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Modify or Remove the Motion Effect in the iMovie App

Edited by Djinu, VisiHow, Dougie, Eng

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Steps

Video: Modify or Remove the Motion Effect in the iMovie App

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You're watching VisiHow. In the previous tutorial, we detached sounds and created voice-overs. This is a tutorial on how to edit or remove a Ken Burns effect in iMovie. A Ken Burns (motion) effect is the default effect in iMovie on the Mac.

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Edit Or Remove Ken Burns in iMovie.mp4-canvas3 553774.jpg

Steps

1
To begin, add a clip by clicking the plus sign in the lower-right corner of a selected clip
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Instead of just playing photos, you will get a slight video motion. This will zoom in or out to a different area on the photo. The effect is somewhat random in the direction it chooses. For some photos, it may zoom out. While in other photos, it may start at the top and pan to the bottom. For the particular photo in the video, let's see a zoom effect instead of a pan effect.

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2
Click the clip in the timeline
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3
With the clip selected, click the "Crop" icon above the clip preview
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When the crop tool opens, you can see that there is a "Start" position and an "End" position.
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4
Drag the "Start" frame by the anchor point
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This will resize the visual frame at the start.

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5
You can drag the "Start" frame around in order to center it
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This will change the motion that is automatically chosen by this effect.
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6
Click and drag the crosshairs for the arrow
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This will change the direction of the motion. This will allow the effect to zoom in on the face.

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7
Next, click the "End" frame
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8
For the "End" position in this video, let's click and drag the box up to the face area
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9
Resize the frame
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It should be smaller and centered on the face.
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10
Click and drag the frame to move it to the face
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11
Click the start of the clip in the timeline
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12
Replay the clip
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13
If the effect is too dramatic, you can decrease the disparity between the "Start" and "End" frame sizes
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14
Click the start of the clip in the timeline
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15
Play the clip
.
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16
If you want to get rid of the Ken Burns effect entirely, click the "Cropping" icon
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17
When this window is open, click either "Crop to Fill" or "Fit" next to the "Style" feature above the clip preview
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For this tutorial, let's choose "Fit". "Fit" makes sure that the picture fits inside the frame. The full image will be shown in the frame, but there may be some black space around the picture.
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18
Next, click "Crop to Fill"
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"Crop to Fill" will crop the image to fill all of the blank space with the photo.
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19
Click "Done"
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20
You can move the frame around by clicking and dragging it
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21
Click the start of the clip in the timeline
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22
Play the video
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The photo will be stationary. If you don't like a Ken Burns effect and always want to use "Fit" or "Crop to Fill", you can change this setting in the preferences.
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23
To access preferences, click "iMovie" in the top-left corner of the screen next to the Apple icon
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24
Then, click "Preferences..." in the menu
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You will see an option for "Photo Placement" in the pop-up window: "Ken Burns" is the default selection.
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25
Click the "Photo Placement" drop-down menu
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26
Click the option to change the style to either "Fit" or "Crop to Fill"
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27
When you have finished making your selection, close the window by clicking the red button in the top-left corner
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From this point, the default effect will be what you will have selected. In this case, it will be "Crop to Fill".
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This has been a VisiHow tutorial on how to edit or remove the Ken Burns (motion) effect in iMovie on the Mac. If you're having trouble changing the Ken Burns effect, then simply leave your questions, comments, or suggestions in the area below; and we'll do our best to get back to you. Thanks for choosing VisiHow! Have a great day!

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See more tutorials on iMovie: