientation, you can rotate it after you add it to the iMovie timeline. You can also change the original file by opening it in QuickTime Player, rotating it, and saving a new version. If you need to rotate video in Photos, you'll have to export the video, rotate it in QuickTime Player, and then import the new version back into Photos.

You can export a still frame image from a video many different ways with the software that comes with your Mac. If you are already in iMovie, you can use the sharing function to export an image from the current frame in the timeline or a library clip. In Photos you can save a frame in a video to your Photos library as a picture, and you can also copy the current frame and paste it into another app. The easiest way is with QuickTime Player where you can copy the current frame and then paste it into Preview or any other app that handles images.