I didn’t know about these nice tricks.
They’re from Jeff Carlson, author of Peachpit’s iMovie ‘09 and iDVD for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide. Well done.
Well, I am re-evaluting my opinion of the not-so-new “new” iMovie. I was so used to the older version, iMovie HD, which had been expanded but not fundamentally changed, since it was introduced in 1999 (Ten years? Yow).
Ken Stone, a source for so much great Final Cut information, posted the most complete one-page overview of iMovie I’ve ever seen. He loves it:
So why am I writing about iMovie 09 if I work in FCP? The answer is simple. At the demonstration I saw a number of features in iMovie 09, that I wished were in FCP and I wondered if there was a way to use iMovie 09 in conjunction with FCP, utilizing some of its features to supplement the FCP workflow, most importantly in the rough cut phase of editing, as ‘09’ has an amazing skimming/edit tool. iMovie also sports a new and modern tool for exact clip trimming, the Precision Editor, and it’s stunning. And, iMovie provides full Real Time playback, no rendering required, ever.
[...]
iMovie is very intuitive and easy to use, despite the fact that it has some very advanced features, features that it would be nice to see incorporated into Apple’s other editing application, Final Cut Pro. iMovie is a very modern editing application and it works in a much more visual way than editing applications that were first created over a decade ago. This graphical aspect of iMovie is more persuasive and powerful than one might first suspect. And don’t let the fact that iMovie ships in the iLife package and comes free on new Macs fool you, this is an amazingly modern and capable editing application.
This is not only a detailed examination of iMovie but a great and generous example of technical writing
I had my first workshop for iMovie 09 last week. I’ve used the earlier version of iMovie for years, and had allowed some reviewers negative comments to scare me away from the update. It takes getting used to, but it makes its own sense once you start working with it. Its biggest weakness: its audio capabilities remain less flexible than the older version.
To make the new iMovie work better for you (I guess it’s not so new, now that its been out a year and a half), Jeff Carlson of the indispensable TidBITS posts four little-known improvements to the 8.0.1 update to iMovie 09:
TidBITS Media Creation: iMovie ‘09 8.0.1 Update Brings More than Just Bug Fixes.
I used to use iMovie much more often; now I do almost all my video editing in Final Cut Pro. Many in the college either use our small Mac lab for video and DVD creation or have their own Macs now. The new iLife, which incorporates iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, and more, has achieved hit a sweet spot in power and usability. It’s still not a piece of cake for those used to Windows, but it’s stable, flexible, and really easy. Read through this exhaustive review from uber-tech site Ars Technica for a solid learning experience whether you’re a Mac rookie or experienced user.
Ars Reviews iLife ‘09: making the cut with iMovie and iPhoto – Ars Technica.
There are alternatives to some of the paid apps they link to in this nice list of quick tips. Regrettably I don’t have time at the moment to link to them.Those aside, this is a good list for the Mac newbie, from TechRadar UK: 69 really useful OS X timesavers | News | TechRadar UK.
Jeff Carlson of the venerable Mac news and info site TidBITS on the immense improvements to iMovie 09, including10 coole features you may not know about. Among them: you can now apply a set of filters and effects to a clip, and then copy and paste those onto other clips in your video project. That’s a feature I use in Final Cut Pro all the time. Nice.
Andy Ihnatko in Chicago Sun-Times says Apple’s iMovie09 is a true ‘wow’ update for video software. It’s not an in-depth review (you can find several via the Google), but I appreciate what he says about the image stabilization. That’s a major improvement that likely has developers of other edit apps trying to catch up. He also loves the new interface over the older one. I’ll have to give this latest version a new look after reading this.
I had fun compositing the image with XtraLean Software’s Imagewell using Andy’s headshot from his blog, the icon from iMovie 09, and the heart icon from DryIcons. Making the image took almost no time; I spent far too long searching for the heart. Thanks to all, but especially DryIcons.
Macworld magazine reviews the changes added (some added back) to iMovie 09. More information at Apple’s iMovie page as well.
This introduction is “gentle” only in technical terms; Mark Pilgrim’s language can get quite salty, so if your school’s filters block four-letter words, you’ll need to read this at home. Nonetheless, the four part A Gentle Introduction to Video Encoding (part one, part two, part three, part four) is an excellent introduction to concepts, terminology, patent status, and limitations of the formats. It does not provide any instruction or tutorials, but those are widely available through the Google.
The knowledgable folks at TidBITS like the changes in the new iMovie ‘09”:http://db.tidbits.com/article/9984 announced yesterday at Macworld.